Do you know Kylie Minogue? She’s a petite Australian pop singer with a fan base that’s roughly 99.7 percent gay. (Why this is, I’m not sure, except that her music is dancey, glitzy and turns up in a lot of nightclubs.) She ended her North American tour in New York City last night, and I went to the show.
Here’s the uninteresting story of how that happened: My friend Dan called me Monday and asked if I wanted to go. I had nothing planned, and I know two Kylie Minogue songs that I like, so I said, “Sure!” (This and this are the two songs I like, by the way. That second video is the gayest thing ever.)
Kylie opened her show standing on a huge, sparkling, Damien Hirst-style skull, which descended from the ceiling and slowly lowered her to the floor. That set the tone for a fun, glittery and basically vapid night, featuring dramatic lights and big video screens. Kylie herself did a great job, but frankly I found the music mostly uninteresting. She's nothing like my other relatively recent concert, Lily Allen, for example -- Lily is strong and surprising, like a shot of bourbon; Kylie is sweet and unchallenging, like maybe an appletini.
She had brass players. She had confetti machines. She had multiple costumes, hunky backup dancers and, as I mentioned, lots of dramatic lighting. She sang one song reclining on a couch in a sparkly gown, flanked by lion statues, a la Jean Harlow. Quite a show!
I did come home and buy another of her songs from iTunes. But Joni Mitchell is still more my style.
(Photo: Brooklyn graffiti that somehow seems to fit with Kylie Minogue.)
That's such a good way to describe bourbon.
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that you are always open to new things. I sometimes throw up walls around the music I like and don't like to let anything new come in.
Sounds like Kylie has plenty of fans even if you are not totally on board.
How cool that you got to see her. I just read somewhere that people are surprised she's not a huge superstar in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteJust watched the vids. Clearly I am not a gay man because I don't get it. What is the appeal?
ReplyDeleteLOL -- do you mean the appeal of the music, or the visuals in the videos, or the men, or what? I'd say it's all about fun, smooth, unchallenging beauty and glamor -- which is what a lot of gay culture is about, for better or worse.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I watched the videos. I want the last 10 minutes of my life back.
ReplyDeleteI always thought of KM as a second rate Madonna. As if every time Madonna did something new and different, I could envision KM slapping her publicist and yelling, "Why didn't YOU think of that?!"
Kylie needs all that razzamatazz, without it not a lot would be happening. As you might guess I'm not a Kylie fan, I'm in the wrong age group for starters. My preference in the current Australian female singer line-up would be Renee Gayer.
ReplyDeleteMs Soup