SPC: Huey Lewis & the News Attest that its Hip to be Square at the SharePoint 80s Beach Party
Published 10/21 courtesy of Bamboo Solutions Community
And now for something completely different...
Though I've done plenty of it in my personal life over the last few years, I never would've thought that I'd find myself in a position to do any music blogging for Bamboo Nation. That all changed when Tom Rizzo announced during Monday morning's keynote here at the SPC that Huey Lewis & the News would be performing at Tuesday night's '80s themed Beach Party. At that point, I knew that not only would I be flexing my music blogging muscles here, but that I would ostensibly get to do so under the auspices of SharePoint ... and that I would utterly relish doing so.
In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that while I was quite the fan of Huey Lewis back in his '80s heyday (and, in fact, saw him and his band live on a couple of occasions in that bygone and more innocent era), I can't claim to have given a great deal of thought to the man and his music over the intervening decades. As a result, I frankly looked upon tonight's show as largely an opportunity to reconnect with my teenage self, and I think it's fair to assume that there were likely more than a few attendees at tonight's shindig at the Mandalay Bay "beach" that shared my frame of mind.
I think it's also probably fair to say that by the end of the 80-minute set, that the several thousand attendees had gotten all that they had bargained for and a good bit more. With a 16-song set comprised of hits galore, choice covers from the early days of rock 'n' roll, and even a couple of "deep cuts," Huey and his "organization" (as he referred to them while introducing the band members) displayed the kind of musical chops and assurance that only come from having played with your bandmates for decades. Anchored by a rhythm section as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar, and featuring a three-piece horn section augmenting the News' own resident sax man Johnny Colla, this was a set of precision-tuned rock 'n' roll.
Opening with "The Heart of Rock 'n' Roll," the band had the wind at their backs, and the crowd on their side from the get-go, and they capitalized on that fact by following it up with "My Other Woman," a song that I freely confess was unfamiliar to my ears, but which was quite strong. Rewarding the audience for their patient indulgence in listening to a non-hit, "I Want a New Drug" followed, making a much earlier than anticipated appearance in the set as the third song of the night. You know that you're seeing a band with a whole lot of hits when they play one of their best-known numbers this early in their set.
It shouldn't go without saying that the Mandalay Bay "Beach" features a fairly wide expanse of sand in front of their pool, which is complete with a sloping entrance akin to entering the ocean from the beach. By the time the final notes of "I Want a New Drug" had been played, there were several dozen of the SharePoint faithful up to their shins in the water. Why? Oh, that's right - I forgot to mention that the stage is essentially in the middle of the pool, so in order to enjoy prime "seating," audience members are required to get their feet wet. And yes, before the end of the set, your faithful reporter was indeed shin-deep in the pool.
Since I suspect that the Bamboo Nation audience may not be exactly hungering for a blow-by-blow recap of tonight's performance, I'm not going to try your patience. I would be remiss, however, were I not to at least mention that in addition to the string of original hits and covers included in the set (to name just a few: "Doing it all for My Baby," "The Power of Love," "Shake, Rattle, and Roll," the inevitable "Hip to be Square," a wonderful a capella version of "It's Alright," "Heart and Soul," "Back in Time," and a goosebump-inducing "Do You Believe in Love" that transported me back to junior high and cherished memories of my worn-out cassette copy of Picture This), Huey did include a couple of shout-outs for his SharePoint audience. The most choice of these was, "thank you very much for having us at your function - I've got my SharePoint headband ... I'm not sweating yet, but maybe I'll need it later." Which comment was, needless to say, greeted with raucous applause from the gathered throngs ... most of whom, I daresay, either never needed to be told that it was hip to be square in the first place or, on the other hand, resented the implication.
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