Sunday, June 1, 2014

Cher! An "Icon" Comes to Kansas City

by Pa Rock
Music Fan

As noted in the post immediately previous to this one, Cher and Cyndi Lauper rocked the Sprint Center in Kansas City (Missouri) last night.  Miss Lauper was the opening act for Cher, an American diva of legendary status.

The area around the Sprint Center was awash in people long before either of those extraordinary singers took the stage.  The Power and Light District was hosting a big part of a Cancer (Pub) Crawl, an event that had thousands of partiers stumbling around the area adjacent to the massive auditorium as they showed their commitment to finding a cure of cancer by getting soused.  Rock Fest was also taking place not too far away.  Everything was definitely up-to-date (and loud!) in Kansas City last night!

There were several vans from the local radio stations out in front of the Sprint Center talking to the lumbering hordes who were waiting to get in.  One was hosting Karoke with music by Cher - an event they called "Cher-i-oke."  We came across the semi-tractor-trailers and tour buses used for the show about a block from the venue.  They were so close and so numerous as to make it impossible to count from a moving vehicle, but there were more than eight of each type.   After viewing the extravaganza of a show, it was obvious why a fleet of trucks and buses was necessary.  (At least one was needed solely for Cher's gowns and costumes!)

As the curtain went up on the Cher portion of the show, about forty minutes after Cyndi Lauper had left the stage, the star was revealed in some type of Roman temple attire standing atop a twenty-foot column.  That was the prelude to what proved to be a full-blown Las Vegas production.  There were acrobats and dancers, trapezes and swings, and an enormous Trojan horse.  There was an amazing assortment of light shows - and a  myriad of film clips showing on giant screens.  It was an auditory and visual feast of magnificent proportions!

Cher mentioned her age shortly after entering on the pillar - sixty-eight - and several times during the performance she noted that it would be her final farewell performance, or sometimes she worded it as her "farewell, farewell performance."  I am a doubter on that score.  Her strong voice and shapely bod still resonate across gigantic venues as well as across the ages.  I suspect Cher will be doing farewell performances well into her eighties!  (Mick Jagger will probably be her opening act by then!)

I wasn't the oldest one there last night, and neither was Cher.  There was a goodly number of silver hairs in the audience, as well as many who were so young that they probably didn't have a clue as to who Sonny Bono was.

Sonny was pictured in the programs which sold for a healthy thirty dollars each.  I didn't buy one, but the lady sitting next to me did - and I enjoyed hers immensely as she slowly leafed through every page.  Sonny was also featured in many of the film clips, and the most poignant segment of the show was when Cher sang a  duet of "I've Got You, Babe" with Sonny.  She sang live and he was, of course, on video.  She noted that Sonny would have probably liked that because he was a "big ham."

The songs Cher sang were known to one and all - and everybody sang along.  The show was loud, and raucous, and glitzy, and glamorous, and very, very Cher.

The icon (a term she used to describe herself) came in on a column and left on a swing.  A silver contraption descended from the heavens, she stepped aboard, and it carried her the length of the auditorium and around each side - twenty or thirty feet in the air - giving even those in the nose-bleed seats a good view of the goddess as she surveyed her kingdom.

The only disappointment of the entire evening was that the Phelps (Westboro Baptist Church) scum from Topeka didn't show up to protest the event.  I thought with Cher being the parent of a transgendered adult child that the temptation for them to come out spew their hate would have been well nigh irresistible.

But, those idiots aside, what a show it was, and what a time it was!  Cher, you are (and always have been) fabulous!  Thank you for taking a "swing" through Kansas City!

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