Event Recap: Erasure Concert

As expected, the Erasure concert on July 31 was essentially the event of the summer for gay Detroit. Well, for hipster gay Detroit and white-guy-over-30 gay Detroit. And it was great fun.

Cell phone cameras ... not so great.

I'm not going to write a full review of the concert, suffice to say Erasure is always a great show. You expect their most popular songs and they give them to you. And they always pick good tracks from their latest album. Having seen them perform no fewer than seven times since the first time as a little faglet back in 1986, I can attest to the fact that they never disappoint.

The crowd at this show was really great. The Music Hall was packed with gay guys reliving their youth, young gays riding the retro electronic wave, and closeted gay guys with their girlfriends who don't know yet. (Which was me at their St. Andrew's show in 1988, a phenomenon pointed out to me by that ex-girlfriend when we attended the Erasure show together at Clutch Cargo in Pontiac back in '96 ...)

And maybe I'm just lightening up in general (God forbid), but it seemed to me that this crowd was fantastically happy and friendly. Reflecting on it all afterward, I had to acknowledge that Detroit really does have a good gay scene from time to time. It'd be nice if it were a little easier to find, or maybe appeared on a regular basis. But you know, until it's better, you take what you can get.

As a post script ... afterward we found out Andy Bell (the singer in Erasure, for you heathens) was at the Gold Coast, so we drove up and hung out in a casual proximity to him for a while. It was a truly Detroit moment, hanging out near one of my favorite performers of all time in a shithole bar in the ghetto watching drag queens and strippers. And because Erasure has been a favorite group of mine since before you were born, I was forced to humiliate myself by going up to Andy and telling him how much I love them and how significant Erasure's music has been in my life. I know, what a retard! I couldn't stop myself, I do love them. And he couldn't have been more gracious or kind. I was embarrassed, because usually I just ignore celebrities and watch them out of the corner of my eye. But after I did it I was secretly happy. Worship your idols.