Culture Club – River Rock Show Theatre – July 18, 2015
This weekend, the four original members of Culture Club reunited for the first time in over a decade and their first tour since 1998. Original members, Boy George, Roy Hay and Mikey Craig hit the stages at Hard Rock Casino Vancouver and River Rock Resort for a pair of shows, Friday and Saturday night. The tour was originally scheduled last fall but due to Boy George being hit with a serious throat illness, it was rescheduled. Unfortunately, this time John Moss is sick and unable to perform the start of the tour, so drums were handled by Richie Stevens.
Backed onstage by 9 other touring members, Culture Club started the Saturday show we attended, with a video montage updating the audience on the history of the groundbreaking act. Then to the notes of “Church of the Poison Mind” the band made their debut with the audience singing along. For the next 2 hours, Boy George kept the audience entertained with his light, and sometimes self-deprecating, banter and his great vocals. Roy Hay and Mikey Craig were still as skilled as ever in their instrumentals.
In spite of being Casino shows, I appreciated during the show was that the band treated the set and the audience like they are still a band in their prime and not a nostalgia act, like some of their contemporaries. The hits, big and small, like Do You Really Want To Hurt Me, Miss Me Blind, Time, It’s Miracle, and of course Karma Chameleon, were well represented in the setlist to keep the casual fans happy and plenty of newer tunes and lesser known hits like their latest, Crying Game and More Than Silence, to please the diehards.
The North American Culture Club Reunion Tour continues through August, if you have a chance to see them live, you won’t be disappointed.