Blue Man Group came to Columbus last week, and even though I couldn't afford the show, it still offered a certain level of intrigue. Put simply, Blue Men are hot, and I wouldn't dismiss the possibility of becoming one. And don't even think of reminding me of the fact that I'm a woman. If you check the casting requirements on the group's Web site, you'll learn that women are fully eligible to apply. So take that.
Anyway, read a review of the show on my co-worker Sandra's blog. In addition to that, a reader named Stan e-mailed me last week with his take on the show. To encourage future feedback like his, I'm posting that review below.
Thanks, Stan! Here goes:
What a show!! I saw Blue Oyster Cult and their Laser light show back in the Seventies, and "KISS" in the late Eighties and they were cutting edge for their time, but now MEGASTAR has to be on the edge ... if not beyond.
That's the name of the blue man group's show that almost filled our large Columbus Civic Center. Now you would expect to see something like this in Las Vegas, but it was wild for the hometown folks. The audience consisted of people of all ages. I saw several elderly couples sitting nearby and college age people were everywhere. There were Mom's with their teenage children and their friends, that provided plenty of screams at various points in the music. The teens ... not the Mom's.
There were large screens on each side of the stage and one in the middle up behind the band that reminded one of overgrown Plasma T/V's and they provided close ups of action on the stage as well as scenes of things that followed the music.
It was more like a stage show than a rock concert and it started with a dee jay seated on the stage in front of the curtain and playing and scratching music along with animated scenes that flashed on the large T/Vs ... I mean screens. Then the curtain went up and the show really started.
The back up band consisting of seven, with a some time female vocalist, also included three drummers. They were outstanding and played continuously through the show. The lead guitarist was so good and gyrated so much that sometimes I thought he was faking it, until I heard the wisp of his pick as he brushed a string in the middle of a run.
The three blue men were clad in black with what appeared to be blue rubber skull masks and gloves. They were at the front and all over the stage at times with various antics. They played along with the band by creating musical sounds from plastic pipes of various sizes and configurations that appeared to be plain old PVC pipe that plumbers use. They used drummers sticks of various types, some with the rubber balls at the ends.
The skits that they also performed were incorporated with the music and the videos. At times they would use long poles that looked tapered like a cane fishing pole or the old fashioned buggy whip and they would swish them back and forth in the air with the sound amplified and incorporated with the music. They made music with everything they touched.
At times they would hold photo capable Cell Phones up in the air toward the crowd like they were encourging the audience to take pictures of them with their Cell Phones and plenty of the crowd did.
Three large vertical pipes sitting near one corner at the front of the stage were filled with various levels of water to produce different sounds when struck, and as one man played along with the band the water would splash out at points. The people sitting on the front row had been provided with clear plastic parkers which was supposed to keep them from getting wet.
At one point in the show ... one of the blue men would pitch balls that appeared to be soft, across the stage and one of the other blue men at least twenty feet away would catch them with his mouth. This was unusual but when the first blue man kept throwing balls .. over a dozen .. and the second blue man kept catching them without spitting any out of his mouth, what a surprise!
They had picked two people out of the audience, a boy and a girl, and placed a white smock or shirt over the boy and a cap over the girls head, then the blue man with the balls still somewhere in his mouth, rubbed his mouth along the front of the boys smock/shirt and made colored marks from the balls in his mouth. He removed the rest of the balls, somewhat condensed, from his mouth and placed them on a cover on top of the girls head.
Near the end of the three hour show they shot paper streamers out over the audience that gave you a feeling, if you were down close, that you were in a paper snowstorm. Although the concert was expensive by Columbus' standards ... everyone seemed satisfied as they left the Civic Center.
That's the name of the blue man group's show that almost filled our large Columbus Civic Center. Now you would expect to see something like this in Las Vegas, but it was wild for the hometown folks. The audience consisted of people of all ages. I saw several elderly couples sitting nearby and college age people were everywhere. There were Mom's with their teenage children and their friends, that provided plenty of screams at various points in the music. The teens ... not the Mom's.
There were large screens on each side of the stage and one in the middle up behind the band that reminded one of overgrown Plasma T/V's and they provided close ups of action on the stage as well as scenes of things that followed the music.
It was more like a stage show than a rock concert and it started with a dee jay seated on the stage in front of the curtain and playing and scratching music along with animated scenes that flashed on the large T/Vs ... I mean screens. Then the curtain went up and the show really started.
The back up band consisting of seven, with a some time female vocalist, also included three drummers. They were outstanding and played continuously through the show. The lead guitarist was so good and gyrated so much that sometimes I thought he was faking it, until I heard the wisp of his pick as he brushed a string in the middle of a run.
The three blue men were clad in black with what appeared to be blue rubber skull masks and gloves. They were at the front and all over the stage at times with various antics. They played along with the band by creating musical sounds from plastic pipes of various sizes and configurations that appeared to be plain old PVC pipe that plumbers use. They used drummers sticks of various types, some with the rubber balls at the ends.
The skits that they also performed were incorporated with the music and the videos. At times they would use long poles that looked tapered like a cane fishing pole or the old fashioned buggy whip and they would swish them back and forth in the air with the sound amplified and incorporated with the music. They made music with everything they touched.
At times they would hold photo capable Cell Phones up in the air toward the crowd like they were encourging the audience to take pictures of them with their Cell Phones and plenty of the crowd did.
Three large vertical pipes sitting near one corner at the front of the stage were filled with various levels of water to produce different sounds when struck, and as one man played along with the band the water would splash out at points. The people sitting on the front row had been provided with clear plastic parkers which was supposed to keep them from getting wet.
At one point in the show ... one of the blue men would pitch balls that appeared to be soft, across the stage and one of the other blue men at least twenty feet away would catch them with his mouth. This was unusual but when the first blue man kept throwing balls .. over a dozen .. and the second blue man kept catching them without spitting any out of his mouth, what a surprise!
They had picked two people out of the audience, a boy and a girl, and placed a white smock or shirt over the boy and a cap over the girls head, then the blue man with the balls still somewhere in his mouth, rubbed his mouth along the front of the boys smock/shirt and made colored marks from the balls in his mouth. He removed the rest of the balls, somewhat condensed, from his mouth and placed them on a cover on top of the girls head.
Near the end of the three hour show they shot paper streamers out over the audience that gave you a feeling, if you were down close, that you were in a paper snowstorm. Although the concert was expensive by Columbus' standards ... everyone seemed satisfied as they left the Civic Center.
