HSBC Arena
March 09, 2004
The
Divine Miss M. peddles her sass Rochester Democrat and Chronicle By Jeff Spevak Staff music critic
The raunchy, colorful Midler is less vocalist than amusement-park ride. She drew 10,000 to Buffalo’s HSBC Arena on Tuesday night, most of whom seemed genuinely accepting of the fact that Midler is billed a singer, but is actually a multi-tasking entertainer and social critic. You can assume this older audience skews toward George W. Bush and against gay marriage. But to walk out the door with a smile, they would have to take some campily draped sass from the 58-year-old Divine Miss M. Barely three minutes into the show, Midler turned to her well-known potty mouth to admonish the Bush administration in general, and revel in her role as a gay icon. “Buffalo, the Queen City!” Midler crowed. “If I don’t do well here, who does?” Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Janet Jackson did not escape her mirth. “Did you see that piercing?” Midler said of Jackson’s Super Bowl exposure. ”I thought it was a door knocker.” It was, of course, merely a set-up for a joke about anatomically correct entryway enhancements. “I opened the door,” Midler said of her baby-faced peers, “for trashy singers with bad taste and big (female anatomy deleted).” Speaking of enhancements, Midler is none too pleased with the sexual content of her e-mail spam. The 21st century in general seems to be letting her down. “What can you say when Monica Lewinsky’s show is not canceled, but mine is?” she wailed about her recent short-lived TV experiment. Musically, Midler’s “Kiss My Brass” tour is carried along by a pugnacious band that included a five-piece brass section and Midler’s usual sidekicks, three flashy backup singers known as “the Harlettes.” Her stage set was a Coney Island boardwalk, with Midler making her entrance astride a flying carousel horse that gently glided in on cables from behind the stage. Did we forget to mention that Midler can sing? Mainstream favorites like “I’m Sorry,” “When a Man Loves a Woman” and “You Gotta Have Friends” were vampy camp in her hands, although “Come-On a My House” and “Tenderly” were appropriate tributes to Rosemary Clooney. Tom Waits’ “Shiver Me Timbers” was elegantly beautiful. But always, comedy was lurking. One of her older songs, the piano ballad “Skylark,” dates to her second album, back to the distant ‘70s. “Oh my God!” Midler bellowed after falling to the stage in dismay. “All I remember is everybody had an avocado appliance.” But the trash-talking vaudevillian saved her harshest comments for the right that took a wrong turn. Rush Limbaugh, it’s your drug-addled moment beneath Midler’s withering wit. “All these years he’s been telling us how to think and behave,” she said, winding up to deliver a wicked pun: “And it appears he may not have been in his right mind.” Midler is absolutely
divine in larger-than-life performance It's been nearly 30 years
since Bette Midler last performed in Buffalo. Judging by her dynamic
performance Tuesday night in HSBC Arena she doesn't appear to
have aged a day - and she'll be the first to say so. How she does it is a good question. Midler was spectacular. She danced and strutted across the stage, belted out numbers to standing ovations and let loose with a relentless stream of jokes throughout the 21/2-hour performance that was part of her "Kiss My Brass" tour. Her show was part music, part humor and all entertainment. Everything was big. Her large set was a replica of a Coney Island Amusement Park; she had a spirited big band with a brass quintet backing her; and that voice was as affecting and powerful as ever. There were no pyrotechnics; nor were they needed. Midler was on fire without them. She didn't give you a concert; she gave a performance. She made a grand entrance flying in from the heavens on a carousel horse named Seabiscuit; she jaunted across the stage on a swan; and brought back some fan favorites including Delores de Lago, the singing mermaid. You might have expected that
at age 57 Midler would have slowed down or tamed a bit of her
sauciness. No chance. Her one-on-one with the audience was almost
non-stop and it was hilarious. She ripped on everyone from Saddam
Hussein, who she said needs to be on "Queer Eye for the Dictator
Guy," to the Clintons and Rush Limbaugh. She had plenty of
material from Buffalo as well. "I haven't been here since 1978. I love what you've done to the waterfront," she said, drawing boisterous applause. Sometimes her banter and jokes would go on for so long, you would forget she was there to sing. But when she sang, she was unforgettable. A high-energy rendition of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," drew an immediate standing ovation. The crowd was on its feet again after Midler brought down the house with a soulful rendition of "When a Man Loves a Woman." Her segment celebrating the music of Rosemary Clooney (Midler's most recent disc is a tribute to Clooney) was especially touching. Midler sang a saucy "Come On-A My House" and a poignant "Tenderly" as a video screen showed various portraits of Clooney. "Wasn't she beautiful," Midler said, smiling at the images. "Thank you, Rosemary."
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ask? It’s like last year’s Cher tour, only with less-expensive
toys and larger breasts.