Dream Police - Seattle Gay News

National artists join forces
to show True Colors
by Larry Nichols
Philadelphia Gay News
Special to the SGN
One of the highlights of summer has to
be the non-stop stream of touring musicians
that bombard the amphitheaters and arenas
with the opportunity to see anywhere from
two or three to 20-plus acts in a single day.
Unfortunately, the majority of these summer
outings tend to be short on eclecticism at
best or exercises in extreme crowd control
at worse, with GLBT-friendly events few
and far between.
Not that there haven’t been some good
efforts. The Lilith Fair came damn close,
but we haven’t seen hide nor hair of that
cross-genre all-female summer tour since
1999, which is why the inaugural True
Colors tour is such a welcome and long
overdue event this summer.
True Colors brings together an intriguing
mix of artists who are touring this summer
to support the Gay and Lesbian community
as well as human-rights issues. The tour
is headlined by Cyndi Lauper and also
features Erasure, Deborah Harry, The
Dresden Dolls, The Gossip, The Cliks, The
Misshapes and Margaret Cho as host and
comes to Atlantic City June 15. Other artists
will make special appearances on various
stops on the tour like Rufus Wainwright,
Indigo Girls and Rosie O’Donnell.
Cyndi Lauper
Lauper is an artist who needs no
introduction. She has been making her
presence felt in the music industry for the
past 25 years as an outspoken and colorful
personality and a successful Grammywinning
recording artist.
Lauper, a longtime supporter of Gay
issues (her sister is a Lesbian), conceived
the True Colors tour, named after her 1986
hit song, to give back to the community that
supported her music throughout her career,
raising money for the Gay-rights advocacy
organization Human Rights Campaign, $1
for every ticket.
Even with Lauper’s success in the music
industry, she says it took a lot of time and
effort to get the True Colors tour off the
ground. But now that the tour is about to
spring to life, Lauper has found herself
busier than ever with rehearsals and
promotional duties. PGN was lucky enough
to get a few minutes of her time to talk
about how she pulled the tour together.
PGN: How did you go about choosing
the artists for the True Colors tour?
Cyndi Lauper: There are many great
artists on the tour. Some are dear friends
like Debbie Harry and Erasure and some
are artists that I was really blown away
by like The Gossip, The Cliks and Rufus
Wainwright.
PGN: Did you initially plan the tour to
run for just 15 dates or did you want it to
run longer?
CL: Actually, we are up to 16 dates. We
really wanted it to run for about a month
[but] trying to coordinate everyone’s
schedules would be insane.
PGN: Do you think the concert industry
sees True Colors as just another package
tour or does it stand out as something more
meaningful?
CL: I think the response from the industry
has been incredible. We’ve had nothing but
love come at us from the industry.
PGN: Is there a chance that the artists
on the tour will join each other on stage to
perform?
CL: Definitely. I’m looking forward to
the spontaneity factor.
PGN: What kind of impact do you expect
the True Colors tour to have?
CL: I’m hoping that beyond it being a
kick-ass party, people get the message that
it’s presenting. The tour isn’t just for GBLT
people, it’s for everyone and it’s about
opening up the discussions for equality and
basic freedoms. If a parent of a Gay kid
— or not Gay for that matter — sees the
coverage of the tour on the local news, it
opens up a discussion. Even if it becomes a
debate or even a negative discussion, they
are being discussed. In that case, I’ve done
my job.
PGN: Have you gotten any criticism
about the tour?
CL: Sure, some of the conservatives
have come at me, but that’s their right. It’s
my right to have a tour in support of Gay
rights to further the cause for equality and
civil liberties. Once again, it’s all about the
debate and discussions.
PGN: Who would you like to see on the
2008 edition of the True Colors tour?
CL: Oh my god! I can’t even think that
far ahead yet. I just want to focus on the
people who are on the tour this year. This
really has been a labor of love and an insane
amount of work, but worth every minute of
it. It’s taken five years to pull this together.
So honey, call me next February or March
and we’ll see.
Margaret Cho
Anyone who’s ever done comedy will tell
you that mixing live comedy with live music
is never the chocolate-hitting-the-peanutbutter
experience people think it will be.
But a seasoned comedy vet like Margaret
Cho is more than up for the challenge.
“Who else is going to keep all those
queens in line?” she said, describing her
role on the tour.
“I’m going to be on and off stage all
night,” she said. “I’m going to be emceeing
the whole event. I’ll be there for everybody
for a long time. I’ll be guiding everybody
through it.”
Cho is a force to be reckoned with as she,
armed with her razor-sharp wit, has built
up a considerable amount of success and
acclaim in the worlds of comedy, television,
movies and activism. And even though she
has shared the stage with musicians on a
few occasions before, she says being part
of an event on the scale of the True Colors
Cyndi Lauper
tour is going to be new to her.
“I’ve done a couple of shows here and
there with music,” she said. “I did some
shows with The Dresden Dolls in London.
I haven’t done tours with musicians, so it’s
going to be a different experience.”
Ushering so many talented performers on
and off stage most of the night will not be
a chore in Cho’s eyes as she’s a fan of most
of the acts on the tour.
“For me, I would go see all these people
individually on my own,” she said. “The
people that are on the tour I just love. I think
they’re planning on doing it again. It would
be great to see an artist like Marc Almond
or an artist like Morrissey.”
While Cho agrees that the tour will raise
some eyebrows and ire in some circles, it
shouldn’t have an effect on its success.
“I think because we are focusing on a Gay
audience in sort of a mainstream idea, it’s
controversial among Christians,” she said.
“There’s that kind of a backlash. I think
it’s perfect timing for this to happen. Even
now, it’s weird that anybody would have a
problem selling the tour because the tickets
are almost sold out everywhere.
The Dresden Dolls
The Dresden Dolls, with their punkish
and romantic cabaret style, should fit in
nicely among the artists of the True Colors
tour as well as win some new fans. But
this isn’t the type of band that worries too
much about fitting in.
“I think it’s perfect,” singer and pianist
Amanda Palmer said of the tour. “The
one really nice thing about The Dresden
Dolls and the music that I write is that it
defies genres and it fits nicely with a lot of
things, but this tour seems an especially
perfect match just because of the sort of
expressive, eccentric nature of everybody
else on the bill. It’s sort of like a freak’s
club.”
The Dolls’ contribution to the “freak’s
club” is a dramatic and seductive style of
music that, through its mercurial nature,
draws a wide range of listeners.
“Luckily, there’s not much you can label
us with,” Palmer said. “We slip out of that
Courtesy of cyndilauper.com
predicament pretty easily. The only thing
that we’ve been in danger of being labeled
as is goth, which is completely wrong.
We’re just too hippie and happy to be
considered gothic. So I think we escaped
that one too.”
Try telling that to the legions of loyal goth
fans that show up in force at their energetic
and wildly entertaining shows.
“I think that those kids gravitate towards
us for obvious reasons,” Palmer said.
“There’s definitely a lot of stuff in the music
that is very dark and personal, like the goth
days of yore. But also I can’t discredit my
roots. I grew up loving The Cure, Depeche
Mode, Joy Division and Bauhaus. I feel like
goth, when it was what it was in the ’80s;
it’s certainly very different from what they
call goth nowadays.”
The Dresden Dolls have been known
to throw odd and brilliantly chosen cover
songs in their sets along with their own
magnificent songs.
“I think what’s most important is that we
actually just do what we want and what
we think is going to sound good,” Palmer
said. “It’s fun being irreverent and it is fun
confusing people, but it certainly doesn’t
come before the music and the art. We’ve
covered Britney Spears [‘Baby One More
Time’] and people seem to love it. I think
we don’t even know when we’re doing
something tongue in cheek. That Britney
Spears song is a fantastic pop song and
[Black Sabbath’s] ‘War Pigs’ is a fantastic
metal song. To be completely honest, ‘War
Pigs’ is fucking fun to play, partly because
of the reaction.”
When it comes to the subject of sexuality,
Palmer, who is Bisexual, doesn’t go out of
her way to address the issue.
“I definitely don’t feel the need,” she said.
“I definitely grapple with sexual tension
between myself and with others in my
lyrics. But as far as feeling the need to do
that or feeling like I have to be vocal about
how I orient, it’s not something I’ve ever
been particularly concerned about one way
or another. I’m always just very blunt and
honest when people talk to me about stuff
like that and that’s something in itself.”
Palmer went on to say that just being on
the True Colors tour will speak volumes
on issues of sexuality, acceptance and
tolerance.
“I think all the performers are going to
maintain an awareness throughout the night
that there is this sort of umbrella under which
we’re all gathering,” she said. “I think in
music, as in anything, it’s dangerous to get
too preachy. The very fact that we all will
have gathered is a statement in itself. We’re
looking at this tour as a fantastic way to let
loose and have fun in front of people you
know will appreciate it. In general, when
asked about politics, we make a very bold
statement by doing what we do how we do
it without needing to interrupt ourselves
and get up on a soapbox and say, ‘By the
way, it’s really important to be individuals.’
I think you send a much stronger message
by example than by shouting.”
Hopefully that example will include
some of the artists on the tour joining forces
for a song or two at some point during the
evening, a possibility that Palmer thinks
definitely will happen.
“Everybody is planning different things,”
she said. “We’re all working together. There’s
going to be a lot of cross-collaboration and
I think we’re going to try to do one big
ensemble number. And then individually
we’re going to play around. Margaret [Cho]
and I have performed together before. She’s
a fucking riot. So we’re trying to work up a
number with her. We have very little time.
I think our set is going to be a half an hour,
so we need to try and pack it all in. The fun
about package tours is they tend to evolve.
So we may, as we travel around and make
friends with different performers, we might
start inviting and trying different things out.
Hopefully we won’t be playing the same set
every night.”
The True Colors tour pulls into the
Borgata Hotel Spa and Casino at 7 p.m.
June 15, One Borgata Way, Atlantic City.
For more information and tickets, see
www.truecolorstour.com.
© 2007 Philadelphia Gay News
18 Seattle Gay News PRIDE ‘07 Music
June 15, 2007