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MEGASTAR: It's Cool to be Blue

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Contributed by: Gene Boshell on 11/26/2007

It's hard to describe Blue Man Group's How to be a Megastar Tour 2.1 to someone who hasn't been there. Calling it a "concert" falls way short of what it actually is; "stage production" discredits the huge audience participation and "entertainment" (not that it wasn't thoroughly entertaining) brings no light to the social commentary within the vocals portions of the music ... so I'll just refer to is as The Show.

I was fortunate enough, courtesy of YourHub.Com and The Denver Newspaper Agency, to attend The Show Nov. 25, along with nine other YourHubbians and our guests. It was a 7:30 show, so I, of course, arrived at 5:45. A wee bit excited, but I don't get out much.

At 6:30 the doors were opened for general admission and I was quite pleased to find that I had really good seats ... Section 124, Row 10, Seats 15 & 16 (the row goes to 18). It was an excellent view of the stage ... not too much of an angle and not too far away. Good seats.

The opening act was San Francisco DJ Mike Relm who spun a montage of music and video for about a half hour. It was amazing to watch him work the turntables and video/sound controls. I will call him a "virtuoso" if you will accept that term applied to a DJ.

The Show began with a rush of light and sound from behind a 20-foot opaque curtain. Strobe lights threw wildly alternating shadows of both The Group and the band onto the curtain, then at the climax of the intro the curtain fell to the stage and The Show began in earnest (as the crew quickly escorted the fallen curtain offstage).

What ensued, as I mentioned, is hard to categorize, classify or otherwise define in short, precise verbiage. I can only use adjectives, so here goes:

- Innovative comes to mind in as much as The Group's usage of pipe and tubing as percussion instruments as well as audiovisual material.
- Awesome in regard to the size and scale of the visual portions of The Show.
- Interactive is a good one in as much as the audience was part of the How to be a Megastar training program. As well there were a few times that The Men came offstage to select people for on-stage bits.
- Comedic in their actions and interactions.
- Thought-provoking in the use of video segments to accompany the band's vocals in the message of self-realization.
- Tactile in the way the music, particularly the giant bass drum, sent shock waves into the crowd.
- Physical in as much as if you followed the "How to be" instructions you were moving around quite a bit (no need to go to the gym after The Show).
- Messy if you were lucky enough to be part of the on-stage action or if you sat in the first few rows that were splashed several times, or if you were in the floor section where air cannons sent paper streamers over most of the floor.
- Unforgettable. If you were there, kids from 4 to 74, you'll never forget it.

So many words still just can't do justice to the experience. If I haven't said as much, I would definitely recommed seeing The Show, or any other Blue Man Group production whenever and wherever you can. I already have plans to return to Las Vegas (perhaps as early as next spring) and I will definitely see The Group at their home venue, The Venetian in Las Vegas.

** - all photos were taken from the internet

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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments

Submitted By: Erin Feese

posted on 11/26/2007 @ 4:37:21 PM

Rated Story

Wow, Gene, glad you had a good time. I had no idea what the Blue Man Group was like (only that they were, well, blue), so I appreciate the description!

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Submitted By: Katherine Jerome

posted on 11/26/2007 @ 4:10:07 PM

Rated Story

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a great experience!

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Gene Boshell

Lakewood , CO

Gene Boshell has posted 4 stories and 5 comments since joining on 1/6/2007. Gene Boshell 's average story rating is 5.

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