Boy George – It was the most anticipated concert of the West Island Saturday night as the city hosted the annual ‘’Strangers in the Night‘’ Charity event for a 14th edition – A foundation that over the course of their existence has helped raise an impressive 6 million dollars for the Miriam Foundation, the West Island Women’s Shelter and Lymphoma Canada.
The event once again presented some of the finest food and deserts our local artisans have to offer – It is however Boy George who stole the show playing his first show in Montreal in over 34 years, gathering more than 5000 people who were ready to groove back to the 80’s.
For his first appearance in decades, Boy George gave us a great taste of his sense of humour and showmanship. Accompanied by his band Culture Club, the famous singer jumped on stage at 8:42 to begin the night with a cover of David Bowie’s Let’s Dance.
Dressed in his black coat layered with gold finitude – The official clothing of the upcoming Album out October 26th – he showed us his well controlled voice singing the entire Bowie track , setting the mood for the night with the classic lyrics : “Put on your red shoes and Dance’’ .
He than engaged with the crowd : ‘’Can we start the night with just a bit of advice – Don’t Be Shy .. Really ! ….Shining Is Good!…’’ ‘’We are Culture Club – A living breathing soap opera – the collective drama on this stage would kill a beginner – and we deal in Love and it’s many complications and of course, the occasional Miracle. ‘’- with the queue word leading to the hit song ‘’It’s a miracle ‘’.
Boy George had hilarious interactions with the crowd at multiples occasions and didn’t fail to provide his most known and famous hits. He brought many back into their teenage years with his magnificent hit ‘’Do you really want to hurt me’’.
Amongst other highlights : the song Times, with the appearance of an overwhelming number of oversized balloons that made the stage at times barely visible to the crowd, Boy George himself was struck by the moment cleverly quoting one of Leonard Cohen’s most famous lyrics – ‘’There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in! ‘’ adding that it might have been one of the most unreal performances of that song.
Culture club also played the reggae track “Everything I own’’ from the band Bread, but even more interesting they presented tracks from their upcoming unreleased album.
Introducing ; ‘’Let Somebody Love you’’ and ‘’Truth is a Runaway Train’’
They left the stage after 11 songs but the crowd wasn’t going to let them leave without a little Chameleon nostalgia. The band came back for a 4 song encore at 21:45 that included a few little surprises such as a very well received cover of Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love, but ultimately sending the fans home singing and happy with the classic hit ‘Karma Chamelon’.
By Xavier Hebert – [email protected]
