Kylie Minogue Performed At Oakland's Fox Theatre October 1st

Left: Ah, finally, Downtown Oakland! Remember to exercise - exercise to remember!

Actually, the drive from Sacramento to Oakland went pretty smoothly. The only traffic jam I encountered was the predictable one on I-80 in Berkeley. Plus, I made the ill-advised decision to try to get to I-80 in Davis by passing through Davis' downtown core at 4:50 p.m. Mistake!

I parked in a nice, spooky parking garage and walked to the theater.

The Fox Theatre is an old movie palace that has been recently-renovated in a sort of Byzantine style: intricate friezes, scalloped wall over the proscenium arch, decadent red velvet curtain, amazing lights. Like Las Vegas, but better than Las Vegas (no smoke).



Here is what the interior looks like (image from here: I didn't take a camera inside).

Two sitting figures bracket the proscenium (which has a surprisingly small arch - slightly bigger than the Sacramento's 24th Street Theatre arch). Looking at one of the figures, one fellow said "that's one scary Buddha!" Actually, they look more like fantasy Assyrian figures.

Left: A fan honors Kylie by wearing her costume from the "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" video.


Kylie Minogue has several discrete audiences: older women, younger girls, gay men. When I went to Brisbane, AU in 2006, I was impressed at how her concert was ladies' night out: 50-year-old women in tiaras and boas, 30-year-old women in tiaras and boas, 10-year-old girls in tiaras and boas. The crowd was about 70% women. I was mystified what an American Kylie audience would look like, however. I figured that since this was the Bay Area, it would be very gay, but just how gay would it be?

When I arrived, I took one look at the orderly line of people, and I was blown away. This was the gayest group of people I had ever seen! Men, men, men: 80% men! The mind reels in coming up with a comparison from Sacramento. This group was gayer than "Faces" on a Friday night. This group was gayer than "Badlands" on a Saturday night.

I still had an extra ticket that I had been unable to give away, and I had to decide what to do with it. When I approached the theater, I heard a dodgy black man talking to everyone passing by, and to no one in particular, "Tickets? Any extra tickets, anyone?" After a while, I decided to sell my ticket to him, but returning back to where I last saw him I encountered a dodgy gay man asking the same question, so I sold my ticket to him (for $40.00, nearly half of the face value of the ticket). Flush with cash, I was able to afford Black Russians (kahlua and vodka) for the evening.

As expected, the theater was posted "NO PHOTOGRAPHY". I had to decide whether to sneak a camera in, or leave it behind. I decided to leave it behind. Predictably, once the crowd had all entered, all the digital cameras came out (so hard to control!) Nevertheless, no camera meant I could focus on enjoying the show.

I had a standing-room ticket, and soon I was idling in a dense pack of bored metrosexuals forty feet from the edge of the stage. Predictably, all the Blackberries and Palm Pilots came out, and lots of people were texting. The fellow standing next to me seemed to be going blind reading dense text from some E-book, or other.

A fellow standing near me named 'Ceci' began introducing himself to nearby people and became sort of an informal MC for the local neighborhood. Ceci noted we were standing immediately above an air conditioning vent (which was great, because I was sweating just from the surrounding body heat).

Another fellow approached, whose bare arms, sturdy vest, and facial hair gave him sort of a woodsy look. A woodsy aroma - not too bad, but pervasive - came with the woodsy fellow. Ceci and friends found this troublesome, and good-naturedly started asking him - why the aroma? Instead of becoming bitchy, the gamy gay gamely replied he had not used any anti-perspirant because "of the recession." Nevertheless, feeling somewhat unwelcome, he eventually moved on. Without looking up, one of texters said he was happy he had gone because he "smelled like an old cabinet."

Kylie was late starting, and eventually I surrendered my position due to persistent bladder signals. Before showtime, a mysterious DJ sat at an Apple computer center stage and played tunes. Theatrical smoke occasionally wafted in and isolated pieces of confetti spun downwards from high aloft.

Kylie's opening was amazing - a fantastic laser light show as she descended from aloft. Those familiar with her oeuvre would have found many of the projections used and the costumes worn to be very familiar, but mixed in an unusual way - a pastiche. Kylie descended from above, perched on a miniature version of her silvery skull (2007, "X") and dressed in her pink robe with the boa (2006, "Showgirl Homecoming") while surrounded by her droids (2002, "Fever"). The first song was "Light Years", followed by "Speakerphone".

Because I'm only 5' 6" tall, I had lots of trouble seeing the stage. At one point, I perched myself on a railing to get a better view, but the seat was precarious. After a while, I discovered that the best views for standing room only folks were to be had at extreme stage left, where the theatre staff kept an open path an some relatively unfettered views were to be had.

In the big arenas, roving cameras zooming in on spectacularly-dressed attendees allow Kylie to tailor her favorite part of the audience-participation part of the show: identifying and thanking fellow slaves to fashion. The candidate in white imaged above was a perfect candidate, and well-positioned too (dead center, 25 ft from stage edge). Nevertheless, in this smaller space, there were no such cameras, and apparently it was too hard to peer into the very close audience. Instead, Kylie chose to recognize "Leopard Man". "He was here last night. Where is he tonight?" Alas, Leopard Man wasn't there - Leopard Man flaked out - so the moment was lost.

After her breast cancer surgery in 2005, Kylie was quoted as saying that one thing she would never do again was to line up her men backup dancers and step gingerly from one man's open palm to another. So daring, but so dangerous to attempt. She had apparently done just this at a very daring part of her career, but one must put youthful cavorting into its place in order to age gracefully.

Well, it appears the little minx lied. My heart burst with pride to see her flawless execution of just that stunt in 'Red-Blooded Woman'.

[TO BE CONTINUED - MUST GO TO LAS VEGAS FIRST AND SEE KYLIE AGAIN, HOPEFULLY WITH CAMERA]

Vote Vader: I liked this bumper sticker.