Ok now with this next entry one could assume that I’m now just simply addicted to music festivals as not only with the frequency for which I’m attending them but it would appear I’ve lost all scruples of judgement. Why would I attend such a thing? It’s because what I am addicted to is this:
I love being completely out of my element and within reason patronizing events that I’m not marketed to based on fundamental demographics. I live for that shit.
I also find myself as I get older yearning for things that I might have viewed as too wholesome at the time or missed out on because of whatever dysfunction I was enduring. I dislike people who do things “ironically” but though my interest was only mild, I did see something awesome about going to see Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam.
Super Freestyle Explosion – May 23rd – Dallas Convention Center Arena – Dallas,TX
So, as stated above based upon an obscure fetish and random indulgence I find myself at a music festival that consists of literally one-hit wonders – about a dozen of them that will only be playing said one-hit and maybe a few other tracks – no backing band or individual stage production – just a quick jump-on-jump off.
The format allows artists that you might not have any hope of otherwise seeing, and/or artists whose one hit informed part of the soundtrack of your life when it was simpler, and perhaps fueled with a bit more optimism.
All of tonight’s artists are all from at least 25 years ago or more and so with the time distance and only having the one hit, touring individually at this level really is no longer an option, but collectively a package tour can be put together making for a unique and fun evening.
In that sense, that is the greatest asset of this tour – an opportunity to see some artists that you never expected to be able to see live on stage.
As mentioned, the artists are not joined on stage by bands, and provide vocals-only. So it is a bit of a different concert experience, with the music (and in many cases backing vocals) pumped into the speakers and monitors with the artists providing lead vocals.
In some ways, it is kind of like an artist doing karaoke to their own music. It works fine, but is definitely a bit different, and the funny thing for me is how some songs ended on a fade, which is a little anti-climatic, depending on the song.
But, any alternative would add significantly to the overall running time of the show- as it unfolded, the break in-between artists as very short, usually just a few minutes. If there were bands performing on stage with each artist, they would have to cut down the line-up to probably a total of three or four artists.
The focus with these artists are the vocalists, and if we are being honest here, all of these artists had hits to pre-recorded music and we really aren’t here to for their musicianship (if any).
And time is everything with this show… to fit in the number of artists, the time allocated to each on stage.
Now this does entail some trade offs as their were only four artists we were there for out of 10 with no info of what order they would appear so that meant sitting through some acts we had no knowledge of. That was fine and fun as again I love being exposed to things that fundamentally were not marketed to me.
Ok, so I thought it would be fun that since the Convention Center is one stop from the train station to just park in Fort Worth and ride out there. No hot car, looking/paying for parking etc and then we can just jump right on back on and head home after. More on this later….
We get to the Convention Center Arena and reading this one needs to understand that the arena at the Convention Center sits mostly unused throughout the year.
Where this was once a regular destination for shows (a bit before my time actually) I’ve only seen one other show here before when me and my sister saw Prince here about 14 years ago. I’ve only heard of them having maybe a handful of shows here since then, so that part was intriguing as well.
Also what is Freestyle? I’m a scholar of Hip-Hop so to me Freestyle is when a rapper shows off his talent by expressing himself with no rehearsed material and its also done in friendly competition to show off as a skill. I thought of this music as just “those innoccous dance tracks from the 80s that you don’t really know who sings them” – Apparently they all come from a “scene” that at one time was called Freestyle – Hence the title of the festival, and it appears the “thing” to do back then was go by just the first letter of your last name – Stevie B, Jonny O, Stacey Q etc. Again this stuff was never marketed to me.
Elvis Presley performed here in December 1976 that was recorded and later released as Showtime!
in 1977 Led Zeppelin opened what would become their last ever American tour together here and the following year
Queen filmed the Fat Bottomed Girls video here.
It’s clear once we arrive that there may not have been a show here in 15 years – The Will Call windows, security and concession stands all have an anachronistic look & feel of a bygone era and appear to be in use for the first time since, and that added to its charm.
The complete disorganization of the staff however, not so much. Those two things combined with a severe lack of attendance made it seem like a free-for-all.
In an arena that can hold 10k their were less than a thousand people here.
Again with no backdrops or production other than the music it felt like a dress rehearsal or more like we all snuck in here.
Stacey Q
We abandoned where our seats where supposed to be and just went to the front like everyone else, although we found seats to occupy, most of the rest treated the arena like once big dance floor and were in the aisles in front of the stage, everywhere.
The first act up was Stacey Q –
Best known for her 1986 hit, Two of Hearts, Her music career began in 1981, after a few group stints she
was then branded as a solo artist. The success of the single led to a role on sitcom The Facts of Life.
I very much remember Two of Hearts video being played constantly on MTV at the time & thinking she was the hottest girl ever. Had a huge crush on her and at 55 as you can see she still looks pretty damn good. Still really thin and fit and very fashionable.
She was one of the fore-mentioned 4 that I wanted to see based on childhood crush alone.
I was actually kind of shocked that she was the first artist on stage as she has a bigger name than the others.
She still looks and sounds fantastic, but I have to admit she did come off as if like maybe you had come over to her house to borrow some sugar but before you could leave she had to show you her old routine from “when she was a star”.
Johnny O
Next up was Johnny O, who I didn’t know at all –
We were clearly the minority in that department as he really got the audience jumping out of their seats, I think in part because he was the first of two male artists on stage (with a decidedly female audience) and his crazy, retro 80s Freestyle dance moves.His biggest hits came off his self-titled 1988 album, which included
Fantasy Girl.
Trinere
Trinere is another artist that for the sake of this article and the tour what we are calling Freestyle, would be a purist.
From Miami, and considered by many to be the “Queen of Freestyle”. She met Miami Freestyle producer “Pretty Tony” Bulter in 1985 and he has worked with her as a producer on much of her work.
Nu Shooz
Next up was the main act we were here to see and who invited us, Nu Shooz – I met Valerie in Vancouver last year and we have had an online friendship since and she was kind enough to invite us out to the show.
I never would have imagined I would ever have a chance to see this group, and even given the stripped down format, they were still great.
Valerie still looks and sings great and I was glad to see her.
Forming in 1979 with a dozen members, the Portland, Oregon group did not find mainstream recognition until they released I Can’t Wait as a single in 1986, off their third studio album, Poolside, which went gold in the U.S. selling half a million copies.The story of their success with that single is one of those interesting stories that you couldn’t make up, actually coming off their second album and getting some play on local radio, but it wasn’t until someone in the Netherlands got a hold of it and remixed it that they got a major label willing to sign them.
Sadly, today you can’t even buy Poolside as a download album on either iTunes or Amazon.
Like Stacey Q , I don’t know that Nu Shooz really fits the Freestyle mold, their performance was definitely one of the best of the night for sure, and I am so glad to have had a chance to see them.
Shannon
Born Shannon Brenda Greene, simply Shannon on stage, she’s an artist that I couldn’t tell you anything about until they play a hit you know – that was pretty much the case for most of the artists performing today. In her case it was her hit Let the Music Play –
Shannon is credited as fundamental in the origins of Latin Freestyle, with Let The Music Play being credited as one of the first real mainstream successes of the genre,
She was a force on stage, like a tornado of confidence and swagger. She came out with this model looking dude kicking it Taye Diggs style in full Marine colors.
Johnny O came back out to join her, as did a fan that she was cheering on, this comical dude in a leisure suit that standing next to us most of the night that seemed to be taking all of this a bit too seriously. This was like his Mecca – A dream show for him and he was ready to let it all hang out.
Cynthia
Cynthia was someone that I also was completely unfamiliar with but she sang and looked great.
Since I don’t know anything about Cynthia, let’s take a second to discuss what the crowd was like and becoming:
As overly stated above, I love being out of element and experiencing things that are not fundamentally marketed to me based on gender, age,ethnicity & background.
No matter how many times the ushers at this place (who were also sorely lacking in the inspiring any sort of authority category) told them to stay in their seats, the crowd (mainly the people with seats in the back) flooded the aisles and the area in front of the stage and, at times, ANY WHERE they felt like it, up to and including standing right in front of us sometimes even in our aisle, which I had to put the kibosh on a few too many times.
The crowd was predominantly Latin, Black & Asian, & mostly female & the LGBT community had a major footprint. ALL were drinking very heavily.
By the time the 3rd or 4th act came out, we were swarmed with lesbian Asians & screaming queens, drunk off theirs asses and losing their minds.
Dude in leisure suit included –
Debbie Deb
Deborah Claire Wesoff-Kowalski, using Debbie Deb as her stage name and in keeping with what I just said about how rowdy things were getting was the first (and maybe only?) one to drop the evenings first F-Bomb –
Born in New York but raised in Miami, and is another artist on the bill that is pure Freestyle.
In one of the more depressing stories about the music industry, the record company did not want to put her image on the album due to her weight, and had “imposters” perform as Debbie Deb, and also replaced her and had other vocalists record as “Debbie Deb”. She made little money off her recordings, and lives a regular life as a regular person – this was just a fun vacation for her.
As with Trinere, “Pretty Tony” Butler produced her earlier work.
She is best known for two songs in particular – When I Hear Music and Lookout Weekend . I’ve always been a huge fans of those songs, so it was cool to see them and hear them live. She also brought up a few members of the audience to dance with her onstage, including this super hot girl in a crop top that I had been staring at all night.
Expose’
Formed in 1984, the group Expose’ is also still whole, with all three original vocalists, Ann Curless, Jeanette Jurado, and Gioia Bruno.
Although all three replaced the three original members found by talent scouts who recorded and released Point of No Return. Though there are various accounts as to the details of their departures, those original three members were replaced by the artists since associated with the group Exposé.
The were the first group to have four top ten hits from their debut album, Exposure (1986).
Come Go With Me, Point of No Return, Let Me Be The One, and Seasons Change are the songs you know by them & were all huge hits for the group, and that made up their setlist for the evening.
Music can be about revisiting past points in our lives, and can bring back old memories and feelings of nostalgia, etc.
That they look great and seem to be having a fun time on stage connecting with fans, new and old, and the music is still fantastic.
Lisa Lisa
Currently Lisa Lisa is performing sans Cult Jam, though she has two phenomenal dancers (one male, one female) join her on stage.
Born Lisa Velez from NYC, I would say she fits the Freestyle genre as its defined here.
The most interesting part of her performance was during All Cried Out, in which she seemed to get extremely emotional at the end, stopping to cry (literally) a few times. I don’t have any idea if this is something she does frequently, but her emotion was certainly genuine (I was standing just a few feet away).
Her voice is still stellar, and she was one of the vocalists last night that sang without the aid of any prerecorded vocals as backing.
She was the real deal & also the spirit of the evening – For weeks I didn’t say I was going to a Freestyle Festival, I would say “We’re going to see Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam” because I liked how that sounded. Yes, it sounded ridiculous but I wasn’t using her as a punchline but rather as a time machine to a much simpler place.
Aftermath:
Ok, as I mentioned earlier, we thought it would be fun to just take the train out since it was one Dart Rail stop away from where the TRE would drop us off at. Also namely since we weren’t so invested in this evening’s offerings it also create more a lax, stress free time.
We cut out before the last act Stevie B. (yet another first name/first letter of last name dude) took stage so that we could make the Dart back over to one stop to catch the last train of the night that would take us back to Fort Worth.
Somehow, we got turned around and it took us WAAAAY longer to get back to the Dart stop on foot than the time we alotted, plus I blew it on what time it was leaving and then discovering that the last train back to Fort Worth was LEAVING IN FIVE MINUTES!!
So irrationally, & only thinking of us being stuck, I got it into my stupid brain, that it was only one stop over which was only maybe 300-400 yards and if we just followed the train tracks we could hoof it over there and be there in less than 5 minutes.
What a hasty, dangerous, half-baked idea this was – running at full speed in pitch dark the length of 5 football fields at midnight is seriously one of the dumbest and potentially hazardous situations I’ve ever got us into. The risk itself of being run over, not to mention how many laws we were breaking was impressively stupid.
Miraculously, I made it just as the conductor was signaling they were taking off, Jessica, still about 50 yards behind me, I screaming encouragement and also as a vehicle to hear her voice as a signal of safety as I couldn’t actually see her. The conductor reads me the Riot Act and rightfully so, as I plead with him that Jess I almost here and could we wait just one more second.
Suddenly she appears in hilarious fashion as she’s decided that she is no longer running and going to take her time (she was wearing women’s boots) and she was cursing (something she never does) loudly and with abandon. We looked like hooligans, but we made it onto the train and back home to safety. Good times.
Photos –
Roy Turner
Jason Debord
