Phillips Arena
January 25, 2004
 The
Atlanta Constitution and Journal All bets are off when Bette Midler is onstage on her latest tour, appropriately dubbed "Kiss My Brass." There's no telling where she'll go next. In her stop here Sunday night, there was high camp, her old Delores del Lago character (a mermaid in a wheelchair) singing fish-y versions of show tunes, like a Fosse-d up version of "All That Jazz" called "All That Shad." There were the jabs at President Bush, the frequent f-bombs, the Borscht Belt jokes and the localized barbs at Atlanta's expense --- "More Waffle Houses! You need more Waffle Houses!" When she wasn't telling jokes,
which was a good bit of the time, Midler managed to work in a few
songs, from the semi-obscure (Hoagy Carmichael's "Skylark,"
from her second album) to the obligatory ("The Rose,"
"Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"). There were moments of sentimentality
and sweetness (tributes to Rosemary Clooney and Mr. Rogers) mixed
in with the bawdiness. A farce of nature, Midler is a one-woman vaudeville show, and live onstage is where she's meant to be. Her movies have been hit and miss, and her CBS sitcom, "Bette," was such a dud that she sent it up in a video spoof in which she appeared as a defendant before Judge Judy. But in front of an adoring, sold-out crowd (gays, middle-aged couples, middle-aged gay couples), she was chutzpah personified. Sniffing at Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, she cracked, "I opened the door for trashy singers with no taste and big [breasts]!" At age 58, some performers are starting to wind down. Midler just seems to be getting more Divine as she goes. KMB Review: Atlanta.... I hope to write later.,...but I just got home from Atlanta and have to catch up on some work...but Atlanta was primed and ready for Bette and I don't think she was expecting quite the huge reaction she got... I've seen Bette's concerts since Clams up to her opening of the show in Chicago and this Atlanta concert was the best audience I have ever been a part of hands down....it was just electric.... Since Chicago there have been changes....she sang "Hey There" which I love and had dropped "Tenderly" and "Come on a My House"..also, "That's How Heartaches Are Made"....dropped ( I had really liked hearing that one in Chicago)... She was in much better singing form and energy than in Chicago, too. Guess she found her "wind" I couldn't count the number of Standing Ovations....but from From A Distance thru the end...we were on our feet quite a bit..... Great seats...dead center...no annoying people around me...there were no annoying people around me in Chicago either, but I've been in those situations.... The jokes, whether they were political or not went over like gangbusters....I only caught a couple of flubs...one about the seeing eye dog and she didn't quite get back to the microphone after the musical interlude in From A Distance... WAMLAW brought down the house, as well as Randy NewMans's "I think it's going to rain today"....awesome interpretion this go round... She talked with us after a lengthy ovation and said we were much more fun than the northern crowds have been...and the south seemed to be friendlier...she said people actually spoke to her here...in Atlanta... Supposedly there has been a sewage back up problem in Atlanta, so when she came out to sing "Friends" she was sporting a plunger in her hands...LOL Then made some local reference to someone who bilked money from Atlanta...so i don't know what happened... She did make a Clinton joke about how it was so cold up north that Bill actually slept with his wife...ba da bing...and it must have been cold because "she let him"....bigger ba da bing!!! LOL She said she would be back next year...so my guess is that there will be a break and she'll be hitting the road again... Now Barry wants to see the show a second time...he was so inspired...so it lookslike I will be traveling again somewhere...where to? Who knows? Hope this helped... |