Jennifer and I went to see KC and the Sunshine Band the other night in San Ramon.
What a GAS!
We were just about the youngest folks there, except for two guys that were maybe twenty years old that were there together and TOTALLY into it! They were having a blast, too.
KC knows how to put on a show, bringing 15 excellent musicians, backup singers and dancers along with him. Of course, he's 59 years old, so he sneaks off for a break every once in a while and let's his group do the work. But that's ok.
He's a good sport about being an “Old Fogey” out performing before “Old Fogeys”.
Now, I'm going to make an argument that probably no one else has ever made. I doubt even KC would make this argument.
I'm going to argue that KC and the Sunshine Band's music is culturally significant. There, I said it.
Remember the mid-70's? We had just come out of the Watergate fiasco and the Vietnam War was winding down. Inflation and unemployment levels, which usually share an inverse relationship, were high at the same time, an unwelcome phenomenon know as “Stagflation”. President Carter complained of a “malaise” that consumed the Nation.
The rest of the Western world were in similar straits.
The Sex Pistols and the Clash looked around and said “This sucks, let's burn it!”
The Bee Gees and KC and the Sunshine Band looked around and said “This sucks, let's dance!” Flip sides of the same coin.
The Ramones were somewhere in the middle.
My former drum instructor told me once that whenever he played in a cover band and they performed a KC tune, the crowd was guaranteed to get up and dance. Judging by the response at the show we saw, that's still true.
There is something to be said for a group of songs (“body of work”, if you like), that impacts people so much that they seek out the performer in a little high school theater 35 years later.
But, who am I kidding? KC and the Sunshine are all about having a good time and here I am trying to ruin it.
Shake your booty, that's the way I like it, get down tonight!
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