just back from seeing culture club at a local indian casino and i must confess to not being the biggest fan of the band but i do know their music fairly well my younger brother was a big fan and played their records constantly and i must say boy george is a wonderful entertainer funny humble and delighted the audience with anecdotes and jokes and they were good they did a smashing performance of my favorite song 'victims' and brought down the house by concluding their set with 'bang a gong (get it on)' by marc bolan oh it was also the original lineup for the band

during the show i stepped back and watched the audience whose average age hovered in the mid-40s don't laugh if you are young right now soon you'll be going to concerts of your favorite bands should they still be around some years hence and you'll look around and find the average age of the audience hovering in the mid-40s but the age of the concert goer tonight wasn't on my mind i watched people lose their self[s] as they danced and sang along with the songs without the self consciousness and irony associated with contemporary pop culture

the audience turned into a community whose sole relationship was music it was a pleasure to step back and witness this unadulterated pleasure in being in one place at one time dancing and singing with everyone else such displays of public pleasure put the lie to the idea that we cannot understand each other for concerts are the proof we are common because we all share the fundamental human being

but then we went to get a late night dinner in the casino i'm not a fan of casinos i find them depressing places plus the design and layout of casinos are meant to place its occupants in a state of no-time and no-place because the building lacks windows to gauge the time of day or night or clocks a casino is a twilit land of noise and spectacle and money i stood watching my fellow human feed their desires in machines that promise instant wealth if you will simply continue to feed them your money

we found a cafe inside the casino where the hour went by so quickly because the talk turned from favorite band to favorite horror movies and movie directors while the food was exactly what you would expect from a cafe in a casino