There's too much going on this weekend so I figure I might as well post about my overnight visit to Olympia now—specifically, the "
You Should Be Dancing" Bee Gees Tribute Band concert I went to with Dad and Sherri on Friday night. I actually took more photos there than I expected to; 11 in all, though from the overall visit I padded that out to
a photo album with 21 shots overall.
I left work on Friday at 2:15, two hours and 15 minutes early. I still had plenty to do, and lots of conversations to continue having with IT about the prospect of getting a version of the Partners Portal back up, but I did not want to risk getting stuck in even worse traffic than I was already bound to be in. I walked home and arrived at maybe 2:40, and I was leaving in the car at 2:50. I did not reach Dad and Sherri's house until 4:50, which meant it took me a solid two hours to travel 60 miles—but really roughly 10-15 minutes of that involved getting off the freeway in Federal Way to fill up the gas tank at the Costco gas station there. It was $4.75 a gallon there and I spent an even $35. Still, the traffic sucked, but listening to Madonna's
Confessions II album most of the way made the time pass relatively pleasantly.
I'm glad I left when I did, because I got to the house comfortably early enough for no one to feel rushed, and Dad and Sherri weren't just waiting around for me. Dad had dinner reservations at a newish noodle restaurant they had not been to before in downtown Olympia called
Red Lantern at 6:00, but we left early because Sherri was hungry. We walked in probably shortly after 5:30, and they already had our reserved table blocked off, so we were able to be seated right away.
I had asked Dad what restaurant we were going to and he immediately said, "You're gonna love it!" I couldn't quite tell if he was being sarcastic, but he said he was serious. He said they had tons of vegetarian options, and almost every dish has the option of adding tofu. The menu had a good number of vegetarian options ("tons" was maybe an exaggeration), and I was sorely tempted to get the pad thai. But, in all likelihood the pad thai was made with the standard fish sauce, and I didn't bother asking to confirm because I get pad thai often enough—I saw they had Thai fried rice and so I ordered that with tofu. I actually ordered a spice level 2, and it was still a tad too spicy for me, but it was still delicious and I cleaned off my plate. We all agreed we would go back there to eat, though I think next time I'll ask for the mildest spice level.
I did ask for chopsticks, and Sherri commented on how she doesn't know how to use them, and even asked how I learned to (practice; I'm still not especially good at it, but I make it work). I was surprised not to have even been offered chopsticks, though they did have a bunch available. I kind of got the sense that generally the White people eating there in Olympia don't use them.
Anyway, Dad had found street parking closer to the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, which was where the show was at, and then we walked maybe three blocks from the car to the restaurant. We walked back to the venue, and found lots of people milling about in the lobby even though the house wasn't opening until 7:30. This was an 8:00 show, and Sherri deliberately ordered a pot of tea at the restaurant because it would help her stay awake; she commented more than once on how they are usually in bed—reading or watching TV—by 8:00. I also ordered a pot of tea, but just because I thought a hot beverage sounded nice.
We decided to get some concessions; Sherri asked for a snickerdoodle cookie and Dad bought himself a beer and me a cup of wine. When we were through the line, Sherri was standing at a table with four other women, and at first I thought she had just started chatting with a group of strangers. But no, actually she knew them, and at least one of them apparently went to the Foursquare church in Shelton that Grandma and Grandpa used to go to. Sherri told me one of them, the one with the gray haired shoulder-length bob named Teena, had been a lifeline for her when she and Dad had been separated (this was 24 years ago). She also went on a Christian retreat with them all several years ago, and Sherri said they were really funny: "You almost wouldn't think it was a Christian retreat!" That made Dad laugh.
On the way back out through the lobby after the show, Sherri ran into that same group of friends and chatted with them again; she told Dad and us later it had been several years since she'd seen them. They were waiting in a line, presumably to get a photo with the band or something. I asked to take
their picture, which Sherri really appreciated. She later texted the photo to Teena, adding:
Stayin' Alive.
Speaking of which, I did comment on how this was
the most geriatric crowd I had ever seen. I've been to movies where everyone was elderly, but those were generally much smaller crowds. Here, I think I spotted maybe two or three other people my age or younger. (I'd say that my white hair made me fit in, but at the tall table before the show that we were all standing at, Teena commented on how she remembered me and how beautiful she thought I was.) To be fair, it kind of makes sense: the Bee Gees were at their peak in the 70s, which was 50 years ago;
Saturday Night Fever, one of the best-selling albums in history, was released 49 years ago.
Still, I did wonder: how sustainable is this business model, for a concept like this, when probably 60% of your audience is in their mid- to late-seventies? I did not that maybe they've been around for ten years, who knows? A cover band like this could have been working for the last
twenty years, but the three singers here were far too young for that to be possible. I looked it up, and this particular Bee Gees tribute band (there have apparently been many; it still cracks me up that their website calls them "the nation's #1 Bee Gees tribute band) has been around for only three years, having had their first performance
in September 2023. So this is a relatively new venture, and we'll see how many more years it can last. Another seven, maybe? Until their audiences are all in their eighties?
They did not sell out the venue, it should be noted. The three of us were in the center of row J, with only one row behind us in the orchestra section; two to three rows to on our sides in the back had many empty seats. They told us from the stage that their next performance was on Saturday night in Federal Way. Olympia and Federal Way are clearly not the places were the highest-demand artists book venues. Shobhit and I did see Rufus Wainwright
with Gina and Beth at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts in Olympia in 2017, and much as he is one of my favorite artists, even he has a pretty niche audience. At least he did sell out the venue, as I recall.
Given the nature of the performance, though, this kind of tracked. They had a live band that played well: a drummer, guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist. None of the three singers played instruments, but they did harmonize very well, especially considering how many of the songs they all sang in falsetto, a trademark of their seventies output. (The Bee Gees were releasing studio albums as early as 1967—1965 in Australia—and as late as 2001; the falsetto did not become their defining sound until 1975.) The well-honed harmonies sort of made up for how their showmanship was just kind of . . . okay. Their stage presence, and they way the moved, which was clearly not rehearsed anywhere near as much as their vocals, often reminded me of performances in the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Chorus. Which is to say, a bit amateur. But SLGC never charged $68 for tickets. I had a really good time at this show, as did Dad and Sherri and basically everyone else in the audience, but it was hard to justify that price. The flip side is that everyone in that band needs to get paid too, so I get it.
There was a couple of kind of unprofessional moments as well: the guy with the long hair, named James and who apparently founded the band (in the "
About Us" page of their website he's the one with a smarmy pose with his jacket open to reveal his bare, and honestly not super fit, chest and belly), messed up not just once, but twice. He admitted to misreading the list on the prompter, but in both cases the band was starting one song and James thought it was another, so he had to stop the show and start the song over. The keyboard also stopped working halfway through the opening number, which they had to pause to fix.
I was surprised to see six vocalists listed on their website, when there were only ever the same three onstage. I wondered if they rotate based on availability, or if maybe the bottom three were understudies—our show definitely featured the top three—or, perhaps a mix of both. But, whatever. They were not the Bee Gees, not even close; but they sang well and many of the songs were great. We all had a great time.
We were all in bed not long after we got home, and when we got up yesterday morning, at Sherri's request Dad made us all cheese and vegetable omelets for breakfast (they were done
far better than any omelet I ever manage). I hung out for a good several hours before finally heading home at about 12:45; the drive home was much nicer and I was pulling in at 2:06.
I made Shobhit and me chai, and worked on editing and processing photos. I had my semiannual, October haircut at 5:10 and am pretty happy with it. And then I met up with Ivan to see
Wicker at Pacific Place at 7:20. He didn't walk down with me because he was already running an errand downtown, so we had little time to chat before the movie, which we both rather liked—I think maybe him even more than me, though I did enjoy it a lot—but we walked back up the hill and caught up a bit afterward. He broke away at my building and then I went in to write my review.
[posted 9:20am]
