Cyndi Lauper live at The O2 review: fun, barely-contained mayhem
Last summer, Lauper drew a huge crowd at Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage, but gave a rocky and uneven performance in a show beset with technical difficulties.
When her vocals weren't drowned out entirely by the cranked-up bass, she often lagged behind the band, possibly due to issues with her in-ear monitors, and by the end, she appeared frustrated with the production team. It was far from a triumphant victory lap, and ahead of her first (and last) arena tour since 1987, the new wave star had a lot to prove.
Fortunately, she sounded far better last night at The O2. Lauper still has pipes after all, it turns out: unleashing an operatic quaver for her cover of Prince's When You Were Mine, and belting out the high notes of I Drove All Night to huge cheers while her floaty white skirt served as a projector for images of cars and streaming headlights. 'And I still can't parallel park,' she quipped afterwards.
Lit by the crowd's phone torches, Time After Time finally got the rendition it really deserved, too. Lauper also invited surprise guest Boy George on for her joyous closer Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.
Conceptually, Lauper explained, the Farewell Tour is intended as a piece of living art: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun featured visuals by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (and a dot-covered costume for Lauper) while True Colours was accompanied by a version of Daniel Wurtzel's installation art piece Air Fountain. 'If I'm going out, I'm going out big,' she reasoned, on her distinctive Queens drawl. 'I've never been a church mouse anyway.'
So far, so slick? There was still plenty of chaos along the way: opener She Bop featured Lauper performing a slightly honking recorder solo, and ahead of a cover of Mardi Gras song Iko Iko, she clambered out of a trapdoor in a frill-covered dress by designer Christian Siriano, accessorised with a washboard chest-plate. 'The gays want glamour!' she declared, quoting Siriano.
There was also no reining in Lauper's love of a meandering, slightly excessive story. Earlier iterations of the tour's setlist featured a cover of Wanda Jackson's Funnel of Love, but last night Lauper got too carried away with one of her winding tales. 'Holy cow! I forgot to do a song!' she exclaimed.
Not even this could halt her monologuing though; within minutes she moved straight onto romanticising houses covered with asbestos ('I always used to think that the shingles looked like Good & Plenty [sweets]')
For most other artists, this could easily be a total trainwreck, but Lauper's too charismatic for that. Though far from polished, it was hard to resist the charm of her sweary Queens drawl, and in the end, the undercurrent of barely-contained mayhem felt like an integral part of the fun.
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Washington Post
2 days ago
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Why a Minneapolis neighborhood sharpens a giant pencil every year
MINNEAPOLIS — Residents will gather Saturday in a scenic Minneapolis neighborhood for an annual ritual — the sharpening of a gigantic No. 2 pencil. The 20-foot-tall (6-meter-tall) pencil was sculpted out of a mammoth oak tree at the home of John and Amy Higgins. The beloved tree was damaged in a storm a few years ago when fierce winds twisted the crown off. Neighbors mourned. A couple even wept. But the Higginses saw it not so much as a loss, but as a chance to give the tree new life. The sharpening ceremony on their front lawn has evolved into a community spectacle that draws hundreds of people to the leafy neighborhood on Lake of the Isles, complete with music and pageantry. Some people dress as pencils or erasers. Two Swiss alphorn players will provide part of this year's entertainment. The hosts will commemorate a Minneapolis icon, the late music superstar Prince , by handing out purple pencils on what would have been his 67th birthday. In the wake of the storm, the Higginses knew they wanted to create a sculpture out of their tree. They envisioned a whimsical piece of pop art that people could recognize, but not a stereotypical chainsaw-carved, north-woods bear. Given the shape and circumference of the log, they came up with the idea of an oversized pencil standing tall in their yard. 'Why a pencil? Everybody uses a pencil,' Amy Higgins said. 'Everybody knows a pencil. You see it in school, you see it in people's work, or drawings, everything. So, it's just so accessible to everybody, I think, and can easily mean something, and everyone can make what they want of it.' So they enlisted wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to transform it into a replica of a classic Trusty brand No. 2 pencil. 'People interpret this however they want to. They should. They should come to this and find whatever they want out of it,' Ingvoldstad said. That's true even if their reaction is negative, he added. 'Whatever you want to bring, you know, it's you at the end of the day. And it's a good place. It's good to have pieces that do that for people.' John Higgins said they wanted the celebration to pull the community together. 'We tell a story about the dull tip, and we're gonna get sharp,' he said. 'There's a renewal. We can write a new love letter, a thank you note. We can write a math problem, a to-do list. And that chance for renewal, that promise, people really seem to buy into and understand.' To keep the point pointy, they haul a giant, custom-made pencil sharpener up the scaffolding that's erected for the event. Like a real pencil, this one is ephemeral. Every year they sharpen it, it gets a bit shorter. They've taken anywhere from 3 to 10 inches (8 to 25 centimeters) off a year. They haven't decided how much to shave off this year. They're OK knowing that they could reduce it to a stub one day. The artist said they'll let time and life dictate its form — that's part of the magic. 'Like any ritual, you've got to sacrifice something,' Ingvoldstad said. 'So we're sacrificing part of the monumentality of the pencil, so that we can give that to the audience that comes, and say, 'This is our offering to you, and in goodwill to all the things that you've done this year.''
Associated Press
2 days ago
- Associated Press
Why a Minneapolis neighborhood sharpens a giant pencil every year
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Residents will gather Saturday in a scenic Minneapolis neighborhood for an annual ritual — the sharpening of a gigantic No. 2 pencil. The 20-foot-tall (6-meter-tall) pencil was sculpted out of a mammoth oak tree at the home of John and Amy Higgins. The beloved tree was damaged in a storm a few years ago when fierce winds twisted the crown off. Neighbors mourned. A couple even wept. But the Higginses saw it not so much as a loss, but as a chance to give the tree new life. The sharpening ceremony on their front lawn has evolved into a community spectacle that draws hundreds of people to the leafy neighborhood on Lake of the Isles, complete with music and pageantry. Some people dress as pencils or erasers. Two Swiss alphorn players will provide part of this year's entertainment. The hosts will commemorate a Minneapolis icon, the late music superstar Prince, by handing out purple pencils on what would have been his 67th birthday. In the wake of the storm, the Higginses knew they wanted to create a sculpture out of their tree. They envisioned a whimsical piece of pop art that people could recognize, but not a stereotypical chainsaw-carved, north-woods bear. Given the shape and circumference of the log, they came up with the idea of an oversized pencil standing tall in their yard. 'Why a pencil? Everybody uses a pencil,' Amy Higgins said. 'Everybody knows a pencil. You see it in school, you see it in people's work, or drawings, everything. So, it's just so accessible to everybody, I think, and can easily mean something, and everyone can make what they want of it.' So they enlisted wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to transform it into a replica of a classic Trusty brand No. 2 pencil. 'People interpret this however they want to. They should. They should come to this and find whatever they want out of it,' Ingvoldstad said. That's true even if their reaction is negative, he added. 'Whatever you want to bring, you know, it's you at the end of the day. And it's a good place. It's good to have pieces that do that for people.' John Higgins said they wanted the celebration to pull the community together. 'We tell a story about the dull tip, and we're gonna get sharp,' he said. 'There's a renewal. We can write a new love letter, a thank you note. We can write a math problem, a to-do list. And that chance for renewal, that promise, people really seem to buy into and understand.' To keep the point pointy, they haul a giant, custom-made pencil sharpener up the scaffolding that's erected for the event. Like a real pencil, this one is ephemeral. Every year they sharpen it, it gets a bit shorter. They've taken anywhere from 3 to 10 inches (8 to 25 centimeters) off a year. They haven't decided how much to shave off this year. They're OK knowing that they could reduce it to a stub one day. The artist said they'll let time and life dictate its form — that's part of the magic. 'Like any ritual, you've got to sacrifice something,' Ingvoldstad said. 'So we're sacrificing part of the monumentality of the pencil, so that we can give that to the audience that comes, and say, 'This is our offering to you, and in goodwill to all the things that you've done this year.''
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
The Dakota has a secret Prince-themed dessert that's not on the menu
The Dakota has a secret Prince-themed dessert that's not on the menu originally appeared on Bring Me The News. There aren't really weeks where Prince isn't celebrated in the Twin Cities, but he's being celebrated with extra vigor this week between Celebration 2025, the new Purple Path, and other Prince-related events. While taking in a concert or watching Purple Rain, The Dakota has added an off-menu, Prince-themed treat. The concert venue where Prince often caught shows and played six back-to-back concerts in 2013 is serving Prince's Favorite Cookie (aka The PFC). However, you'll have to be in the know to order it, since it's not listed on the menu. The cookie was reputedly a treat Prince often ordered when catching live music at the Dakota. It's described as a "crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside" cookie with white chocolate and macadamia nuts, finished with a bit of lime and sea salt. Throughout 2025, the PFC will be baked up in a limited quantity by Executive Chef Asher Zulkosky, reviving the original treat created by former pastry chef Katie Elsing from 2012 to 2015. "Prince was always coming in with his entourage," Elsing recalls. "As soon as word came down he was expected, I knew to have a batch of these cookies ready for him and his guests just in case he had a craving for something sweet." The PFC's return is well-timed with Prince's June 7 birthday and the Celebration 2025 events in Downtown Minneapolis, but it's also part of the venue's 40th anniversary celebration. Throughout the Dakota's 40th anniversary year, the culinary team will revive dishes from the Dakota's history as a nod to past chefs such as Ken Goff and Jack Riebel, reminding concertgoers that the Nicollet Mall venue isn't just known for what's happening on the story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jun 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
