Cyndi Lauper live at The O2 review: fun, barely-contained mayhem
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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