Boy George and Culture Club treat Wilmington to mix of hits, quips

If you're my age (52) and want to feel old, consider that Boy George and his band, Culture Club, have been part of our cultural consciousness for 40 years now. In 1982, Culture Club released the album "Kissing to Be Clever" with its indelible hits "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," launching the band and in particular its cross-dressing, makeup-wearing frontman into international superstardom.

On Tuesday night in Wilmington at Cape Fear Community College's Wilson Center, a raucous crowd came to celebrate four decades of Boy George and Culture Club, dancing and cheering along to both familiar and reworked versions of the band's '80s hits, as well as to some newer songs and glossy covers. It was a loud show, as a pop/rock concert should be, and despite the throbbingly muddy sound, at least in the lower balcony where I was sitting, the crowd seemed too enthralled to mind, hanging on an engaging Boy George's every quip.

Just after the scheduled start time of 7:30 p.m., Boy George walked on stage adorned with a high-wattage smile, a jaunty pink fedora and a black-and-white, graffiti-print jacket that matched the concert's dynamic lighting scheme. He was shod in mismatched sneakers, one black and the other white, perhaps a winking nod to the multicultural appeal Culture Club has embraced since the beginning.

Likewise, the crowd embraced Boy George warmly, likely flooded with memories of his band and its music. For some '80s kids like myself who grew up in the South, seeing Boy George on MTV was our first exposure to a person who flaunted, with considerable style, the gender norms of the time. He was the first out gay person many of us were ever aware of, and the cultural impact of that cannot, I don't think, be overstated.

After opening with the bluesy soul-pop of "Church of the Poison Mind" from 1983's massively popular "Colour By Numbers" album, Boy George addressed the crowd.

"Wilmington, that right?" he asked in his working-class British accent. "It's beautiful down here."

He joked about perhaps opening a nightclub downtown, before hastening to add, "Don't panic, I'm not moving in!" He then introduced the poppily festive, island-flavored "It's a Miracle" by saying, "We are Culture Club, and that in itself is something of a miracle."

The band included longtime members of Culture Club dating back to the early '80s − bassist and co-founder Mikey Craig and guitarist/keyboardist Roy Hay − as well as a trio of golden-voiced backup singers, a drummer, a keyboardist, a guitar/harmonica/percussion player and a saxophonist who laid down a series of hot solos over the course of the show.

"You're a little bit of an older crowd," Boy George said at one point. "Like me. I'm 61."

When one audience member approached the stage and handed him a piece of paper, he joked, "A check."

The band played some songs, including "I'll Tumble 4 Ya," "Miss Me Blind," a muddy-sounding"Time" and "The War Song," pretty much how the crowd was used to hearing them. A slinky, gay-nightclub version of T-Rex's "Bang a Gong" paid tribute to the band's London roots and influences.

For "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," however, Boy George sang a super-slowed-down, almost meditative version of the pop smash that focused on the vulnerability of its lyrics. Boy George said at one point that he's "less interested in singers and more interested in songs," and that rings true for him as an artist. He doesn't have an operatic voice but rather a pleasant one, and gets by on the force of his personality and the catchy craft of his tunes.

At one point, he joked about how Culture Club fell out of fashion following its 1980s heyday, saying that some audience members were likely hesitant to attend. But I'd say Boy George met if not exceeded the expectations of the audience, which called insistently for an encore.

For that encore, Boy George re-entered, this time wearing a pink jacket (instead of a pink hat) and a graffiti-print fedora that matched his previous jacket, and performed a version of The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" that was no doubt an ironic nod to his role in pop culture.

By the time they arrived at the band's beautifully timeless hit "Karma Chameleon," Boy George's voice sounded a little tired. But by then the crowd was helping him sing along, supporting him, loving him really, this singer and artist who has added so much color and beauty to all of our lives.

Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Boy George and Culture Club bring quips, hits, memories to Wilmington