Photos by Laura Buhman
My Wednesday was a complete rollercoaster ride of a day. When I woke up, I planned to check out a super awesome local show at Zhora Darling with my boyfriend. It was going to be a date night of sorts, and I was excited about it, but right around lunchtime, an unexpected email came through. I was just approved to see Cyndi Lauper perform as part of her farewell tour. I’ll be honest; I was a bit irked at first. My heart and head were ready for a night at a super small and intimate show at the cozy Zhora Darling, and now I was going to be lost in a sea of thousands at a gigantic arena show, but it didn’t take long for that vibe to change. I was about to have the complete honor of covering the almighty, the legendary, the iconic Cyndi Lauper during one of the stops on her farewell tour. I mean, come on, how was I going to say no to that or even try to be bummed about that?!
When I first saw GAYLE in April 2022 at The Fine Line in Minneapolis, I said I couldn’t wait to see this amazing woman get everything she deserves. I saw the start of that as she opened for Queen Cyndi Lauper on Wednesday night at The Target Center in downtown Minneapolis. Opening up her set with “leave me for me dead”, GAYLE instantly started to showcase her soulful and highly versatile voice in a perfect way which would reign supreme throughout her quick thirty-minute opening set. Sure, there were a few moments where I felt like the backing tracks definitely ruled the set, but overall, GAYLE’s entire opening set was just what I would have expected from her. It was genuine, it was raw, it was spicy, and, most importantly, it was full of fiery passion and pure talent.
Although I loved seeing GAYLE finally get the stage that I’ve known she has been deserving of for years, I don’t know what the audience thought of GAYLE’s set. It was a hard crowd to read and definitely a bit older than GAYLE’s typical demographic, but I like to think that GAYLE walked away with at least a few new fans, if only from the kids of the older audience that had been dragged along to this show. I also feel like some of GAYLE’s banter was lost on the audience. Maybe it was because she wasn’t giving the audience a chance to respond before she and her backing two-human band kicked into another song, or maybe it was just because this was not a bantering type of audience; I just felt that there were a few moments throughout GAYLE’s set where the enormous size of The Target Center swallowed up her performance (not her sound). Could there have been a better opener picked for this show, sure, but I get what Cyndi did in picking GAYLE. Call it passing the torch, call it supporting other women, call it what you want. GAYLE’s set also felt a bit like a battle cry for the hard-working women of the music world, and I heard that yell loud and clear.
After a quick intro in the form of a recording of Blondie’s “One Way Or Another,” a quick introduction video, and a blast of brightly colored confetti, we got our first glimpse of the rockstar. Dressed in an almost alien-inspired-looking outfit with her bright seafoam green-tinted curls bouncing in the air, we were off to the races. The set started with “She Bop” and then quickly came to a pause after the first song to talk to the audience. She spoke about how this is, in fact, her farewell, and she wanted to go out big, not just holding a disco ball and asking someone to shine a light on it. It was little moments like this and the way she went on to talk about how Minneapolis has a special place in her heart because of Prince (she ended up doing a super great cover of “When You Were Mine” by Prince) that really brought Cyndi Lauper down to eye level in a way. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there wasn’t a single moment throughout her set on Wednesday night where I was fooled into thinking that maybe Cyndi isn’t quite the legend I thought she was, but it was more that she just came off as quirkily honest and personable and I couldn’t have asked for more.
Should I go ahead and call out the elephant in the arena? If you want my honest opinion, this being Cyndi’s Farewell Tour is not bad. Although I thoroughly enjoyed watching her and definitely sang along to many of the songs performed, I felt that there were moments where the vocals were just a bit rough, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like to see this songstress back in her heyday. Again, she was great on Wednesday. She looked great, was dancing around, and sounded pretty polished throughout most of the set, but you could see the years she has put in. Although I can never go back in time and see Cyndi perform back in the day, I can dream about what it may have been like, and let me tell you, that’s one fantastic dream.
As the night went on, the audience was treated to hit after hit and anecdote after anecdote. From the tender atmosphere that “Who Let in the Rain” cast over the approximately 9,000 fans that had come out to the show to the super special moment of the one and only Lucinda Williams joining Lauper for “Time After Time” and all the way to the more party-like atmosphere that everyone left with after Cyndi and her incredible band closed the night out with “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” (which brought GAYLE back to the stage which was just such a touching and perfect moment), there was something for everyone during the performance on Wednesday night and there was a moment for you to feel every which way throughout the night.
