This past Sunday night, I trekked out to Wilkes-Barre, PA with my friend Emily to see Cyndi Lauper in concert. Upon recounting the night’s activities, I found it funny that people asked me if I was sitting in the front row. Of course I was! It’s Cyndi freakin’ Lauper. There are only a handful of 80’s starlets that I think make the pretty music, and Cyndi is one of them. Wilkes-Barre is far, far away from Philadelphia — nearly a two-hour trip. Upon my arrival, there was nice $2 parking adjacent to the theater. No food other than candies and chip-like substances, we decided to survive on Twizzlers and those pretzel cheese roll cracker thingies. I’m drawing a blank. The theater was in great shape and our seats were on the end of the center aisle right by the staircase where Cyndi would frequently walk up and down during the course of her performance.

First up was Jill Sobule. Her voice is so soft and melodic but her lyrics are dead-pan hilarious. She should be a lot more famous than she is. Heather tells me Jill was really popular and I don’t seem to have any recollection. She was visibly shaking during the course of her set. I swear she didn’t make a single mistake.
I’ve found some MP3s on the internet of songs Jill covered in her set for your listening pleasure including: JET PACK, MEXICAN WRESTLER, KAREN BY NIGHT, LUCY AT THE GYM, BIG SHOES (with her mom on the phone).

After Jill’s 45 minute set was up, Sandra Bernhard sauntered up to the microphone. I’d purposely kept myself in the dark on the night’s proceedings so I’d be surprised by the set list and any opening acts that might show up. I never expected two opening acts, much less to see Madonna’s favorite mid-90s gal-pal Bernhard. She sang an opening and closing song sandwiched by some decided mixed stand-up. The Japanese yams story she’s apparently been telling everyone since Thanksgiving wasn’t all that funny. She seems to think it is, however. She read from the newspaper (this is a standard part of her shtick, apparently). Laura Bush was discussing how the White House was bright and beautiful for Christmas. Sandra hates the Bushes (as did most of the audience), so it was hilarious to see her occasionally gag while reading the article.

After an overlong Bernhard stint, Cyndi finally appeared and was dancing all over the stage, kicking off her shoes and going barefoot. She wore a blue silk blouse and black hot pants. They may have ever been leather, but I’m going to stick with my initial hot pants assessment. She sang a nice mix of new material mixed with songs off The Body Acoustic — a collection of her greatest hits played VH1 style. I didn’t even recognize my all-time favorite Cyndi Lauper song TIME AFTER TIME until she started singing it. You can hear the new version playing for free on Cyndi’s official website Cyndi Lauper Online. Use the arrows at the bottom of the flash to move to the next song in case TIME AFTER TIME doesn’t come up right away. Here’s Cyndi’s set list as best as I can copy and paste:

ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT
I DROVE ALL NIGHT
CHANGE OF HEART
SISTERS OF AVALON
SHE BOP
ABOVE THE CLOUDS
FEARLESS
TRUE COLORS
SHINE
MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING
ALL THE YOUNG DUDES w/Jill Sobule
EARLY CHRISTMAS MORNING
TIME AFTER TIME
STAY
GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN

Before she began singing ABOVE THE CLOUDS she gave a short speech about her involvement with Matthew Shephard‘s mom. Matthew was murdered as a result of a hate crime and Cyndi had only recently met her and instantly bonded. She held a handful of bracelets and asked everyone to spread love and stop hate. She then handed me one a bracelet and then tossed the others around. She was standing 6 inches away from me at the foot of the steps at this point, so pretty cool! I know what you’re thinking. She’s 52. But she’s still cute. She’s got her same voice and her lip curl make up for the bad choice of hot pants. I swear.