A dependably chatty Cyndi Lauper was in fine form Friday, Aug. 1, at Pine Knob Music Theatre as she made her latest metro Detroit visit in what has been an eclectic, nearly five-decade performing career.<\/p>\n
But this one came under wistful circumstances: The bubbly star is amid the final leg of her farewell tour and \u2014 barring some dramatic change of mind \u2014 her Pine Knob concert was her final one in Michigan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did want to come back and say goodbye,\u201d Lauper said early in the set to a loud reply of \u201cnoooo\u201d from the crowd. \u201cI love you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t just audience pandering. It was heartfelt sentiment from an artist who invested her show with genuine emotion while frolicking through the hits that made her one of the quirkiest acts to find mass pop success in the 1980s before her creative journey led to increasingly deeper material.<\/p>\n
Sporting assorted colored wigs and eye-catching outfits, some of them designer-made, Lauper spent as much time talking as singing. With a charming informality, as if yakking with old friends, she offered anecdotes from the trenches of the music biz, reminisced about her childhood in Queens and casually quoted from \u201cKinky Boots,\u201d the 2012 musical that brought her a Tony Award to go with her Grammys and Emmy.<\/p>\n
The setlist kicked off with the early career hit \u201cShe Bop,\u201d following a video montage of signature career moments and a burst of DayGlo-colored confetti, establishing a retro visual theme that would return throughout the night. Many fans had done their part, too, arriving in circa-1984 outfits for Lauper\u2019s victory lap.<\/p>\n
The nearly two-hour set offered a spirited showing from a natural-born performer who, at 72, has said she wanted to stage one big last tour while she still had the stamina to do it.<\/p>\n
The Fox Theatre was among the first stops on Lauper\u2019s international farewell tour when she launched it last fall; now Pine Knob came amid a homestretch that will conclude later this month.<\/p>\n
It was part of a local show history that stretches back to her inaugural spring 1984 concert at the Detroit Opera House (then Grand Circus Theater), when \u201cGirls Just Want to Have Fun\u201d had thrust her onto the mainstream radar and made her an MTV staple.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s peppy material included the rhythm-heavy \u201cIko Iko\u201d and rock-fueled \u201cChange of Heart,\u201d along with \u201cThe Goonies \u2018R\u2019 Good Enough,\u201d a song Lauper avoided in concert for nearly two decades after it became a soundtrack hit from the 1985 movie \u201cGoonies.\u201d The bass-driven “Into the Nightlife,” a 2008 cut that was Lauper’s last real global hit, got fans shimmying.<\/p>\n
But her wider creative range showed with selections such as a simmering \u201cWho Let in the Rain\u201d (cowritten with Detroit native Allee Willis), a sentimental \u201cSally\u2019s Pigeons\u201d and an open-throated performance of \u201cI\u2019m Gonna Be Strong,\u201d reaching back to her pre-solo days with the New York band Blue Angel.<\/p>\n
\u201cTime After Time\u201d \u2014 the masterpiece of Lauper\u2019s career \u2014 was accompanied by an amphitheater of cellphone lights, with the singer clutching her own luminated device onstage. \u201cTrue Colors,\u201d the 1986 hit that has evolved into an LGBTQ+ anthem, was an encore number accompanied by show opener Jake Wesley Rogers and an unfurled Pride flag.<\/p>\n
Lauper\u2019s distinctive vocals, complete with her hiccupping yelps, occasionally faced challenges that had her fiddling with her ear monitors, including a rocky start to \u201cTime After Time.\u201d And her voice was clearly flagging by the time she got to show closer \u201cGirls Just Want to Have Fun,\u201d where she abandoned the high notes altogether.<\/p>\n
Still, that 1984 breakout hit was the right and obvious finale \u2014 wrapping up Friday night with the infectious, ebullient energy that took Lauper and Pine Knob back to where it had all started.<\/p>\n