Cyndi Lauper Live Review St. Augustine FL

LIVE REVIEW: Cyndi Lauper | “The Wake Of Love” | So Don’t Be Afraid to Let Them Show, Your True Colors | St. Augustine Amphitheatre | Sunday, June 12, 2016

by • June 17, 2016

LA Pride for Orlando

“No law is gonna change us

WE HAVE TO CHANGE US
Whatever God you believe in
We come from the same one
STRIP AWAY THE FEAR
Underneath it’s all the SAME LOVE
About time that we raised up…”

-Macklemore “Same Love”

Mother’s Day just passed and I had a plan but also, did not have a plan. So, I bought my Mom a card, wine and flowers. When I was trying to figure out what was “good” or whatever to get her, I found out Cyndi Lauper would be coming on tour through Florida. BAM. I knew I was gonna surprise the shit out of her. 🙂

I’m not sure why I didn’t buy a ticket to the Orlando show, as I always do. Even before SIGT, Orlando was MY PLACE for shows. Nothing felt right if it wasn’t in this town. For some reason, St. Augustine appealed to me, so I bought tickets. I told everyone about it, except my Mom. We have this special thing with Cyndi but that’s a whole other story to tell. I’d been waiting with this surprise for a while.

Friday came, and all of us were shocked that such violence could occur in this, (my adopted in music form) “home” town, and at one of our own beloved venues: The Plaza Live. Shit. I’ve seen so many of my favorite performers there; from Randall Shreve, to Brandi Carlile, to the comedian Bo Burnham. Thinking back, I MET Bo while he was waiting to sign autographs at the Plaza where Christina was shot and killed. Now, I can’t say for a second that I could understand what those people felt when they saw what happened, or how their families felt after hearing about it. I know one thing for sure, all of us were thinking, “It could have been any one of us.” But all I kept thinking after reading the news was, “I know that venue like the back of my hand. I can get there with no directions, parking is easy. You know which sections are the good seats, and if it’s standing room only, you better be in the fucking front because that venue is intimate in one of the most beautiful ways.” All of us who have been there know how small that lobby is and to think of the horror…I can’t put myself in the place of those people, but I, or you could have been in the place of those people and that is TOO CLOSE TO HOME.

Friday night I thought, “No one deserves this, no one deserves to die like this.” The girl was 22. Beautiful. Had so much more to live for. All she wanted to do was meet her fans. I wouldn’t blame any musician for never doing a meet and greet again, but I know most of them won’t because people in this industry don’t live in fear.

Saturday came with all the waves of emotion that come from hearing something so tragic. But then, Saturday night came, and I was wondering how Orlando was doing. But Saturday night, a usual fun night out in Orlando, turned into early Sunday morning.

And then, it got worse. It got, well… you know. I can say a lot of things about that monster but I will not give him the time or any of my words. I digress.

I’ve been meaning to tell the story of LOVE and COMMUNITY and Cyndi MotherfuckinQUEENoftheLGBTQ+community LAUPER. (Hey, if you were there, you heard her say she always wanted to be a Queen!) <3

I would never make the intent of this story out to be that this show was so spectacular BECA– USE of this tragedy at Pulse. I wish that this, among so many other mass shootings, had never happened. But it did, and now we’re learning how to respond: fight or flight. And we will fight with LOVE. Once I realized our Shows I Go To family would be holding a vigil in Lake Eola, I desperately wanted to be there and show my support. But let me tell you now, I was there in a different way; showing support with several hundreds of people tonight at the Cyndi Lauper show at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. Cyndi is a well known, widely renowned advocate of the LGBT community. So given the nature of the massacre in Orlando, we all knew she would have something to say.

The band came out on stage and the crowd went wild, even wilder as we all saw her walk out on stage. She instantly was hushing the crowd with her hands and shushed us saying, “No, no, no, no hang on this isn’t the show, everybody, shh.” The crowd suddenly went silent as she spoke. She said that this is not the state of Florida to have such violence and that HATE IS JUST HATE. Lauper said the Muslim religion is about peace and not hate. You can see in full, her thoughts in the video below.

HATE IS JUST HATE!”

With that said, she left the stage and became the performer. Behind a screen on a platform, which slowly lowered, she reappeared on stage as the Cyndi I’ve always remembered seeing live. She then played for an hour and a half. The audience settled into the show, much different from the the audience flashing concerned looks amongst each other while we went through thorough security checks, knowing exactly why. Even though in my mind, we were all cool people here, I was scared something could happen. During the show she played a country tune of hers and it was that sound, like when you hear an old country song in a movie and you know something bad is going to happen… you know? I had that thought in the back of my mind. But I looked around and I saw people showing love to each other. I saw men with their arms around each other. I saw women holding hands together. They didn’t looked scared. So why was I? I looked around at so many people who SHOULD NOT have to fear for their lives, thinking, “What if?“

But as Mitch was working his healing magic in Orlando, and having our people show up in numbers in a place not deemed safe for large crowds by the media and police, we were there; singing our way to healing in unison. You know you’re in a good circle of people when someone publicly says, “Call me anytime.” And then, leaves his number for anyone to call at all hours of the night to talk, and cry, and say, I love you. So, that’s why I called Mitch after the show.

If this world makes you crazy
And you’ve taken all you can bear
You call me up
Because you know I’ll be there

And I’ll see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful
Like a rainbow”

The encore was over. Cyndi came back out to sit alone on a chair with her dulcimer for “True Colors.” A person by the name of Jonathan Chase was in the front row already waving a Rainbow Flag. She looked at him and said, “I know.” I think we were all waiting for this song, because, most fans know it was written for her gay sister. They knew she has, and continues to do, so much for a community of people that need a person of her stature as a beacon of acceptance.

She starts singing and barely gets through the first verse before she chokes up, sets down her instrument, and stands up to sing to us. No musical accompaniment; just her amplified voice and the unified, heartfelt voices that filled that amphitheater. No written description or YouTube video could do it justice if you weren’t there. Near the end of the song, she seems to shout rather than sing the line, “Now don’t be afraid!” Lauper made a fist and put it in the air before she leaned down and took the flag out of Jonathan’s hands and wrapped it around herself and said, “Now we pray.” And as she circles her hand around in the form of the ASL sign for “I love you” she sings with tears in her eyes, “Now let them show, your true colors are beautiful…” and she let’s us finish alone: “Like a rainbow”

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. She thanks us as she says we are ALL PART OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. All of us.

As she walks offstage I assume she’s taken this man’s flag and if I were him, I’d be stoked. I walked closer to the stage to meet some friends and noticed Cyndi was signing the flag, then returned it to the man as crew members shook his hand and gave him a set list as well.  It was in that moment I walked up and introduced myself to Jonathan and his friend Paul. They’re from Jacksonville and are fighting to get human rights protection for the LGBT community there through the Human Rights Organization, (HRO). More information can be found here: http://jaxequality.org/our-goals. I found myself so proud to have just met these two and I can’t understand how anyone could hate someone they don’t know, or something they don’t understand. These guys were so shaken up over what happened in Orlando. Paul said he had friends calling in to check on him, as he frequents Orlando often for Pride festivities.

In Jonathan’s own words from Facebook:

“Yesterday is a day that we will never forget… First we learned of the terrorist attack that took so many of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. Knocking the entire gay community to its knees. Pulse was a place we’ve all been to many times and this just struck so close to home. Feeling numb and in shock I didn’t want to do anything but just lay around as the news came in. I decided later on that day to go join 2 friends and go to see Cyndi Lauper that night in St Augustine. Boy was it a special moment. We decided to take the pride flag looking for strength and unity. Towards the end of the concert a very powerful and special moment happen! Between the crowd and Cyndi we became one, Standing tall against hate. While singing and holding her fist high she looked me in the eyes reached out to me and I handed her the flag that stands for so much to so many people. She then wrapped it around her proudly. Almost like you mess with them, you mess with me. And I saw the passion and hurt in her eyes, and the power in her voice as if she was fighting a war through her final song of the night for us! After leaving with the flag I begged her to keep. An assistant of hers ran out minutes later handing me the flag stating that Cyndi Lauper said she wants you to have this. When I opened the flag It had been signed Love, Peace Cyndi Lauper. A moment I’ll never forget! ❤️ ‪#‎CyndiLauper‬ ‪#‎Pulse‬ ‪#‎Orlando‬ ‪#‎LGBTQ‬ ‪#‎Pride‬“

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The only thing I can wrap my head around is that at any point, you, myself, or even Jonathan or Paul could have a weapon and use it to inflict fear-inspired pain onto other people. We just never know if we’re a moment away from something tragic. We shouldn’t live in fear. We should all practice understanding and love and patience. This isn’t a time to be political, this transcends the need to discuss all of that. This is a time to evaluate our collective values: I guarantee each person reading this knows someone who is gay. Do you think they don’t deserve to live? We all deserve a chance at this thing called life. We must stand up against an extremist view of religion, as Cyndi said, “A religion of peace that has been hijacked.” Don’t be afraid. We will show attackers our right to exist as HUMAN BEINGS who are different from each other, but all bleed the same. We can stand up stronger with LOVE.

Let them fear that.

Cyndi Lauper Live Review by Jenn Ross.

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