A Faithful Man

On Tuesday night I took perhaps the best study break in the history of study breaks: an outing to see Lee Fields and the Expressions in concert at the Masquerade. Lee Fields is listed under the R&B/Soul genre on iTunes. He delivers. The man glittered under the lighting on stage, wearing a metallic silver suit. Textbook crazy eyes? He's got 'em. Every time the song lyrics mentioned "ladies", he'd point to those of us on the first few rows. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I do believe I made eye contact and was pointed at by Mr. Fields. After his song about all the lovely ladies, he asked a gal on the front row for her name, she gave it, and he responded, "I betchyo man is pleeeased." He asked another gal for her name, she gave it, he responded, "I betchyo man is sssatisfied." Obviously, Lee has the pipes to be a soul singer, but he also has some of the wickedest dance moves I've ever seen. He must have done at least seven double pirouettes in the course of one song, with intricate footwork and little kicks in between. The man is a star. The silver suit jacket came off halfway through his set, and when he came back on stage to sing an encore, he had taken off his shirt as well and only wore a shiny, red, damask vest. Swag.

Molly, who exactly attends Lee Fields concerts other than weirdos like you? Well, first off I'd like to point out that I have friends who happen to be weirdos like me and are game to follow my whims every once and a while (and probably now more often since this one ended up so amazing). Other than that, though, the Lee Fields crowd is a diverse set. Some old folks hanging around the periphery, some 30-40 somethings jiving in the thick of things, some trendy 20 somethings with strange clothing and matted hair. One elderly Asian man in a subtle wolf sweatshirt walked up and down the length of the front of the stage, taking pictures using the viewfinder of his digital camera. One 30 something black man bopped back and forth to the beat while eating some chicken fingers. Two identical looking, 4'5"-ish, plump black women in hoodies and beanies danced all night long and were occasionally joined in their groove by short, elderly white men. A good time was definitely had by all.

After the show, Lee came out to the merch table and signed anything that was purchased. I got my CD signed and asked for a picture with the legend. He said, "Oh yes, let's do that. Let's do that."  We did that. And guess what? Lee is a thumbs-upper, just like yours truly. What a guy.

I have to say, probably the reason I enjoyed this concert so much is the extremely high ridiculous factor of the whole night. It's no secret that I love the ridiculous. It's by far and away my favorite thing in the world. And Molly at a crazy-eyed R&B/Soul/Funk concert with dancing maybe twins and old people is pretty dang ridiculous, don't you think?