Tonight was my first time back at The Castro since the controversial renovation, which turned it from a classic Art Deco repertory movie palace into a classic Art Deco live music venue. I begrudgingly admit that they did an excellent job. The concessions moved from the lobby inside the theater, the bathrooms improved dramatically, and the sightlines for music were nearly perfect. It was a bit confusing that the men’s and women’s restrooms were switched on the main floor, almost causing what would have been a disturbance in a space less accepting of the gender spectrum.
The show opened with a set by Melanie C collaborator Sur Beck. She came out to a slow-burning synth flourish, and when the beat kicked in, she pulled up the mic to start singing and… Nothing! Clearly flustered, she handed the mic to a tech and left the stage. I heard someone in the crowd say, “When she comes back, let’s go NUTS for her!” She did, and they did! The crowd was so warm and lovely, and they gave her a hero’s welcome. Especially considering her Spotify is a song, a remix, and a collaboration, and that’s it! So most people were hearing these songs for the first time. I particularly liked the dramatic take on Madonna’s “What It Feels Like For A Girl,” which really resonated with the surprisingly male-heavy crowd.
Next up was a surprise performance by UK-born, SF-based drag performer Lady Camden. She wore a sparkly Union Jack jacket, dressed in her Ginger Spice drag finest. She then blew us away with an athletic lip sync to a medley of the Spice Girls’ greatest hits, and, as any good showperson knows, she was done before the crowd was ready for her to leave.
The new music felt so big and alive in the live setting. There was very little nostalgia in the first portion of the set- just modern club banger after modern club banger, with Melanie C’s powerhouse, soulful vocals adding a lot of humanity and personality to the dance music. She also doesn’t stop moving, making sure that all sides of the stage got real time with Melanie.
Then we got our acoustic set. Based on setlist.fm, we got the longest acoustic set of the tour- opening with Sweat’s “What Could Possibly Go Wrong,” followed by her classic hit “Northern Star.” Next was the first Spice Girls song of the evening, “2 Become 1,” in which the audience nearly drowned out Melanie! This should’ve been the highlight of the acoustic portion. But no. She pulled out another classic! An acoustic take on her duet with Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez: “Never Be The Same Again,” complete with an old friend from Melanie’s SF days joining her onstage to nimbly rap Left Eye’s portion of the song.
She played nearly every track off Sweat, gradually bringing the energy up to epic proportions throughout the night. She took a few minutes to show off her well-honed DJ skills mid-set before dropping two more Spice Girls classics! First, it was a “Smells Like Teen Spirit” riffing redo of “Who Do You Think You Are?” followed by a mash-up of Fatboy Slim’s “Right Here, Right Now” and the epic “Spice Up Your Life” that worked surprisingly well!
The epic “Drum Machine” closed off the main set before a trance -> drum n bass reading of the unreleased “A Place Where We Belong” kicked off the encore. And everything closed up with a final group sing-along of “Turn To You,” Melanie C’s epic solo single from 1999. That was before the sweaty masses, mostly wearing vintage Spice gear, migrated out of the theater and over to Hot Cookie for the classic, post-Castro treat.
