Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen,” with Janet Weiss on drums and Steven Bak on the mic, was the first of several songs the Portland Cello Project plucked from the patchwork of former radio hits and reintroduced as shiny new jewels of dance music. The second jam, a personal favorite, came as a surprise so early in the show: “Maneater,” was sung with extra flare by Sean Flinn. As this show was the last of a two night performance, there was some concern about the members having already spent their energy the night before. But by stroking our hair and kissing our foreheads softly, co-dance-party-orchestrator and karaoke master Brian Perez shushed our fears of this being the case. The question of whether this was a benevolent lie used to get us into bed was quickly erased by those Pegasus-wing-sized eyelash bats and seductive smiles. Everyone appeared to be fine with this kind of frisky manipulation.
Juxtaposed against the flamboyance of the karaoke masters were the supposed stars of the show - the cellists. But since having a giant wooden instrument wedged between your legs does not always allow for a terribly interesting stage presence, the eyes of the audience were naturally glued to the belting, flailing singers that occupied stage left. That was until the two lady cellists, Anna Fritz and Sami Kushnick, were given the spotlight for a sultry rendition of Madonna’s “Hung Up.” These two musicians alternated vocal duties, looking proud to be saluting the woman who brought us over thirty years of MTV magic. The Madonna madness didn’t stop there. There was a point where glorified karaoke started to feel more like a fabulous goofball dance party, and that point was when Andrea Vidal, clad in a distressed black leather jacket stepped on stage and that famous staccato string intro from “Papa Don’t Preach” commenced. Vidal’s performance was mesmerizing, as if she was in fact defiantly convincing her own papa that she too had “made up [her] mind, [she’s] keeping [her] baby, ooooh.”
Brian Perez made his debut for the night with an edge-of-orgasm version of “Reasons” by Earth Wind & Fire. Deciding it was not enough to simply convey his rapture from the stage, Perez descended into the crowd for the last half of the song, insisting that those around him also “get down” as he lay tantalizingly horizontal on the floor while blushing fans obediently squatted next to him. An impressive follow-up from Christopher Francis Schiel snapped the drooling masses into gangsta’ mode with a sassy version of “Bottoms Up.” He rightly deemed it not too over-the-top to bring out a bucket of ice with a bottle of champagne and two glasses for proper gangsta’ emphasis. I wonder if Trey Songz (author of aforementioned song) knows how much bass a cello can produce… or how with a little confidence and charisma, even a string-bean white boy can bust a rhyme, or three.
When the band disappeared backstage for a short intermission, the crowd kept moving along, dancing to original prerecorded numbers like “Hey Mickey” and “Dancing Queen” that a DJ had screaming from the speakers. He wasn't about to let the extreme dance party end.
Now, with half a dozen gems and just a few duds behind us, post-intermission PCP showered us with fourteen more “classics” -- depending on who you talk to. Amongst them was pop-cello arranger himself, Douglas Jenkins, in a very hot suit and tie combination, singing “Some Like it Hot.” Peter Murray and Jennie Wayne of John Heart Jackie eschewed the vintage in lieu of the ‘right-now’ and sang a heartfelt cover of MGMT’s bouncy-sentimental one-hit-wonder, “Kids,” with happy-clapping-a-plenty. The duo sported loose-fitting Hockey (the band, not the sport) tees and at least one pair of sparkly leg warmers and golden high-heels.
Cee-Lo’s sing-along ode to ex-girlfriends, “Fuck You,” made an appearance too, and even had its own sign-language translator for the hearing impaired, or those who wish to learn the song by hand as well as by heart.
The anticipation between each song was just as fun as the songs themselves, though, just like last year, Christopher Francis Schiel took the cake for “Get Your Freak On” and a version of Lady Gaga’s “LoveGame” that would make miss crazy-outfit herself feel sufficiently outdone. It was unmistakably a party of extreme danceability, though from an audience member’s point of view, the cello, the proclaimed crux of the show was largely glossed over by the hyperactive pop songs it helped to re-interpret. But right or wrong, the Cello Project deftly clashed classical sounds with pop themes and attitudes, and in the end the credit falls into the right hands. Thanks to everyone who, for the second year in a row, had a hand in bringing this fabulous dance party to the masses.
Setlist:
1. "Edge of Seventeen" - Stevie Nicks
2. "Maneater" - Hall and Oates
3. "Stuck in the Middle" - Stealers Wheel
4. "Hung Up" - Madonna
5. "Intergalactic" - Beastie Boys
6. "Pleasure Principle" - Janet Jackson
7. "Papa Don't Preach" - Madonna
8. "Reasons" - Earth Wind and Fire
9. "Bottoms Up" - Trey Songz
10. "Dancing Machine" - Jackson 5
11. "Kidz" - MGMT
12. "Tell It Like It Is" - Neville Brothers
13. "Some Like It Hot" - Robert Palmer
14. "Rolling In the Deep" - Adele
15. "Halo" - Beyonce
16. "Straight On" - Heart
17. "Love To Hate You" - Erasure
18. "Fuck You" - Cee-Lo
19. "LoveGame" - Lady Gaga
20. "Believe" - Cher
21. "All Night Long" - Lionel Richie
22. "Get Your Freak On" - Missy Elliott
23. "Take On Me" - A-Ha
