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| Heart Bones |
I Had the Time of My Life
I've never seen Dirty Dancing.
I was 17 when the movie came out, and it just didn't really seem like it was in my wheelhouse at the time. CoolMom, it turns out, has this weird -- almost irrational -- aversion to the film; so, once we got together, the prospect of ever seeing Dirty Dancing kind of evaporated.
The movie has become part of our pop cultural consciousness over the years, so I'm familiar with the broad strokes; though, I never knew that Patrick Swayze, and not Jennifer Grey, uttered the famous "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" line until just yesterday.
Anyway...
I am a huge fan of Sabrina Ellis through her bands A Giant Dog and Sweet Spirit. I've also had countless people tell me that Har Mar Superstar (aka, Sean Tillmann) is a fearless and incomparable entertainer. The pair have a new collaboration called Heart Bones; and, on Friday night, they brought their "Heart Bones Do the Songs of Dirty Dancing" tour to Brooklyn Bazaar. I figured, "Why not?"
Two hours in the CoolVan to Greenpoint plus more than a few minutes to find parking. Oh, well. This was the first time I'd be seeing a show at any version of Brooklyn Bazaar. I walked into the nearly empty venue just after doors, as is my custom. A steady stream of people filed in over the next couple of hours, and the place was brimming by the time Heart Bones took the stage.
First, though, Jersey City's Fascinations Grand Chorus got things started. I've been a supporter of this duo for a couple of years now; but this was, surprisingly, the first time I'd made it out to see them live. To tell you the truth, it was their late announcement that they'd be opening the show that helped me make my final decision to brave the BQE.
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| Fascinations Grand Chorus |
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| Fascinations Grand Chorus |
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| Fascinations Grand Chorus |
Stephanie Cupo and Andrew Pierce have their branding on-point as they both performed on Friday wearing orange. Their sound is decidedly retro with kind of a 60s pop feel. And, together, those things give Fascinations Grand Chorus this cool sense of being not only a band but also performance art. The songs are also very good.
Next up were Heart Bones' tourmates, Closeness. The Omaha duo consists of Orenda (Azure Ray) and Todd Fink (The Faint). They set up facing each other and combined guitar, bass, beats, and vocal effects into a pretty mesmerizing set. They had the stage lights all but turned off and used a pair of strobes to provide illumination throughout the performance. Songs went from discordant to danceable, from noisy to anthemic; and I was sold.
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| Closeness |
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| Closeness |
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| Closeness |
Sean Tillmann came up to the front during the set. He danced next to me as he exhorted the rest of the crowd to get into it. At one point, he looked over at me with a huge grin on his face as if to say, "You believe this??," laughed, and tousled my hair.
As we waited for Heart Bones to take the stage, I chatted with some Har Mar Superstar die-hards -- originally from Tillmann's home of Minnesota -- who had driven up from DC for the show. I met a Dirty Dancing super-fan whose son, himself a Har Mar fan, had brought her out to the show. Then, the band took the stage. Sax, guitar, bass, drums, keys. Ellis walked onstage and opened the show with a solo performance of "Yes." Tillmann then joined her wearing his Members Only windbreaker, and the pair did "She's Like the Wind."
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| Heart Bones |
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| Heart Bones |
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| Heart Bones |
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| Heart Bones |
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| Heart Bones |
Tillmann and Ellis have written several songs together and departed from the 80s cheese and 60s classics to share those. Singles "This Time It's Diffrent" and "Little Dancer" are standouts. For the encore, we got "Time of My Life" complete with a shirtless Tillmann lifting a blow-up doll over his head for the climax.
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| Heart Bones |
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| Heart Bones |
What can I say? This show was the most fun I've had in a while by far, and I truly needed to have some fun. Har Mar Superstar and Sabrina Ellis are performers whose selflessness and commitment can't help but bring a smile to your face. I'm looking forward to more originals from their collaboration.
The Dirty Dancing tour now heads out to the West Coast before winding up in Austin, TX.
All of the pictures from the show are up on the Facebook page.
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