2008 Woodie Awards
Reunion concert spices up fan's life
Stacie Maclaughlin
Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: Arts and Leisure
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Legally, I'm an adult. I had the customary first, second, third and 40th drink to commemorate my shaky yet unstoppable entrance into adulthood. I got my first tattoo and have stayed up for nights of harmless but questionable fun. Few other things ever made me happier than standing with nearly 17,500 screaming Spice Girl fans.
I was immediately brought back to those years most die-hard music fans want to forget-the 90s. If there was a Spice Girls doll, T-shirt, poster, sticker, trading card, magazine or bubble gum wrapper within 10 miles of my home, I owned it.
Months after the tickets were bought, my father is still shocked I plunked $140 down on a first-level ticket. I gave him my trusty "What would you pay to see Jim Morrison rise from the dead to play with The Doors again?" analogy, to no avail.
What made me a highly profitable piece of the Spice puzzle was the message in their music. I can say that, while their songs were no monuments of art, they got me through that time in every girl's life when hormones and other fun things bounce around. "Girl Power!"-that highly marketable and adolescent-friendly feministic phrase adorned everything I touched. Monday night brought it all back. The girls came out with "Spice Up Your Life" and didn't stop moving until they finished two hours later with a remixed version of the same song. A group of multitalented male dancers accompanied them as they made their way around a shimmering stage.
The truth is, they all have aged-something we never want to see our idols do. Four of the five are mothers and three tried their hand at solo acts. There is classiness in their dress and a maturity in their voices that indicate their days of romping around London in a bi-level tour bus are over. Overall, they pulled off a two-hour set of old favorites and solos, some revamped, such as the ultra-kitschy "Too much," and some just the way we liked them nine years ago, such as the sentimental, delicate tear-jerker "Mama."
What will never age is their ability to bring girl power back into the hearts and minds of loyal fans-a gender-neutral myriad of ages 2 to 92. It is because of this and their staying power-a nearly unheard of concept in the world of pop music-that they will be welcomed with screams and general pandemonium wherever they go for years to come.
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