The Foreverland concert at the Art Kamangar Center at the Merced Theatre showed that when it came to Michael Jackson there was no generation gap in its fans.
Michael Jackson fans and enthusiasts came out to the theater on September 19th to experience a live performance from Foreverland, the 14 member Michael Jackson tribute band.
When the clock struck 8 a large festive looking man came through the curtains to begin the show. He riled up the crowd as the curtains opened, revealing a full-fledged band, complete with guitarists, a drummer, a horn section, saxophonist, vocals, and more.
There was only one female in the 14 person band, and she started the show singing the melody for the Jackson 5 classic “I Want You Back.” The beautiful red headed singer poured herself into the song with her amazing vocals and the band’s on point rendition of the hit.
Excitement fueled the audience, myself included, and it only took a manner of seconds for Foreverland to ensure that we were indeed in for a treat.
They followed the rest of the night with songs like “Stop the Love you Save”, “Human Nature”, “Bad”, “Beat It”, and so much more.
I am not much of a dancer but even I couldn’t deny the alluring infectious nature of their performance throughout the night, and there were times where I felt the sudden urge to get out of my seat and dance.
As the night progressed the rather shy citizens and students of Merced slowly got out of their seat and transformed the aisles into a dance floor.
The end of the night came all too quickly, as the band ended their show with “Thriller”, and what a thriller it was. They gave one last surprise performance of “Man in the Mirror” even though most people had left already.
At the end of that performance I asked some students what they thought about the show. “Although it wasn’t the real thing, it was a really good tribute performance, I enjoyed it!” exclaimed Anthony Ver, a third year student.
He continued on to say, “I think my favorite part about the concert was just being able to see all the audience members react and dance along the aisles, it really made the whole performance worthwhile, especially when they performed ‘Black or White’, but ‘Man in the Mirror’ at the end was my fave.”
Fourth year Marcelo Flores described Foreverland as, “Not only were they simply amazing, but seeing them dance on stage and having fun made the experience such a thrill.”
It took a 14 member band to capture the essence of Michael Jackson, and while it may seem excessive to use 14 people just to emulate one man, I couldn’t see that there could be only one person who can embody such a smooth criminal.
Christopher Law
Staff Writer