"Anyone who has ever gone to a rave and had the time of their life should be thanking bands like Erasure for setting the foundation for today’s hottest musical commodity. Who knew that a momentary trip down the '80s rabbit hole would turn into such a musical history lesson?"

It’s been a while since we’ve been to a show where we felt a little … out of place. We’ve been spending so much time at concerts where clouds of weed smoke, half-dressed women, and drunkards being escorted out are the norm; so the chance to attend Erasure, an iconic English synth-pop duo from the depths of the 80s, sort of seemed like it was coming out of left field.

Scared that we might not fit in with the Boy George look-alikes and middle-aged moms reliving their glory days, we gathered our wits and headed to the Ogden Theater for a night that would be an eye-opening hootenanny at best, or an awkward 80s nightmare at worst. (Spoiler: it was a BLAST.)

After negotiating the tangled, twisted clusterfuck that is street parking on East Colfax (we blame the sold out Alt-J show at the Fillmore for that), we entered the Ogden Theater, where we were greeted by a rotund chap with a much-too-tall pink mohawk and elaborate eye makeup – our first sign that this was at least going to be interesting. During a quick trip to the bathroom – where there were people doing actual bathroom business and not for doing drugs in the stalls – we could hear the first thumps of Erasure’s signature synthesizer and the squeals of women and more than a few men.

Still empty-handed, we grabbed a drink at the bar where we were thoroughly brushed against by a large, sweaty man wearing nothing but the wooly shirt that God gave him – someone’s Bear had gotten loose. At this point, it became abundantly clear that Erasure is quite popular among the LGBTQ community, an astute and obvious observation on our part.

Let’s just say there were plenty of friendly dudes patting other friendly dudes’ butts. Of course, as we are serious reporters who do our research, this wasn’t terribly surprising. Andy Bell, one fierce son of a bitch and Erasure’s loud and proud front man, is somewhat of a gay icon these days. Donning a huge sparkly top hat and a outrageous pair of nut-hugging booty shorts, Bell was electrifying as he sang with everything he had while his partner in crime, keyboardist Vince Clark, kept the synthy beat moving with ninja-like focus.

Old People Can Party Too

Now, by “old people” we’re not talking about elderly people, just, you know, older people. We’re talking about a demographic that probably has kids at home, and those kids were probably wondering why their parents were dressed like that as they left the house. As we mentioned before, it felt a little strange to be at a show where there were warning signs that a strobe light would be in use, like that was not a given already.

But after we saw how hard these folks liked to party, we started to feel more at home. Taking comfort in the fact that grown-ass adults could also be escorted from the venue, not being able to walk on their own drunken feet, we started to loosen up as the band cranked through some newer material before moving onto some throwback hits.

After demonstrating to a woman the proper way to sneakily hit a pipe in a public venue (which is not standing alone in an empty corner), we started to feel like tried-and-true Erasureheads (we’re copywriting that shit).

One Fierce Son of a Bitch

Fierce, fabulous, and lots of fucking fun: that’s singer Andy Bell in a nutshell. From the moment he and Vince Clark jumped on stage there was non-stop energy and excitement throughout the building. Though the crowd was relatively subdued during the first hour or so, they pepped up in a major way when Erasure started delving into their older, more well known tunes like “A Little Respect,” and “Chains of Love.”

During the second half of the show, everyone was singing their hearts out along with Bell, and the connection between artist and audience was palpable. Not to mention, both Bell and the rest of the audience were shaking their groove thing like they were still in their twenties. It was Bell’s enthusiasm and obvious passion that won the night though, causing the woman next to us to scream out, “Oohhhhh Yeah, Baby! Briiing iiit!” during a particular sassy dance number.

Paving the way for a new generation

About halfway through the set, it dawned on us that our initial feelings of being out of place were a bit out of line. The flashing lights, the screaming fans, the synthetic repetitive beat; we were watching the grandfather of electronic dance music firsthand.

It’s easy for today’s young adults to think that electronic music is something new, something unique to this day and age, but in reality, like everything else in our reused culture, EDM is just Erasure’s synth-pop, reimagined and reinterpreted by a modern crowd. Anyone who has ever gone to a rave and had the time of their life should be thanking bands like Erasure for setting the foundation for today’s hottest musical commodity. Who knew that a momentary trip down the '80s rabbit hole would turn into such a musical history lesson?

To contact the writer of this article, Joseph LaFond, email : Contact@TheRooster.com (Cover Photo: Instagram user @n8tiveb Body Photo: Instagram user @sherrygahan)