August 25 2015 – Once upon a time Disco was the great enemy. Rockers of the world would unite in their distaste for the simplistic packaged crap that was a threat to our great guitar heroes. There were Disco demolition and burning events and “Disco Sucks” T-Shirts were common in most high schools across the continent.
The Canadian National Exhibition (or CNE for short, or the Ex for shorter) features great concerts throughout the 18 day festival at the Bandshell. Various genres and age demographics are represented and tonight the artist was “Boogie Wonder Band“. What the fun cover band provided was a reminder that Disco does not really suck and that dancing to those sounds is still joyful 30 plus years after its death. One of the big complaints us rockers would use back in the day is that Disco musicians had no talent and could never play real instruments and again Boogie Wonder Band reminded us of our misguided notions back then. Boogie Wonder Band CNE 2015 made us want to get the bell bottoms out and go to funky town.
The band consists of very colorful characters with the names of Isaac “The Jam” Washington, Stardust, Luke Andersen, Eddie Toussaint, Jack Wrangler, Foxy B Bellucci, Boogie Cindy, Marky de Sax, Spank Williams, and Pistol Pete. The bio on their CNE appearance page reads “more than 19 years, 400 cities and 2000 shows later, they’ve shared the stage with Kool and the Gang and the late Rick James, and brought the sights, sounds and sheer entertainment of classic disco to millions of people!“
Without a doubt the audience loved this high energy show and the front of stage was full of dancing people of all ages. The songs were a collection of disco and funk from the era including Abba, The Bee Gees, and even KISS (yes they had a disco type song with I Was Made For Loving You”). The show was a high energy spectacle with funky disco outfits and groovy moves. This was a wonderful way to spend the evening.
Great fun and great times by all.
