The avant garde rock spectacle played the first of two nights at DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids with ardent fans ‘moving, laughing and reacting’ to the Blue Man Group’s colorful hijinks.
Warm Greeting for Blue Mania: Blue Man Group at DeVos Performance Hall on Tuesday. (Photo/Katy Batdorff)
Blue Man Group, founded in 1991 in New York City, is one of those hard-to-define entertainment/arts/musical entities that invariably inspires writers to lean heavily on Mad-Lib-esque equations of nouns and verbs.
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Say, for instance: “It’s avant garde rock spectacle meets warehouse rave, joining up with Rocky Horror Picture Show on a field trip to Epcot Center with a pit stop at a Flaming Lips concert and a tour of Nickelodeon television studios with a guest appearance by the battlefield drummers from ‘Mad Max: Fury Road.’ And plenty of Molly coursing through its veins.”
Drumming Up Fun: Blue Man Group on stage Tuesday. (Photo/Katy Batdorff)
That is to say there is a lot happening.
And much of it is weird. Weird by design, but strange nonetheless. Loud, colorful, messy, celebratory, immersive, creative and bizarre.
A participatory audience warmly greeted the touring act Tuesday night at DeVos Performance Hall. The 95-minute, single-set show was a bonus late addition to the 2015-2016 Broadway Grand Rapids lineup.
Though not part of the local arts organization’s regular season, each of the two shows (Blue Man Group performs again Wednesday night) has enjoyed brisk ticket sales with nearly full houses.
In that spirit, many in the crowd seemed well-versed in the Blue Man vernacular and ecosystem, moving, laughing and reacting in time to both direct and indirect prompts. Likely a good portion in attendance were among the millions of people who’ve already seen one version or another of the Blue Man Group in its several decades of world tours and residencies in cities such as New York and Chicago.
Backed by a four-man band positioned on risers and bedecked in glowing paint, the troupe moved through roughly a dozen vignettes, some stronger than others.
A riff on Apple technology lagged but was followed shortly by a two-dimensional meets three-dimensional concept that introduced some of the coolest set pieces and costumes you’re likely to find outside of an Of Montreal stage show.
Blue Man Group performs again at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids. Tickets are $35-$70, available online here.
PHOTO GALLERY: Blue Man Group photos by Katy Batdorff
