Eight years after his passing, the King of Pop has returned–sort of.
On Oct. 27, students and surrounding residents piled into GPAC to witness “Who’s Bad: A Michael Jackson Experience.”
The concert, which started at 8 p.m., featured hits from the pop icon like “Jam,” “Thriller” and “Black and White.”
Music played as people arrived. Young and old people were donned in some of Jackson’s famous outfits, white sparkly glove included.
The crowd came to a roar as an opening video montage was played, introducing the performance.
Nearing the end of the video, the performer, James Times III, walked out with Jackson’s signature curly hair and black penny loafers.
Not only did he look like the pop king, but his dancing and singing were also spot on.
More than half of the audience was singing along to top hits like “Billie Jean.”
During the set, Times often encouraged audience participation, and during “The Way You Make Me Feel,” he encouraged those who were celebrating a birthday or those who wanted dance with him, to come up to the stage, and then the event became weird.
Almost half of the audience herded onto the stage.
Some had strangers crawling over their lap to get to the stage.
Thankfully, concert goers calmly went back to their seats after the song was finished.
Once the songs were all sung, a tribute video to Michael Jackson played. It seemed that the concert was over, but the weirdness started again…
Barely anyone in the audience moved. It was like they were stuck in time.
It may have been because they believed the concert was not over, or it might have been because they did not want it to be over.
Either way, with everyone still in their places, the “Who’s Bad” team came back out and played “Black or White” before ending the show.
Times and some of his band members stayed after to take pictures with fans.
“He was way better than I expected, much better than any impersonator I’ve ever seen. Everything from his mannerisms, singing, way of speech, dancing, it was all spot on,” Samone Barmore, a senior and Michael Jackson super-fan, said while waiting to take a picture with Times after the concert.
Times never expected so many people to show up in Pembroke.
A representative from GPAC estimated that upwards of 850 people showed up for the concert.
After Pembroke, Times said that they had just performed in Baltimore the night before– a busy tour. The following night, Who’s Bad performed in Mississippi.
Overall, this writer gives the concert two thumbs up, and if I had more thumbs, I would put them up, too.
Times fully immerses himself in the role of Michael Jackson to the point that he even has Jackson’s signature breathy whisper when he talks.
Also, you don’t have to be a Michael Jackson fan to enjoy the concert, but I can’t promise you won’t turn into one afterwards.
If you missed this show, you can look on their website: http://www.whosbadmusic.com for more information along with upcoming tour dates.
#GPAC #Music #WhosBad #Theater #Homecoming