Remember in Animal House when John Belushi was coming down the stairs and some

would be college folkie was playing the guitar and singing “I gave my love a cherry” in

a forlorn voice. Belushi promptly smashed the guitar.

I thought of that a few times recently when we saw opening acts that played one sad, dirge like

meaningful song after another while we were all bored shitless. I looked at Mary and made the

rope hanging motion around my neck. She agreed.

Tempo is so much fun.

Which brings me to seeing the 78 year old Diana Ross in Vegas two nights ago absolutely kick ass.

I’m used to by now seeing “old” acts use singers and bands to carry a lot of the heavy load as they work

through their hits and get the hell off stage.

Diana also had a gang of kickass singers and band members but she was not a bystander.

She was filled with energy and tempo. Four costume changes, full diva mode, lashing out at someone filming the whole damn show, noting she hoped a woman who fell rushing the stage was ok, and signing

autographs and laughing, she was a hoot.

The music was great, the band and singers first rate, from Motown hits all the way to the end.

And when she did rarely slow things down, she earned it.

And, when she noted the past two years of pandemic left her bored and she wrote an album, you ordinarily would inwardly grown and head to the pisser.

Instead she laughed, said she would do a few snippets, and then kicked ass again with a handful of uptempo snippets that had the audience dancing to songs they had never heard before.

Very, very smart.

The next time I see an opening act begin the slow crawl through serious songs, I can call up Miss Ross in my mind and start belting out the fast moving guitar interlude from Questions by the Moody Blues to shake us out of

our stupor.