Oct. 26, 1978 review: Donna Summer in the first concert in the Buffalo Convention Center


 

A night to remember in more ways than one.

Oct. 26, 1978

Mass Confusion in Seating Fails to Cool Summer

         If there’s anything that unites us fine, fine folks of the late ‘70s, it’s disco. For the Donna Summer show Wednesday night, the premiere musical event in the new Buffalo Convention Center, a little bit of everybody showed up.

         They were white and Black, Anglo and Hispanic, young and old, gay and straight, rich and would-be rich, glamorous and aspiring to glamor.

         There was a young man in a black tux with a necklace for a necktie. And there was a blonde woman in a black dress blowing big pink bubblegum bubbles.

         As far as being the perfect disco evening, it couldn’t have been more fraught with mishap. First, there was the rain. Then there was the wind to ruffle the carefully-kept hair. And then there was waiting in line outside the doors on Franklin Street.

         Inside was no better. Saturday night at the Club 747 would have looked like the wide-open spaces compared to this. There were lines and crowds and confusion. Most disoriented were the diagonal aisles, which ran from the stage at the center of the Pearl Street wall to the furthest corners.

         To complicate matters, there were a number of tickets for seats that didn’t exist. The tickets had been printed to match an architect’s seating plans, but this was the first time that all of the chairs actually had been set up and counted.

         This resulted in something a lot like musical chairs, an occasionally bitter diversion that lasted until half an hour after the scheduled start of the show. At that time, a man with a British accent announced:

         “Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for the inconvenience but, as you know, this is the first show in this hall. We would like to start in five minutes. Please take a seat anywhere you can. Donna wants you to be comfortable.”

         Ten minutes later, the lights dimmed. Silhouettes of a small orchestra and three backup singers appeared on a riser behind the gauzy curtain. It lifted with an overture.

         And then there was Donna, gorgeous Donna descending the riser in a multicolored, sparkling coat with tassels on its long, long sleeves. She was singing a Barry Manilow song, “Could This Be the Magic.”

         The magic didn’t take hold right away. The sound was less than optimal – feedback haunted the singer all night – and the crowd of around 8,000 was still ruffled. They catcalled as she started to speak between songs:

         “This evening is the opening of your new hall …”

         “It’s all ….. up,” said a voice from the crowd.

         “You don’t like it?” she asked.

         “Noooo,” said several hundred voices.

         “Hey,” she bounced back, “it’s the first time and there’s always gonna be something wrong the first time. But tell you what – if you try me tonight, I know you’re going to make it.”

         “Yessss,” said several hundred other voices as she used that line to launch into “Try Me Just One Time.”

         Summer changed outfits often, adding and subtracting skirts, coats, sweaters, pom poms and hats as she ran through the decades in her “I Remember Yesterday” medley.

         After an intermission, she reappeared in a white party dress, a white orchid in her hair. The occasion: The “Once Upon a Time” fantasy medley, which exercised her acting and pantomime talents.

         A veteran of “Hair” and other musical productions in Europe, she flitted from focus to focus, from pose to pose, striking an attitude, then breaking. In a roomful of people practiced in eye-contact maneuvers, she was the champ.

         She also traded bawdy wisecracks with her backup singers – family jokes, since they’re her three sisters – as she told of praying to the Lord to make her well-endowed. And she steamed up “Love to Love You Baby” with her patented passionate delivery.

         After that song segued into the mechanized rush of “I Feel Love,” Summer embarked on the longest of goodbyes, with thanks to the crowd, the band, the lighting crew and a few others. This farewell stretched 15 minutes.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Donna Summer on "The Midnight Special" TV show in 1978.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: In a phone interview for a feature story I wrote for the previous Sunday’s paper, Donna Summer talked about how success had made her life crazy. Her most recent album, "Live and More," went platinum in four weeks, she noted.

"What it's done for me is multiply my amount of work," she added. "At some point there's got to be a let-up. It's been hectic."

By this point, she was the Queen of Disco. She had returned to the U.S. in 1976 after years in Europe, where she had toured with a German production of "Hair" and met disco producer Giorgio Moroder, who made her an international star.

Her star was still on the rise in 1978. "Live and More" was the first of three consecutive double albums that went to the top of the Billboard album charts. In all, she charted 14 Top Ten singles, with four Number Ones. Even after the hits stopped in the late 1990s, she continued to be a dance club favorite. The year after her death in 2012, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Setlist.fm has a full list of songs from this date in the Buffalo Convention Center. Oddly, it doesn't include her version of "MacArthur Park," which was her hit at the moment.

Once Upon a Time

Could It Be Magic

Try Me I Know We Can Make It

Only One Man

I Remember Yesterday

The Way We Were (Barbra Streisand cover)

(Unknown Barbra Streisand cover)

Loves Unkind

My Man Melody (probably medley)

If You Got it, Flaunt It

Mimi's Song

Once Upon a Time

Fairy Tale High

Faster and Faster

A Man Like You

I Love You

Winter Melody (probably medley)

Spring Affair

Love to Love You Baby

(encore)

I Feel Love

Last Dance

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