Blue Man Group: Then and Now
How to Be A Megastar Tour 2.1
photos: Marc McLaughlin
January 22, 2008

The original Blue Men live in Morocco. They wore cheap blue clothing that the French traded them which ran when it got wet.  The liked it, and eventually became, "Blue Men."

The American version is from New York and has quite a different story; three guys with day jobs as caterers took to the streets performing short skits that eventually landed them a paid gig to create a full-length show after the New York Times said of their shorts, "deliriously antic blend of music, painting and clowning". 

In 1991, the group created a new show simply called TUBES, which went off-Broadway.  It has become a staple of New York's performing art scene.  Eventually, the show became bigger than life with concurrent shows running in New York and Las Vegas.  They also run seasonals in Boston, Chicago, Orlando, Berlin, Tokyo and in February of 2008, a 6 month run in Stuttgart, Germany.

Blue Man Group released Audio in 1999 on Virgin Records, which received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.  Artists BMG have performed with include:

• DJ Tiësto (Gelredome in Arnhem, Holland, 2007, video)
• Moby and Jill Scott (Grammy Awards, video)
• Ricky Martin (Latin Grammy Awards, 2007, video)
• Koda Kumi (Tokyo, Japan, 2007)
• Tracy Bonham (on tour, video)
• Katherine Jenkins (on tour, video)

Today, Blue Man Group is delivering, How to Be A Megastar Tour 2.1, which rolled through ARCO Arena on January 18, 2008.  For fans who've seen the BMG before, the show was familiar but definitely added some new tricks to their bag.  

Opening the show was San Francisco DJ/VJ (V is for video), Mike Relm - he posted  this mashup video.  Mashup video?  Yeah, he gets the Led out, Peanuts, Bjork, Nu Shooz and The Beatles.

He looks like a square wearing the prototypical Japanese black business suit and thick black frame glasses.  But on the turntables, he's a monster.  So much so that even though the BMG is touted as family friendly, this guy must be making parents nervous as they wonder when Dick and Jane are gonna ask, "Mommy, what's Oh face?"

After a solid 30 minute performance, BMG hit the stage which included up to 7 drummers playing simultaneously and top-notch talent all the way around.  The BMG don't talk, but what they lack in verbal communcation they make up for with a huge show that talks right to you. 

The show is the ultimate metaphysical journey touching on such things as the Internet and technology, loneliness and myth - all though a hyper-sensory and well choreographed performance that features percussion instruments that you haven't seen, unless you've seen BMG. 

This particular tour is pokes fun at contemporary rock-star gimmicks and pulls it off well, even though BMG is a gimmick in it's own category.

The show, as always, was well received and even though they didn't sell out ARCO, they did bring in nearly 8,000 attendees paying between $60 and $100 per ticket which translates to over half a million dollars in tickets alone.  Come to think of it, maybe they should be called the Green Man Group.

Of the countess Youtube™ Videos online, here's one of the best featuring Tracy Bonham...