Issue date: 9/19/05 Section: Style

Media Credit: andrew gordon BETTE IMPRESSION - Melissa Manchester sings to a white-haired crowd at the MCA on Friday. Manchester´s first visit to UMaine coincided with Family and Friends Weekend.

Melissa Manchester is not a name most people on this campus are likely to know. In fact the only name one might be expected to know is Bette Midler. Even so, and not too surprisingly, it was an excellent show!

A traditional student between the ages of 18 and 26 might feel very young indeed upon entering the concert hall at the Maine Center for the Arts. The Alumni Association sponsored the event. The majority of the audience were from the classes of '60 and '65, as they were on campus this weekend for their class reunions. Instead of a warm-up act, the audience enjoyed some type of oldies preshow radio. It fit the general audience well.

When she came onstage, she was wearing something between a biker outfit and a business suit. It was a very interesting combination that, for some reason, seemed to work. From the first song to last, the set had the feeling of being transported bodily into an old movie. You know, one of those movies where you're in a bar or maybe a party hall and the spotlight is on the singer/ vixen character while she's singing about love in low, sultry tones. It was the kind of experience that sends shivers up your spine for days.

Melissa demonstrated at the show that she was a super fan of her backup band. She mentioned all of them at least once and most of them twice. Peter Hume was the all around guy. He played guitar while singing and directing the band. The rest of the band consisted of: Stephan Oberhoff migrated from keyboard to piano all night, depending on whether Melissa was playing piano, Bruce Lett on bass guitar, and finally John Lewis on the drums.

The best song of the evening was "When Paris Was a Woman," which was inspired by a group of artists, including Hemingway and Picaso, who were in France through World War I and World War II. She adopted a French accent for the song which was the last "official" song of the night.

It was an awesome show If you missed it, you missed out. But, as they say in Paris, c'est la vie.

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