As I sat down to share a few thoughts from last nights show at the Tanger Center https://www.tangercenter.com in Greensboro, North Carolina I decided to give the you a taste of my personal experience with the music and the show last night. So let’s just put on some 1970’s disco music and get in the mood for the story.
DISCO? How could you? Well alright let’s stir in some funk music with a hit song writer from the 1970’s era and I will start the story. I entered the seating area by walking down some steps towards the pit area where I found a seat just behind the pit. It was a quiet walk as only an usher was hanging at the bottom of the steps. I walked into the room and immediately I was surrounded by some 1970’s music soundtrack coming from a very large stack of speaker cabinets that were so black you could barely seem them in the low light. The dB level on my Apple watch said 73 so I was OK without my trusty Etymotic Research earplugs for now. I sat down and started observing the crowd. Well it seems to be majority female and older couples in attendance with a few younger males I thought to myself. For the uninitiated this venue holds about 3,000 people when full and tonight the place was at capacity. The balconies tower up and make the place look larger than it really is. The crowd were all nice people who spoke when you approached them to sit or even walk by as everyone seemed to be in a good mood and ready for a music flashback to a simpler time.
At about 15 minutes to showtime which was 7:30, KC came on the house intercom and told us he was giving $100 in merchandise to a lucky winner who put their name and contact details into a website. I am not sure whether this was for his own use or as a kickback for a mail list but I skipped over the process as I was not up to adding to my already over-flowing spam folder. After the announcement the music went to 83 dB. Ear plug time!
Soon the show started and I will say there was quite a bit of action whether the band was playing or KC was moving. Now I will share a little bit about Harry “KC” Wayne Casey who is the leader of the band and the song-writer with a long list of top songs that dominated the late 1970’s dance clubs and radio air waves. In January 1981, Casey was in a serious car accident where another car hit his vehicle head-on. Now you have to imagine this was when the man was on the top of his game with his string of 1970’s hits. The accident left him partially paralyzed for six months, requiring him to relearn basic skills like walking, dancing, and playing the piano! I will tell you that last night I watched a man who told us from the stage he was 74 years old I would have sworn he was years younger. He never stopped moving. He was dancing with the girls and moving all over the stage. He barely broke a sweat and changed clothes a half-dozen times! As I thought last night watching the two-hour show with no intermission “Old KC got his steps in today!” He stopped early in the show and explained he has a house he visits in Chapel Hill so he feels like a local. He has spent decades living in Miami Lakes, Florida but does visit the area at times. He also travels extensively and plays quite a few shows. KC shows no sign of slowing down.
I loved the horn section as they make the sound. There were a total of three keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, and a very large drum riser.
KC penned the hits “Get Down Tonight“, “That’s the Way (I Like It)“, “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty“, “I’m Your Boogie Man“, “Keep It Comin’ Love“, “Boogie Shoes“, “Please Don’t Go“, and “Give It Up“. I was into Southern Rock and blues mostly during the “Disco” era but if you wanted to meet the girls you had to go to the club and get on the dance floor. I remember going to “2001 VIP” the disco club in Memphis that was one of over two dozen in the United States and clubs in Jackson and Meridian, Mississippi. At the same time I was laughing my way through Jimmy Buffett’s lyrics from his song in 1978 titled “Morris’ Nightmare” “No, No, no disco.”
You know people in the city got nowhere to go
They used to go to bars now they go to discos
No, no, no disco (uh-uh, no)
They never see the sun
They hardly see the moon
They barely see the ground ’til the snow melts in June
I could stroll down memory lane but that is for another time. Back to the show last night. Even though I lived through the time when this music was all new and I know the songs very well I had never had a chance to see KC and the Sunshine Band. When the tickets went on sale I thought “Why not?” It sounds like a fun time to watch the crowd and see what the band has left. While this is not music I spend much time listening to, it is fun to crank it up at a party and act as if you are still young. Hell in my brain I am only 28. I watched as the older crowd raised their hands across a sold-out theater and seemed to all have fun. In the end I was happy I had hearing protection from the bass cabinets and 104 dB sound level just in front of me. KC looks much younger than he is and he did a nice job with his band, dancers, and all his dance moves. He has a nice library of songs that have made him very comfortable in life and he is still happy, working hard, and having fun. So I salute people who don’t sit on the couch and count their money as they age. He put on a nice show last night making 50 year old music sound good in 2025. You keep rocking KC. Play that funky music. See ya’ down the road.