“You can never win or lose If you don't run the race…” -Psychedelic Furs

April 25, 2019

 

“You can never win or lose
If you don't run the race…”

-Psychedelic Furs

The Psychedelic Furs are one of my favorite bands ever, I have quietly over the years been to about twenty of their live shows, dating back to the mid-eighties when I saw them numerous times during what was the peak of their career. In recent years, the band has toured pretty much non-stop and I have seen then perhaps six or seven times in the past decade. It used to be that I would have to travel to Ft. Lauderdale to catch them at the Culture Room, where they seem to play every tour. 

 

Since the opening of the Key West Theater, the band has added Key West as a stop on their tour itinerary and they returned once again this year. I of course, had purchased my usual table 4 at the Theater for that front row experience and was thrilled to once again have the band back in my hometown. 

The evening prior to the Furs show at the Theater, Kathy and I were out at MaryEllen’s Bar for their weekly fundraising event, the Vibrator Races. This week the beneficiary of the event was a charity that Kathy has been volunteering for during the past few years, Little Pink Houses of Hope.  The charity provides week-long retreats for the families of those dealing with breast cancer and many of these families take their retreat week here in Key West.

The vibrator races are a crazy and fun way of raising funds and have in the past year and a half raised well over $100,000 for various charities. Patrons place bets on which of the multiple and varied vibrators will win each of six races held over the course of the evening with the winning better receiving half of the total money raised each race and the other half going to the charity.

Kathy and I are thankful to a number of our friends who choose to come out and support the cause and bet on their favorite vibrator. The charity raised over $1000 in a couple of hours in what was a successful and fun evening of racing. The races are held each week in support of a different charity and are well worth checking out for what is a unique, fun and silly Key West experience.

Kathy was scheduled to work for Little Pink Houses the next evening as well at the Full Moon Party which unfortunately was rained out. The bad news was that I had already given her Furs ticket away, the good news is that she was able to join us pre-show with our friends the Fords at Misohappy for some yummy sushi. I had invited our friends Greta, Caitlin and Cale to go to the show and even though we got caught in a drenching rain, we still made it to our seats before the band went on.

Cale and Effie

The show was yet another excellent performance by the Furs, marred somewhat by truly terrible sound quality, especially on the lead vocals of singer Richard Butler, which is perhaps the most important part of the Furs sound. It improved somewhat as the show went on, but not enough to matter that much. It was a real shame that you could barely hear his vocals for much of the show.

Still it was a great evening and it is always fun to introduce people unfamiliar with a band to them, thankfully all my guests seemed to enjoy the show. Hopefully the band will be back in Key West for their next tour as well. I know they are doing a major summer tour this year with the band James that would be worth checking out if it should visit your hometown.

https://www.littlepink.org/

http://thepsychedelicfurs.com/