Andrew St. Clair

For those in the audience that came to the Canal Room on Saturday night looking for even a little tongue-in-cheek cattiness between Debbie Gibson and Tiffany referencing their 80’s ‘rivalry’… that wasn’t gonna happen. For those who came to see a catfight on stage… well that’s just stupid. “Sorry to disappoint you guys, but we love each other.” proclaimed Ms. Gibson. And if you were looking for a full blown concert featuring the two 80’s pop icons… well get ready to make a sad face because that wasn’t happening either.

Much to my chagrin, this wasn’t a Tiffany/Debbie Gibson concert. This was a ‘Rubix Kube’ concert with “Special Guests”. Who are Rubix Kube you ask? They’re an 80’s tribute band who perform a “Back To The Eighties Show” every Saturday night at The Canal Room. They are pretty tight musically, they have a dozen costume changes, and overall, they are entertaining… if you have the ridiculous need to hear live 80’s music.

Now, from what I can recall, Debbie Gibson had the writing chops (and subsequently had better songs) but Tiffany had the more powerful voice. To be honest, I couldn’t remember more than two Tiffany songs without looking it up (I remembered at least twice that amount of Gibson songs). So, when Tiffany came out and only sang two songs, (for the late show, she replaced “I Think We’re Alone Now” with Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child of Mine”) I had to wonder if she couldn’t remember her hits either. Okay, not really. Tiffany was a little more engaging to the audience, shaking hands and acknowledging the audience to the left, right, and front of the stage.

Ms. Gibson was more concerned about dance moves and jumping around and pretty much looked forward the entire time as if she had blinders on. And as it turned out, Tiffany still has the better voice, while Ms. Gibson was more fun to watch (which is not to say she didn’t sound good).

It was another 40 minutes before Ms. Gibson and Tiffany would take the stage again for a duet of “Don’t Stop Believin’” which is Rubix Kube’s traditional set ending song. In between the special guest appearances, Rubix Kube played what felt like 100 songs. To reference said Journey song, It goes on and on and on and on. I can take the 1980’s in small bursts, but holy shit this was a little brutal! One dude who couldn’t take it anymore told his girlfriend (who was bumping into me all night) ”I’m bored and sick of waiting. We’re leaving now.” Byeeee!

Anyway, the stage lighting at the Canal Room was nice and bright at times. Especially when the special guests performed. I used the 17-35 f/2.8 at an aperture of 2.8 to 5.6 and an ISO of 1000 to 1600 depending how dim/bright the lights were. Since everyone on stage was dancing around constantly, I really couldn’t use a shutter speed below 1/250 without getting a little blur. Anyway, you can check out the coverage on BrooklynVegan.com (coming soon)