Culture Club Relives Its Best ‘80s Moments

“Tonight we’re taking a nostalgia trip,” announced Boy George during Culture Club’s Universal Amphitheatre concert on Wednesday. “We’re going back to the time when Joan Collins ruled the world!”

Indeed, the show--the first of two nights at Universal--was all about glittery torch songs and fabulous accessories, as the gender-bending vocalist and his original bandmates blissfully revisited some of the brighter moments in ‘80s pop. Fifteen years ago, Culture Club’s silky, kitchen-sink blend of rock, reggae, funk and soul earned it a best new artist Grammy. This week, the music proved almost as much fun the second time around.

Commanding all eyes in his sequined black jacket, elaborate lace headdress and trademark geisha-style makeup, Boy George, 37, sang all six of the group’s Top 10 hits, plus a new ballad, “I Just Wanna Be Loved,” and his 1992 single “The Crying Game.” Though buoyant between songs, he crooned such numbers as “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” with the same gentle, sad soulfulness that made them so resonant in their time.

Culture Club’s songs were about love, not politics, but the band’s image blended pop and social issues, bolstered by the openly gay Boy George, in a way that gave seeming trifles such as “Church of the Poison Mind” a revolutionary spark. If that spark now was missing, the group made up for it with an equally unabashed enthusiasm for giving the audience what it wanted.

Opening act Berlin also obliged the crowd’s nostalgic mood with such ‘80s hits as “The Metro” and “Take My Breath Away.” Though singer Terri Nunn belted more authoritatively than ever, the music’s cheesy electronic edge sounded dated. Still, the band proved adaptable with a new ballad, “I Can Love,” which substituted a bluesy, almost trip-hop rhythm for the outdated synth-beat of the older material.