Then there was the second night, October 30th. If the first show was a party of immense proportions, the second hit us with the energy of a supernova. The house was more packed than the first, more people were dressed in their most outrageous Hulaween gear, and SCI barred no holds behind impressive live, video and light shows that acted as eye entertainment through the rejoicing.
Set one felt rather typical, but the music was SCI at its finest. Highlights included “Come As You Are,” “Turn This Around” > Pink Floyd’s “Breathe” > “Turn This Around,” and the dance-inducing “Rivertrance.” I was waiting for some lengthier covers to appear in their entirety, but set one finished and left me wondering when the expected Hulaween tributes were coming.
The second set was packed tight with covers that stemmed from disparate sources. The entire SCI crew emerged from back stage, appearing as a bunch of characters that one might expect to see rolling in on a pack of Harley’s from Mars. Nodding, again, to the venue’s otherworldly alias, Michael Kang let us know that SCI was going to take us on a “journey through space,” and so they did. REM’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” bookended the set, and what was found inside was a delight. The classics of the playlist included Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like an Eagle” and King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man.” The Crimson cover was a personal favorite of the entire event. I mentioned earlier that “Best Feeling” was played on the first night as a hint of what was to come, as did he indeed appear, decked all in green, in a get up that he described as Saturn Claus, as he guided us through Parliament’s “Mothership Connection” and Deee-Lite’s “Groove is in the Heart.” Williams was joined by Liza Oxnard, an SCI guest from time to time, who also lent her crisp pipes for The B-52’s “Planet Claire.”
I can attest that by set three of night two, my legs and feet were telling me to get off of that concrete floor and take a seat somewhere, but sheer willpower pushed my pods through the final set. As the sets began to blur into the memory of a single wonderful experience, SCI brought us back home by playing “Piece of Mine,” “Bumpin’ Reel,” and an enchanted “Drums” > “Desert Dawn.” Then, seemingly as quickly as they appeared at my backdoor, they disappeared.
I was left wondering if they were ever really here, but my memories and physical evidence tell me that they were. Maybe you needed to be there to believe certain aspects of the meeting, but there were enough witnesses to help reassure me that The Mothership visited, took us on a trip, and returned us home safely.
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