Red Leather Pants

I have always thought Smokey Robinson has the voice of an angel so when I heard that he was playing one of my favorite venues, the Hollywood Bowl, with one of my favorite artists, Lizz Wright, I secured our seats. We try to make it to the iconic Hollywood landmark at least once during the summer and take in it's gorgeous hillside views under the starry, moonlit sky. Like everyone else we bring a picnic basket full of food and wine.

We located our seats and spread out our picnic where we had a perfect sight line of Lizz Wright as she soothed the crowd with some of my favorite songs. My only complaint is that it wasn't long enough but at least Smokey didn't keep us waiting like so many prima donnas do. He has to be methuselah by now but he came out on stage in a shiny black suit adorned on either side by young, sexy go-go dancers. Frankly, they were a cheesy and distracting addition to the performance but I guess a guy has to do what he can to hold onto his youth and reputation as a ladies man. His voice is virtually unchanged from his hayday even bringing me to tears during his heartfelt performance of "Ooo Baby, Baby".

Being the legend he is I would expect nothing else from Smokey than a costume change during the show. Quel surpris, however, when that costume turned out to be RED LEATHER PANTS!!! The only thing worse than go-go sluts accompaniment is a 75 year old dude shuffling across the stage donning red leather pants and a flouncy white blouse, (unless you're Tom Jones of course). An image not to leave my unfortunately vivid mind any time soon. Good thing he can still croon or it surly would have been disastrous.