“Corey’s next,” the doorman told me, not even bothering to answer my question about which opening band was on. But truthfully, his set was all I wanted to know about anyway. Fresh from releasing Angelic 2 the Core: Angelic Funkadelic/Angelic Rockadelic, a double album of 22 songs that took 10 years to make, Corey Feldman is back, baby.
In the Feldman doctrine, any attention is good attention, and his hot mess performance of the bizarre brostep fiasco “Go 4 It” on the Today Show back in September (and the tearful apology that followed) launched a thousand internet blood feasts and injected a new sense of vitality into his musical career.
The mostly hard-edged, metal-headed crowd at Studio Seven in Sodo seemed to be divided into two camps: those who genuinely worshiped Corey, like the couple dressed in Corey cosplay who drove to the show all the way from Olympia, and those who were there ironically, like the guy who screamed “Heyyyyy youuuuu guuuuys!” in reference to The Goonies over and over again between sets.
Before his grand entrance, Feldman stoked our fires with an epic promo video introducing himself (just in case we didn’t know, or needed a refresher on who he was), highlighting everything from his various '80s films to his more recent collaborations with Snoop Dogg and Fred Durst (both of whom are featured on the new album).
On stage Feldman was a frantic ball of jittery energy, yet expertly invoked MJ with every gliding, glittering move. (I shudder to think about what those dance lessons at the ranch may have been like.) And then there were the lingerie-clad, halo-wearing angels, Feldman’s backup band. (They don’t have to sleep with him, he swears! But apparently, they do have to sign a contract agreeing to move into his house and watch their weight.) One of them, EDM DJ Angel Courtney Anne, also “happens to be” Feldman’s “new wife,” it says on the press release (!).
Feldman seemed bent on proving the musical prowess of his angels, giving them each a turn in the spotlight as he ducked behind stage to hit a vape and do another costume change (of which there were no fewer than seven, including a pair of black sequin pants, blue light-up sneakers, and a long pinstripe suit with a fedora, among others).
Was the music any good? Does it even it matter? We wanted the Corey Feldman spectacle in all of its absurd glory: the smoke machines, the lasers, the iconic leather jacket from Dream a Little Dream, the cover of “Rock On,” the heartfelt tribute to his BFF Corey Haim—everything that conjures up the allure of the lostest living lost boy.
The sheer amount of people taking cell phone videos during the show proved that this was a made-for-social-media event. Even Feldman at one point whipped out his phone and took some vids, apologizing for being hit with a “surprise Facebook attack.”
Feldman himself seems so guileless, so consistently earnest, that if he knows how surreal it is for us to watch an '80s-era child movie star dancing around wearing a red MJ-style military jacket while a video of MJ dancing in a red military jacket plays in the background, then he certainly doesn’t show it. In fact, it’s hard to believe any part of this weird, shambolic act could actually be a calculated effort. But guessing whether it is or isn’t is all part of the fun, I suppose.
Nearly two hours later, as Feldman was still in the final throws of his performance, most of the audience had cleared out. They were happy with their cell phone pics, but not willing to wait it out for the final stretch. Nevertheless, what was left of the cult of Corey continued to clamor for their encore. And of course, Feldman made them wait until their chants reached fever pitch before he came back on stage to do one last song.
And of course, it was “Go 4 It.”
