Friday, October 3, 1997

Hart has faded, but his show still works

  Carried to the stage by two female fans, graciously accepted by the star and then displayed, for the rest of the evening, in front of the drums, the message on the hand-painted piece of paper was disarmingly simple and brilliantly obvious: Corey Hart Never Surrenders.

And really, that just about summed it up.

You can say a lot of negative things about Hart: He's a pretentious, pouty poser; his music is maudlin; his songs are sappy; he's aimlessly, hopelessly romantic.

These are all arguable points. But Thursday night, during an astonishing show that recreated the intimate atmosphere of a small club, Hart and his five-piece band proved, once again, that pop music possesses an undeniably transcendent power.

Hart's career has clearly faded. When he played at London Gardens in 1985, he attracted a sold-out crowd of 5,600 fans. Thursday night, there were only about 400 spectators filling the 1,600 or so seats at Centennial Hall.

HEIGHTS ALREADY HIT

And though his latest, self-titled album has spawned the radio-friendly hit single Black Cloud Rain, Hart's recording career has never hit the heights it touched back in the '80s, when he sold more than 10 million albums with a string of hits that included Sunglasses at Night, Never Surrender and Everything in My Heart.

He's retained his boyish good looks, but Hart isn't exactly the heart throb he once was. He's now a 35-year-old father expecting his second child in December.

And unlike the concert at London Gardens 12 years ago, nobody passed out from heat and exhaustion Thursday night. (More than 100 fans required medical aid that July night.)

Still, something quite remarkable occurred at the empty-looking Centennial Hall.

There were screaming females and waving lighters. There were flowers and signs. There was a Canadian flag.

And there were romantic, big-chord, power-pop rock ballads delivered by a chiseled-face, boyishly good-looking performer pounding his chest, flashing closed-fist salutes and contorting his face with anguished passion.

And you know what? I almost hate to admit it, but it worked.

ENTHUSIASM

For his part, Hart seemed genuinely touched by the wildly enthusiastic response of the tiny crowd. ("For a small bunch, you guys make a lot of noise," he said.)

As promised, he performed a mix of old and new material, including In Your Soul and Eurasian Eyes, and from his new album, Third of June and Someone. He even polished off a spirited rendition of Rod Stewart's classic 1971 hit, Maggie May.

There were several strange moments, too, including a bizarre pre-encore bow which seemed to completely surprise the audience and took place in a weird vacuum of silence.

At one point, Hart told the audience that his mom always taught him to "follow your path."

"I've lived my life that way," said Hart, "and I'm really happy."

Sounds schmaltzy, doesn't it? But when he sang Never Surrender on Thursday night, about 400 rabidly wild fans stood and sang along, word for word, and bounced back the kind of affirming energy that a lot of churches and political parties could only wish they'd inspire.

Think what you want about him (or don't think about him at all), but when a pop star -- even a slightly faded one -- can inspire people not to give up, he deserves whatever credit he can get.

Set List