Seven years ago, Corey Feldman graced the stage of Southport Hall with his Angel Band in tow. The house was sold out, and his fans cheered for him the entire time. That was 2017. Think about all that has occurred in that time. President Obama left office, and Donald Trump took up the position. The world experienced a pandemic of unprecedented proportions. Demonstrations and protests were held for civil and human rights. It seems like just 7 years ago was a more innocent and naive time.
Corey Feldman's triumphant and anticipated return to Southport Hall seemed to hold more weight; we were all wanting to feel some heart-warming nostalgia for simpler times. I'm not just referring to 2017, but to the 1980s and 1990s when Corey reigned supreme in pop culture. "I always think it's important to make a connection with the audience. That's really the concept of this whole tour, that's what it's all about. The whole concept is spreading love, spreading positive energy, and making it reciprocal," said Corey when I talked to him after the exhilarating show. "Not only is it a multimedia experience, it's also like a virtual reality, in-your-face, bring the audience in, choose your own adventure thing. It's a walk down memory lane. It has a nostalgic element of reliving your childhood, reliving your past, all the things you grew up on, all the things you know and love from your childhood."
Indeed, the nostalgic factor was felt throughout the venue before Corey even took the stage. There was a costume contest held in order to meet Corey after the show. One lucky fan who dressed up like Teddy Duchamp from Corey's role in Stand By Me won the contest. Corey and his band came out to immense cheers and launched into "Comeback King." Corey would don outfits reminiscent of his characters as clips from his most popular films would begin to play. The band performed popular songs like "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough," from Goonies, "Stand By Me," from the film of the same name, and, my favorite, "Cry Little Sister" from The Lost Boys.
It was interesting to see that Corey would have other members of the band take the vocals for some songs to give them a moment to shine. "The spotlight features show off all the different people's talent, and each person interacts with the audience. We talk you through this whole thing for two hours. It's almost like being in your living room with a lot of cool lights and sounds and production value."
One thing I didn't realize before this show was how involved Corey Feldman has been in music his whole life. If not for music, we might never know Corey. He said, "I've been singing my whole life since I was a little kid. I started my career not by acting, but by singing. People don't realize this. When I was three, you can't memorize lines or words or read a script. That's quite the conundrum; how do you get a three-year-old kid to get a job if they can't read dialogue? My mom was smart enough to figure out, 'Hey, let's get him to memorize music because he loves singing, he loves music.' She would stick me in a room with a record player for three hours and say learn this song backwards and forwards, don't come out until you've got it memorized. And I would come out and sing the song, and that's how I would get auditions. I would go to auditions and I would sing a song and they would fall in love with me."
Young Corey knew that he couldn't make a career out of lip-syncing and singing other people's songs, so he taught himself how to write music based on how another popular artist did it. "Around 11 years old, I started writing haphazardly by listening to a lot of Weird Al Yankovic. Weird Al was funny as hell. I would listen to Weird Al, and I thought it was fascinating how he would get away with this. How do all these artists allow him to make fun of their music? It's kind of a compliment, but it's kind of not. So that's number one, number two, how do you get somebody like Weird Al to become Weird Al; he's got to be able to write really well even if he's not writing originals, he's writing songs that sound exactly the same. What amount of words does he use? I really started to dissect it."
After meticulous research, Corey figured out how to write a hit song based on how Michael Jackson, The Beatles, and Weird Al did it. "I wrote my first song at 12 years old called 'Runaway.' I recorded it at 14. That's actually been released for the first time ever as part of my box set. I even shot a video for it which I directed and choreographed, never released. It was supposed to be a long-format 15 minute video, but never got put out. But I finally took the bit of footage that I had which was just the music part of it, just the choreography, and I released it as part of my box set which is now available. So you can hear the very first song I recorded and the first video I shot, directed, and choreographed at 14 years old. And it was while I was working on Lost Boys."
As the show thrilled the crowd though songs including "Rock On," "Dare Dreamer," and "Vampire Girl," it was clear to see that Corey and his group were truly giving their all to the fans, and the fans were giving it all back. People clamored to be at the edge of the stage so Corey would touch their hand. I did too. And that's what this show, this whole tour, and Corey's daily life is all about. He deliberately puts a positive message in each of his songs, even if it is buried under darker themes.
Corey said, "I give them love, they give me love. It's a big exchange of love. It's so needed these days. The world's become such a dark place, and we need something to look forward to, we need something to elevate us and bring us closer to that spiritual connection which we all need and have within ourselves. We're all connected anyway, we just have to remember it. We're so detuned and so deprogrammed and sensationalized to believe in different classes. It's all a bunch of hogwash. At the end of the day we're all humans, we all have the same light inside of us, we all have the same blood. All over the world, we're the same, and people just have to understand that. And we're all connected and at the end of the day, the sooner we realize how we can all benefit from each other by being gracious, by being giving and loving one another openly instead of trying to judge all the time and be selfish and keep things to ourselves… The more we give, the more we love, the better we are to others, the more we can expect to receive. It's a pretty simple concept, but so many people get caught up in the idea of selfishness. That's why the song 'It's So Simple' is about: the fact that the world can be a better place if we just took a minute to try."
