MANCHESTER, NH – Michael Jackson’s Thriller album recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of its release; it was the first DVD I ever purchased from Caldor’s Department Store (so long audio tapes — and Caldor’s!) The album spent a record 37 non-consecutive weeks at number one and is considered the best-selling album of all time.
So, it’s no wonder that the Palace Theatre saw nearly two sell-out shows Saturday when Who’s Bad, The Ultimate Michael Jackson Experience moonwalked into town.
From Gen Z kids dressed as the “gloved one” (“I know Michael Jackson from listening to him from my grandma’s”) to Baby Boomers who grew up with MJ’s music as a background to their lives (starting, of course, with the Jackson Five), and Millennials who listened to their parents’ music growing up (remember when parents had to drive you everywhere?!), they all were die-hard fans there to have fun. For one 80-year-old fan, this was she and her son’s second Who’s Bad concert.
Yes, for so many attendees, this wasn’t their first Who’s Bad concert. With the unanticipated break for Covid, fans were attending their second or third time: cheering the moonwalking, applauding the exhilarating dance routines, and singing along with basically every song.
And while all that was going on on-stage, multi-media displayed the real thing in the background: Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, photos of MJ through the years (Yes, I admit I was looking for the different look in his nose after nasal surgery).
In fact, the “Thriller” music video, which premiered on MTV on December 2, 1983.[73] (In the video, Jackson and his girlfriend are confronted by zombies while walking home from a movie theater; Jackson becomes a zombie and performs a dance routine with a horde of the undead. (Who didn’t try to learn that dance!) It was named the greatest video of all time by MTV in 1999 and by VH1 and Time in 2001. In 2009, it became the first music video to be selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. The Library described it as “the most famous music video of all time”.
For everyone of any age who attended either of Saturday’s concerts, it was a great time. I, myself couldn’t get the song “Beat It” out of my head.
