Bee Gees Gold tribute brings back disco fever

THE TRIO delivered a surreal, once-in-a-lifetime experience. iRocktography:music photojournalism/ Stephen Lavoie

For one night, the crowd at Midas Hotel and Casino on Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City, was transported back to the 1970s.

In a show dubbed “the ultimate salute to one of the world’s biggest musical acts,” Bee Gees Gold delivered to the audience what it had promised—the experience of seeing “the Brothers Gibb” in their prime perform live.

Midas Tent was transformed for a couple of hours into a disco hall from decades past, glowing with neon lights and reverberating with music that defined an era.

As soon as the group emerged on stage, the crowd was immediately mesmerized: This was the Bee Gees, all right. From their looks to the vocals and unmistakable falsetto, the men got the details down pat. It felt like watching the real thing.

Except, of course, some—or even most, if not all—of the members of the crowd have probably not seen the Bee Gees live, which is why the show has perhaps given the audience such a surreal, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The Las Vegas-based tribute group includes John Acosta, who performs as Barry Gibb; Taylor Sinquefield as Robin, and Jeff Celentano as Maurice.

Music fans would probably be aware of Acosta’s earlier work. He was part of the duo Acosta/Russell which popularized the songs “Don’t Fade Away” and “Deep in My Soul” in the 1990s.

Three-city tour

In a Facebook post shortly after their successful three-city concert tour in the country, Acosta posted a photo of the album cover of his old hit, saying he was “feeling nostalgic after the tour. I [was] 22 years old and it [was] my second hit in the Philippines.”

Nostalgia was indeed the order of the night as Acosta and his group performed one Bee Gees hit after another, opening with “Night Fever” and getting the crowd in the mood right away.

Expectedly, the audience was composed mostly of the not-so-young. It was, however, surprising to note that several youngsters were also spotted in the crowd, enjoying the music they and their parents grew up with.

The group performed “Jive Talkin’,” “I Started a Joke,” “Massachusetts,” “To Love Somebody” and “Islands in the Stream,” with “Barry” and “Robin” alternating as lead vocals.

“This is for the younger Bee Gees fans!” Acosta said, segueing to later hits “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” and “Nights on Broadway.”

Showcasing the Bee Gees’ vocal harmony, the group then did a medley of “New York Mining Disaster 1941,” “Too Much Heaven,” “Guilty” and “Our Love (Don’t Throw It All Away)” and ended their first set with “Lonely Days.”

The second set proved to be an even bigger hit to the audience as Bee Gees Gold returned to the stage wearing “Saturday Night Fever’s” iconic crisp white suits to perform the brothers’ biggest disco records.

Revving up the crowd was “More Than a Woman,” which began the spate of hand-waving and, later, jolly dancing from the more senior members of the audience. This was followed by “Grease,” “I Just Want to Be Your Everything” and “Shadow Dancing.”

“Let’s have a little emotion here,” Acosta said before humming the high notes to “Emotion,” following it with their “favorite Bee Gees song,” “Fanny (Be Tender With My Love),” and then telling the audience an important message via “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You”—“Hold on.”

By the time they got to “How Deep Is Your Love,” the group asked the audience to hold the hands of those beside them, eliciting smiles from the (by then) lovestruck crowd.

Energetic

Bee Gees Gold then brought the fever back with an energetic performance of “Staying Alive” and “You Should Be Dancing,” which had the audience movin’ and groovin’. A sight for sore eyes, members of the crowd well into their ‘70s shimmied even with their walking canes in tow.

As the group took a bow and said their farewells, the crowd chanted for more, so Bee Gees Gold came back with “Tragedy,” firing up the stage with the hope and promise to be back next year if the audience wanted them to.

Turns out that Filipinos still have the fever that will make Bee Gees Gold stay alive for a long time.