June  27, 2009 - While the city was remembering the ‘King of Pop’ with parties, and playing Michael Jackson’s music on the radio, perhaps the hottest spot in the city to be in last night was the 9:30 Club where Who’s Bad: The Ultimate Michael Jackson Tribute Band performed to a sold out, standing-room only crowd.

Complete with moon walking, white socks, pelvic thrusts, loafers, black fedora, and white T-shirt, the Who’s Bad band took the audience on an epic journey through Jackson’s musical career, complete with 70’s style costume changes that included an afro wig, platform shoes and flared jeans.

The band performed a myriad of Jackson hits including Remember the Time, A B C, Who’s Bad?, Human Nature, Billie Jean, and Thriller (complete with the graveyard dance) and re-enacted the Beat It video, (with fight sequence) that had one band member jump off stage and into the crowd.

The only thing that could have made the performance even better was if the band performed Dirty Diana, managed to do the anti-gravity, forward-lean move seen in Jackson’s Smooth Criminal video,  and performed P-Y-T, which the crowd demanded as they repeatedly shouted, P-Y-T!, P-Y-T! as the band went to break.

"Each performance is the ultimate party waiting to happen.  Everyone who's seen us ends up 'gloving' it", said the group's founder Vamsi Tadepalli, in an interview.

If the saying 'timing is everything' is true, then Who's Bad: The Ultimate Michael Jackson Tribute Band's time has come.

The Band’s History

Jackson, often imitated by the likes of Usher, Chris Tucker, Alphonso Ribeiro (‘Carlton Banks’ of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air fame), and others, now includes Who’s Bad’s, Joseph Bell, performing as Michael, who began performing six years ago singing regular songs in clubs and bars in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  Other band members include Ray McCall, Kevin Timmons, Stephen Coffman and Hugh Swaso.

The band was recreated as a tribute band to Michael Jackson and has toured the country keeping the music of Michael Jackson in the forefront of fan’s minds.  The band even arranged a tour to help raise money for Michael when he was about to lose his Never Land ranch in 2008.

Friday’s show at the 9:30 Club, scheduled months ago with only one show anticipated, added an 11:00 pm show due to the current event surrounding Jackson’s death and fan interest in remembering their fallen musical icon.

While not completely sounding or looking like Michael Jackson (after all, who could?), the group does make up for it with smooth moves, an amazing six piece band, and a flare for electrifying the crowd into a complete Michael Jackson frenzy.

While singing ‘Man In The Mirror’ and playing a ‘Heal The World’ video, the crowd was reminded of Michael’s humanitarian nature, and crowd members could be seen embracing each other and swaying their arms side-to-side.

Fans React After The Show

“Michael met so much to me.  I remember going into my sister’s room when I was eight years old and stealing her Michael Jackson albums and playing them”, said a twenty-eight year old fan.

“Now that he’s gone, his magnitude precedes everything that he was going through with the whole Wacko Jacko thing.”

When asked where she was when she heard the news of Michael Jacksons’ death she replied, “I just checked into my hotel and saw the news on TMZ, went to take a shower, and five minutes later they said he was already dead, and it was awful, just heartbreaking news.”

I’m a fan of Michael Jackson, but in the last ten years he’s gone sort of weird.  I like Black 80s Michael Jackson, he was pretty cool”, said a US Intelligence employee who wanted to remain anonymous.

“My coworkers and I bought tickets to the concert about a week ago”, said Jenny Cho.  “When we heard of Michael’s death, we were like emailing each other back and forth.”

Concert Photos

Jackson’s Death Impacts Programming

The death of Michael Jackson, who was planning a comeback tour this year, has altered this year’s BET Awards, hosted by Jaime Foxx and scheduled to air this Sunday. Programming will include a tribute to the fallen King of Pop.

Michael Jackson Links