Stephen Colbert did a mean David Byrne at last year’s ’80s-themed fundraiser for the Montclair Film Festival. With the real David Byrne playing New Jersey next week, who did Colbert cover at this year’s ’70s-themed dance party? Cheap Trick, naturally.
Colbert, dressed in a disco-ready suit with wide-collar shirt, joined cover band par excellence, the Losers Lounge, for a round of “I Want You to Want Me.”
The late-night host recalled how in eighth grade, when the song was recorded, a certain girl wouldn’t talk to him. “But she’ll talk to me tonight,” he told the crowd at the Wellmont Theatre.
“There are about 900 people in this room right now,” he went on. “I need you to make it seem like you’re 14,000 prepubescent Japanese girls.”
Later, Colbert was joined by his Late Show band leader, Jon Batiste, for a duet of Mungo Jerry’s 1970 hit, “In the Summertime,” complete with choreographed pantomiming.
Colbert was unexpectedly upstaged by another Montclair local, actor Patrick Wilson, who absolutely nailed Freddie Mercury. His outfit– a studded leather armband, tank top, and crotch-filled white jeans– was actually from the ’80s-era Live Aid concert, but for the sake of ’70s accuracy, Wilson ripped off his faux porn stache early into Queen’s “Somebody to Love.” Later, he reprised last year’s turn as David Bowie, this time going with the era-appropriate “Young Americans.”
The Montclair Film Festival— whose board president is Stephen Colbert’s wife, Evelyn Colbert– returns for its seventh year on April 26.