Wannabe

Closing out the night was the long-awaited Wannabe, the popular and aptly-named Spice Girls cover band whose very presence brought the BLK BOX the largest crowd it had seen all night. Everyone who had listened to the Spice Girls came driven by nostalgia, and no one left disappointed. The five ladies had clearly refined their impressions, from the airy between-song banter to the British accents and the group's penchant for striking poses at the end of every song. While I'm admittedly not too familiar with the original group's material, the performance was a lot of fun, the ladies definitely knew what they were doing, and the choreographed dance moves were hilarious. The band's six-piece backing band, affectionately dubbed the Spice Boys, were great musicians, and the two-man brass section added the perfect flourishes. The lyrics were as vapid as ever but with the added fun of everyone being in on the joke, and the set got the crowd engaged in a way that no other performer had done that night. The renditions were spot-on (as far as I could tell), and brought the night to a rousing close.