Bimbos - San Francisco, CA
Jack McDonough: Unknown

"The Divine One's grueling 12-show, six night run (Nov. 29 - Dec. 4) at the 600 seat Bimbo's in the North Beach area of San Francisco provided a minor spectacle that had all the colour, zest, chutzpah and showgirlship for which her fans adulate Midler, although there was some question about the musical merit of the proceedings and about just how well Midler's voice is holding up.

In fact, Bette did only a dozen tunes in her 90-minute act, often taking up to 20 minutes between songs to run her hot-to-trot blue comedy routines past the hyped-up, hungry audience.

The audience was up if for no other reason than it was holding what became the hottest ticket in town for weeks before the show.  The easy advance sellouts was extra gravy for promoter Bill Graham's organization, which was doing a rare Bimbos engagement and which was in the midst of an extremely heavy November concert schedule which included six Steve Martin shows, two James Taylor shows and a host of one-nighters with major acts like Chicago, Aerosmith and  Robin Trower in addition to the 12 Midler appearances.  The Graham office issued special Midler t-shirts to commemorate the occasion.  

Backed by a spiffy band and her current Harlettes (Sharon Redd, Charlotte Crossley, Ula Hedwig)  Midler opened with "Empty Bed Blues," which set the properly lascivious tone for the evening, and then stomped and camped in her striped body suit through other funky tunes like "Hurry On Down," "Bang You're Dead," and "Dr. Longjohn," although she did soften things up with tunes like "La Vie En Rose," and the fine Leon Russell classic "Superstar" which came at the penultimate point of the show.  

But it was Midler herself, blessing the crowd with a staccato shower of gags, stories, one-liners  and bedroom innuendo  that took the heat of the spotlight; the songs were almost secondary adjuncts, although she did take care to feature a significant number from her new Atlantic package, "Broken Blossom."

The Harlettes, who might have helped the main portion of the show if they'd been given a little more room to stretch out, had 25 minutes of their own at the onset in which they pleased crowds with renditions of various oldies.