Susan Knox Wilson
It’s been some 25 years since glam-metal twin brothers Gunnar and Matthew Nelson rocketed to fame, blond manes flowing behind them, with their number one hit Can’t Live Without Your Love and Affection. You remember those days? Well, maybe your kids do. The Nelson boys’ story was akin to those of most successful bands of that genre in the early 90s—fast fame and even faster decline as pop-metal fell out of favor.
Fortunately for Gunnar and Matthew, they had more than blond, blue-eyed good looks; they can actually sing! So their recent Christmas with the Nelsons show at the Renaissance Theater seemed like it might be a rocking good show with a few holiday songs thrown in, but was actually something a bit different. Fun, enjoyable, memorable, but definitely different. Their part-music, part-scripted, part-video show centered around three holidays: one with grandparents Ozzie and Harriet, one with dad Rick Nelson and one with their kids.
The show starts on the big screens on the left and right of the stage with a Christmas episode of the Ozzie and Harriet TV show—one of the extraordinary 435 episodes which aired between 1952 and 1966. (Ozzie and Harriet was, incidentally, the longest running comedy series in American television history until it was surpassed by The Simpsons in 2004 and more recently, I believe, by It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.) And we see the entire episode – all 23 or so minutes, while Gunnar and Matthew watch, too. Very post-modern; all the Nelsons dealing with the Nelsons through the medium that created them. Felt something like being in an art installation at the Museum of Modern Art.
But then the brothers did sing – and sing they can. And between singing, showed pictures of their family and told stories of growing up Nelson, like the time they got matching Schwinns in the era before bike helmets – which may explain a lot. And they showed pictures of their families which sort of prove that, yes, you do turn out to be just like your parents and grandparents after all.
The show ended on another interesting note. The Nelson Brothers have teamed up with the Wilson Sisters (Carnie and Wendy – daughters of Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson) for a sibling duet on a new hit song This Christmas. And even though This Christmas is climbing on the Billboard charts (the boys tell us) and even though the boys were here on stage, we all watched a video of the boys (and the girls) singing their new hit single—while the boys watched, too. Then the lights went down and we all sang Silent Night (Ozzie’s favorite Christmas carol) while the bouncing ball moved over the words to the song displayed on the large screens on either side of the stage.
So there it is, as advertised: “Christmas with the Nelsons delivered Christmas classics the Nelson Family way.” Very post-modern. Or was it post post-modern?
Either way, it was quite entertaining; you just had to be there!