Concert marred by poor sound
Source: kentuckyconnect
By Walter Tunis
CONTRIBUTING MUSIC CRITIC
``Here they come to save the daaaaay!'' No, it wasn't Mighty Mouse and friends, but modern pop's most apt equivalent the Backstreet Boys.
As the lights faded last night at Rupp Arena, a huge circular screen showed our poor Earth being belted by just about every chunk of astro-garbage in the cosmos. Every time the planet was struck, an explosion erupted onstage.
That's when our heroes came calling.
In what was, literally, an uplifting stage entrance, the quintet shot through the stage floor to team up with a nine-member dance team. There, they partied Armageddon away with two of Backstreet's cheeriest and most fan-friendly anthems, Everyone and the monster 1999 hit Larger Than Life.
Hey, guys Earth was just incinerated. Couldn't you at least sigh? Nope.
Despite the opening pyrotechnics, this 90-minute-plus outing was a looser, more informal and, at times, scrappier presentation than the show that hit Rupp 18 months ago.
It was also a more ballad-heavy performance that quickly uncorked some of the group's most fluffy singles (I Want It That Way, I'll Never Break Your Heart) while saving the more radio-conscious music from its recent Black & Blue album (Time and Kentuckian Kevin Richardson's eco-friendly ode The Answer to Our Life) for later in the show.
One couldn't ignore the numbers game here.
In contrast to its 1999 Thanksgiving weekend stand at Rupp which drew nearly 46,000 fans over two sold-out evenings last night's single-show return brought in a crowd of 13,900.
That's still a strong draw for anyone. But considering ticket prices this time had essentially doubled, the Backstreeters doomed what would have otherwise been an easy sellout.
For more discerning ears, the show was a mess.
The sound, at times, was atrocious. The upper-arena decks seemed to get a somewhat cleaner glimpse of the quintet's trademark harmonies. But to most listening in the lower decks, the group sounded as if it were singing from the bottom of a swimming pool.
The pace was also unexpectedly choppy with pre-recorded film clips that sometimes went on for more than five minutes covering the frequent costume changes.
But for the bulk of the audience, this mattered not a whit.
In fact, when the band emerged at the opposite end of the arena to serenade the back lot from a smaller stage, the crowd was singing and screaming along with every word whether it could understand the tunes through the muddy mix or not.
Before the main act took the stage, Jamaican-born hitmaker Shaggy's 45-minute set was an altogether flatter affair. The sound was just as bad and the performance little more than a pandering, cliche-ridden dance-pop affair that the reggae-style hit It Wasn't Me couldn't even salvage.
Show opener Krystal, newly signed to the Backstreet Boys' production company, boasted a far more earnest sound. From the solo piano update of the Jackson 5's I'll Be There to her own impending dance hit Supergirl, the singer delivered the most immediate and modest set in an evening that otherwise couldn't separate the pop from the pomp.
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