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KISS 106.1 Radio Concert Tacoma Dome, December 5, 2004 by elena felsig
The JBB crowd was extremely diverse in age. Many pre-teens and teens. Many 20s, 30s, and 40s. It looked pretty much like an arena type Clay crowd with perhaps more pre-teens. Several of the acts are big pre-teen girl favorites, like Hilary, Avril, and Jesse McCartney. I'll give a few comments on each performer. Jesse McCartney: He played on an outdoor stage before the concert started as people were filing into the venue. We did not know he would be performing. When my daughter and her friend heard the announcement that he would be playing, they went EEEEEEEEEEEEE! I had no idea who he was. Turns out he is an actor/musician who is starring in the new WB show, Summerland. This was just one case where TV exposure helps a musician/singer get his big break in the music industry. More examples to come later. When Clay is dissed for getting his start on TV, I just think of all these other people. Will Jesse McCartney be dissed for that? Probably not. Anyway, he was a young blonde cutie with many young female fans--pre-teens and younger teens. He sings a soft folk rock style and was not bad. He sang two original songs and the Beatles' Blackbird. Christina Milian: Show opener. I detest her song Dip It Low and was prepared for a scantily clad Britney type doing the hip hop thing. Pleasant surprise! She is much better live than that one song I hate. She wore jeans and a long sleeved shirt, was very cute, and was not overly sexed up. She sang to tracks, like Clay did last year at JBB, and had 3 back-up dancers. No lip synching as might be expected from this sort of music when the lead singer is doing a dance routine. Good for her. She was very sweet and had a nice smile and was at home chatting with the audience and got a good response from them. Much better job opening (a tough spot with not even half the crowd in their seats yet) than last year's Stacie Orrico (a good singer but had little crowd rapport). Back to the TV theme. My daughter told me Christina got her start as a Disney TV anchor kid or something like that. She had a regular gig on Disney reviewing movies and giving the kid's point of view commentary. So again, here is this seasoned TV performer who now is having a good recording career. Just like Jesse. Just like Clay. More examples to come. Switchfoot: They are not my favorite on radio but are OK to listen to, a straightforward rock band that sings songs with a positive outlook. They were great in concert! I like them more now that I have seen them live. This is actually great promotion for a band to perform at one of these big radio concerts since it is a good chance to make new fans. The lead singer was good with significant stage presence. I made two short videos of this band doing Dare You to Move and Meant to Live. Ryan Cabrera: This was the guy my daughter was there to see. He has the hit On the Way Down and was known as Ashlee Simpson's boyfriend on the A.S. Show on MTV. He had great stage presence and was truly a likeable guy. Very nice persona. Thanked his fans several times, as well as KISS for inviting him and playing his song. He had lots of fan signs in the audience, as did Jesse McCartney, Hilary Duff, and others. Signs are just not an American Idol thing. Ryan specifically mentioned he really liked all the signs. His set was very nice. He is a good singer, without Clay's power and range, but he stays on pitch, sings with feeling, and has an unusually well developed falsetto, which he used several times including on his lovely ballad True. I was impressed! Very cute guy with wild hair. (I'd like to see him sometime with his hair combed flat. I bet he would be even cuter.) He plays guitar and ably took over the drum set on one song. He shared with us a new song that he had just written and hopes to include on his new CD. It was good! I was very impressed with this guy and hope he stays around. Real babe magnet; cute smile that provokes lots of screams. Very comfortable on stage. He told the crowd he is really in the Christmas mood and showed his Santa patterned green socks and the top band of his red and green boxers. Screams! I got video of On the Way Down. Again, he is an example of someone TV brought to prominence. He has been around for a while and had CDs before with low sales. But the Ashlee TV connection brought him notice and now he is having great musical success. He deserves it. Good Charlotte: Just twins Joel and Benji were there, doing a more acoustic version of GC tunes, but they rocked nonetheless. Benji was on guitar and back-up vocals, Joel on lead vocals. They were the first of the big headlining groups. Singer Joel was very charismatic with strong stage presence. Benji is kind of the weird sidekick, making strange non-sequitur comments, a couple of questionable taste (this was the closest this family-friendly concert veered into adult territory). Joel, with his trademark smudged black eye make-up, was dressed surprisingly in his Sunday best--black pants, black pullover sweater over black dress shirt with shiny red tie. The black clothes complemented his black hair (and black eye make-up, LOL). He looked nice. Benji was more casual and lacked that usual black make-up tear dripping down his cheek. They were great; I enjoyed them tremendously. Very high energy. All their hits. I got video of two songs, The Anthem and Hold On. If Joel were Clay, he would have given Jerome fits. On their last song, Joel suddenly jumped down into the audience and tried to make his way down the outer aisle to the back of the arena. He was swarmed with fans. Picture major fan attack with artist barely visible at the center of a mob. Makes the Claymates look restrained and polite. Joel kept singing. Security immediately leapt towards him but he continued down the aisle with people grabbing at him or trying to get close. (Later on KISS I heard one woman call in and exclaim ecstatically, "I grabbed Joel's ass!" She was in bliss.) Everyone else on the floor hopped onto their seats for a better view. Security tried frantically to get people off the chairs. Joel finally could go no further so returned to the stage. "I wanna get back to the car," he yelled. There was a white Scion small mini-van up on a platform on display at the back of the arena (Scion was the concert sponsor.) "Are you gonna let me?" The crowd roared. So he plunged into the audience again, this time the center aisle and again he was swarmed. How he got back to the car I'll never know, but he did, and then climbed on top of it and finished the song singing from the stage of the car. The crowd went totally bonkers. He was still on the jumbotrons and I could see his face after he finished the songs. He looked a bit apprehensive. The car was totally surrounded by seething humans. I bet he was thinking, "now, how am I gonna get down?" I did see him squatting down and shaking people's hands and talking with them. He looked like he had a really nice and gentle way with people and it was in contrast to his really dynamic, edgy performances of GC's punk-styled songs. Sidebar: after the concert I was talking to my daughter about Joel and Benji and the wild eye make-up they wear. She said well lots of bands wear that. I told her I remembered the VJ from TRL commenting on how it was strange to stand there with J&B, interviewing them, and look at all that eye make-up. What VJ? she asked. You know, that white guy, I said. You mean Damien? Yes, I said. Oh, Damien, she said, he's such a feminine little man. It's not like he's never worn eye make-up before. LOL. Simple Plan: I've seen them before. They are a great, very high energy band, known for their pogo-ing on stage. The fans like to pogo in place at their seats. Brings back fond memories of my new wave days, pogo-ing and slam dancing. Lead singer Pierre Bouvier is very talented with lots of charisma. Good singer. He looked very clean cut with short dark hair, scrubbed looking face, and neat black tucked-in T-shirt. Not a lot of raunch on display at this concert from any of the groups. Kudos. I wonder if KISS asks the artists to make it family friendly, since people of all ages are there? They did several songs from their new CD, including Shut Up, Jump, and Welcome to My Life as well as older hits like Addicted, Perfect, and I'd Do Anything. I took two videos. Hilary Duff: She came out in T-shirt and jeans, with a silver sparkly scarf. She had a full band that was VERY loud, much louder than Simple Plan or Switchfoot. I used my earplugs. Many, many signs out for her. Many cheers from pre-teen girls. Hilary was not that bubbly or energetic, as I have seen her be on TV. Then they showed a close-up of her on the jumbotrons and she looked sick. Her eyes were very bleary and she had dark circles. She looked like she should be home in bed. Her first two songs were rockers, and I wondered have you gone Avril on us, Hilary? She spoke little in between songs, and when she did, she was very hoarse and I knew then that she was indeed sick. On TV I have seen Hilary lip-synch a number of times, so you might expect her to do that at the concert since she was so sick, but she didn't. She sang every single song live. Her band was overamplified and her own mic was underamplified so she could not be heard too well. But I thought she did a credible job for being so sick. And she never once mentioned she was sick or her voice wasn't at its best or anything like that. She really was very professional and did a full 7 songs. She did do a couple of her hits, but they more were rocking versions than what we hear on the radio. I did take one video but later erased it to make room on my memory card for more compelling later acts. Good try, Hilary, but weakest act of the evening. Hilary, of course, is another singer who came to fame first on TV, as Lizzie Borden on the Disney Channel. Maroon 5: This was a band I really wanted to hear. I think Adam Levine is a fine, fine vocalist who can be all kinds of hot. They were slated to do an all acoustic set and had a baby grand, an acoustic guitar, a bass, and drums, with Adam sitting on a tall stool doing vocals using a microphone stand. They sang all their radio hits in order of release: Harder to Breathe, This Love, She Will Be Loved, and Sunday Morning. Harder to Breather was much better than the recorded version, which I have found tedious. Plus, it was overplayed on radio. It included some fine vocal stylings from Adam. My one wish was that he wasn't stuck singing there on that stool with the mic stand for much of the vocals. I wanted him to work the stage and move around a bit more. This Love and She Will Be Love, both songs I adored on radio, were both great. I got both of these songs on video. Adam was spot on with his vocals, demonstrating tremendous range, a well developed falsetto, a cool but passionate interpretation, and some jazz-inspired vocal stylings. The jazz influence was especially apparent on their final song, Sunday Morning, which for me, was the show stopper of their set. It was simply fantastic. Adam left the stool, wandered around the stage, and stood right next to the piano player and traded licks with him. His vocal licks bordered on scat singing. Fantastic! I caught only the tail end of this song on video, since my danged memory card was full, but it is one of my favorite clips from the concert. He is an amazing vocalist and very, very talented. He has a cool stage demeanor and didn't interact with the audience as much as some of the other artists did, such as Ryan Cabrera, Joel of Good Charlotte, or Pierre Bouvier. Special Surprise Guest: Well, we were all wondering who this was going to be. They pulled down a black curtain over the stage to hide what they were setting up. My daughter told me she saw people from a marching band backstage and I wondered if maybe they were going to have a local high school marching band perform, but that just seemed far-fetched. Finally, the lights went down and an usher ran down my aisle saying "it's Gwen Stefani, it's Gwen Stefani!" About half a dozen members of a marching band came out on stage, then Gwen's three little Japanese dancing girls/back-up singers (the "Harajuku girls"). When the crowd saw the Japanese girls, they figured out who the special guest was and just started roaring. Tall Gwen sashayed out onto the stage, singing Hollaback Girl, a song from her new CD. In trademark Gwen style, she was funkily attired, with long white legs and arms on full display. She looked so tall and white, like she had powdered her skin. Her hair was drawn back with a girlish head band and her lips were bright red. She was larger than life, looking like a pop icon, not like one of the more folksy, casual acts that had preceded her. I could hardly hear her, the crowd was so loud. She sang just two songs, following up her opener with What You Waiting For?, her current single. She was great and I find these songs very creative, not the usual stuff out there on radio. Unfortunately, of all the bands, I think the sound was worst for hers and if you watch my videos, you will see what I mean. But the vids do capture the excitement of the performance. I thought the roof was going to fall down! What a fantastic surprise to get Gwen Stefani as a bonus performer at the concert. I have decided I want Gwen's new CD for Christmas. This desire just brings home that it is so valuable for artists to appear at these radio concerts. Now I am going to buy Gwen's CD because I saw her perform live. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Avril Lavigne: She was last, the headliner of the show. She had a special backdrop lowered onto the stage that said "Avril" in big letters. She was definitely getting the headliner treatment. There were lots of signs for Avril and call-outs from the crowd, especially from little girls, "I love you, Avril!" She opened, ironically, with My Happy Ending, rocking out and singing in her Avril like way with clipped syllables, carefully enunciated lyrics, and bored-looking delivery. I've seen her give some terrible performances (off key) on TV, but she sounded better tonight. She did miss votes from time to time but she did a lot with what she's been given--a voice that is not very strong or exceptional. She didn't speak too much between songs but when she did, I wished she would sing again, because her speaking voice is very nasal. LOL. She mentioned that she was happy to be feeling well for her performance because two years ago for JBB she was very hoarse and could only manage to sing two songs. She played guitar on most of her songs, and had 4 little platforms set up at the front of the stage. She would hop up on one from time to time. This was great because she is kind of short and it helped the crowd to see her. They wheeled out the baby grand, and she accompanied herself on two songs and did a good job. I've got to say that she was not a very engaging performer, with one of the lowest "charisma factors" of any of the evening's artists. She was not a show stopping act and I believe would have been better placed earlier in the concert before some of the higher energy acts. Gwen Stefani is a hard act to follow. This was especially true because many of the little girls were there to see Avril and it was way past their bedtime when she came on stage (not until 11 pm). I was out of memory card space so didn't tape any of her songs. All in all, it was a great evening of pop music. The show
moved along better than last year because they seemed more organized
with the set changes. The alternated singers who sung with tracks
or with acoustic set ups with those who had full amplified bands
and this lead to fewer delays. Go to this page to download videos: http://elfe350.250free.com/jbb7vids.html
Link to review of concert in the Seattle P-I: For all you Clay fans, there was a Clay mention in the article: Similar to one of last year's big-name performers, Clay Aiken, Stefani's set was disappointingly short. Aiken sang three songs last year, while Stefani only performed two. It also was disappointing she wasn't the headliner. That honor went to pop-punkstress Avril Lavigne. Another review of the concert, in the Seattle Times:
last updated 12/8/04 |