Worcester July 7 Concert Follow-up  More Recaps

I’m still working on media and my recap from last night.  But in the meantime, here are some other perspectives:

Folkgirl’s Recap:

Mandisa: She was amazing I thought. She had everyone on their feet. Everyone around us was smiling and singing along. Just a really happy set with a lot of energy. Great opener.

Her duet with Ace was FANTASTIC! The crowd went nuts when Ace appeared at the top of the stage. (start of a theme, the men OWN this concert.) Their duet was well-balanced vocally too.

Ace: OH MY GOD!!! He is SO GOOD LIVE. My 59 yr old mom, henceforth known as folkmom, was grabbing the chair in front of her (we were on the floor) and woooing….when he started his ace strip tease the arena went NUTS. [yes, it was cheesy as all get out, but man…he can do it for me]

Oh yeah, he sounded good too, no really he did. “Father Figure” was Great. The Maroon 5 number was just okay for me, it was upbeat and all so that was good….but ummmm….something was off for me. [as of this morning, I figured out that while he did it well, he did not “own” the song– still enjoyable]

But overall, Ace rocked the place out. Lots of screams, and great energy.

Next was Lisa….and she definately was way better on the tour than on the show. I think everyone will enjoy her. She oversings a bit, but it is a good couple of songs and I think you will be smiling through it and saying “wow, she is talented.”

Paris…probably my biggest dissapointment. The duet with Lisa on Waterfalls was fun, great choreography I thought. The little girls loved it.

Paris on “Midnight Train”…she ORDERED everyone to GET UP…and I mean ORDERED…people sprang out of their seats in fear i think [note this morning, the Telegram reviewer noted the ordering also]…she had energy and the dance moves on the Beyonce song were fun…but something was missing…not sure what…just something…i was sad, cause I love Paris…

Bucky. Well, Bucky is sooooo much better live. He was fun and cool and I want him at my next BBQ. And I do not care if Drift Away is the ultimate cheese…EVERYONE in the arena sang it with him. It was really engaging.

Bucky just had this certain appeal… His diction was off yeah….he moved a little awkwardly yeah….but you loved him anyways.

Kellie!!!! WOOOHOOO! She is hysterical. [even if her shoe was teetering on the edge of breakage any moment]

And she substituted in “Bohemian Rhapsody” ….. [break out the leather]

The duet with Bucky was fun…but the chemistry was not all there..but still fun….

“Bohemian Rhapsody” went pretty well as she strutted around in all her leather…

She was sexy as hell in “Walking After Midnight” and her comedy bit in the front row (lucky people) was all about how to pronounce Worcester and Massachusetts and how she broke a heel and was trying not to fall…

Kellie had EVERYONE’s attention. She was great.

After intermission was Chris.

Must add here…for the adults…watching this show with a little buzz going is the way to go.

Also, at intermission I met Mj and her friend who posts as Lollypop. They were great, if not a little shaken from the bass way up front. Also, they were sitting directly in front of Ayla Brown and her entourage…and I mean entourage.

SO Chris was GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT!!!!

Maybe I should repeat it.

Clearly this area loves Chris. Much screaming and he looked just a little hot. Everyone was up and singing with him. Who knew the folkmom knew Zepplin and was a headbanger…hysterical moment (probably brought on by wine).

His whole set was fantastic. No doubt in my mind after this concert. Chris will put out a great album and be successful.

The duet with ELLIOT was super awesome….cannot provide enough adjectives. They were just amazing. No one should pee during this duet. GREAT GREAT GREAT!!!

It was hard to hear when Elliot came out because I think the arena exploded.

Elliot did the Luther number and then MMFL. Here are my thoughts, cause I love Elliot. His singing was great. Especially MMFY. But…..the Luther number got a bit boring. He is definitely working harder on stage presence…but right now that is a lot of back and forth on the stage….[not Lollypop agreed, but she called it Leprechaun pacing].

He just did not have the same level of energy as Chris….but I do not want people to think it was bad, because it was not. And he did wave a lot and big smiles!

He ended with “Trouble”, a good choice. Better energy and the crowd loved it and him.

The guys piece–“Patience”. Craziness in the crowd. CRAZINESS.

SO they start singing and everyone is insane. After the first few verses, they start the Kat slide show (oh yeah, Chris said at the start “this is for Kat who is not with us due to being sick” that was it) and I am not kidding (and while i know the kat fans will not believe me, but MJ can confirm this) as soon as the Kat montage started the arena went sooooooo quiet. It was dead. It went from craziness to dead. So it is all dead energy for the kat montage. Then they stop the montage, and the guys start the end chorus and the place goes nuts again. Lets just say…the silence was noticeable.

As for kat…there were no signs that she was not there…the only announcement was made by Chris and as for merchandise, which I checked….they were selling 8 by 10 pictures of her along with everyone else, but that is it. Noticeably, she was not on the button board, where they sold buttons of everyone but her.

Ok, so then the girls number was up. Very fun, and short. Granted the folk mom grumbled the whole time about Mandisa wearing jeans…what can you do? But it was cute.

And then TAYLOR!!!! So Taylor did not come from the back of the arena and down my aisle…the ass….no he came from the side 100 section and sang Jailhouse Rock coming down into the floor area. The crowd went…well CRAZY. There is no other way to describe it. It was crazy. INSANITY IN THE DCU!!!

Then he did the Seger song [“Hollywood Nights”]….

Oh btw, I need to mention cause I was on the aisle…cutest thing ever was the little five yr old girls dancing swing in the aisle to MMFY by Elliot…

All the over 25 crowd was loving Seger….pretty much the crowd went crazy anytime Tay danced…his guitar playing rocked and the band is in fact awesome. Then he did the old time songs and Marvin Gaye…good times throughout the crowd. Lets just say….Taylor is NOT spastic, but as soon as he does move a bit, the crowed would spontaneously erupt into nuttiness. And Taylor is beyond hot. It is ridiculous. Crazy hot.

“Living for the City” was great…the return of the circle dance…and the tambourine…..I have never seen thousands of people go crazy for a damn tambourine, you would think it was a new invention or something, but they did….did I mention the band was great?? [oh yeah, shout out to Soul Thing]

And the Beatles…my folk mom yells, and I mean YELLS, “I LOVE THIS SONG!!!” and people stared….

It was fantastic.

If you love music, and I mean LOVE music and the concept of music, and the structure of music, and how music is expression and how music moves you…then you will LOVE Taylor’s set. If you just listen to music, and kind of like songs, you probably will just listen.

So about “Do I Make You Proud”….hysterical. Quite possibly the worst song, as in song, for the entire concert right. I mean you have Zepplin and Stevie and Maroon 5 etc etc etc and this piece of crap AI song….and yet….

DIMYP gets the BIGGEST response of the entire night. People WERE SINGING ALONG. I am not kidding. I was AMAZED!! I mean this is a crappy song. And people were all up and screaming and singing and smiling and little girls were dancing (oh btw, loved the women boogying down in the aisle for the Beatles number)

DIMYP was just a show stopper.
Ok…so much clapping ensues. Five minutes in the dark as we wait for the encore. [crazy call for an encore from the crowd]

and here comes the band, and out of the center here comes Taylor. And he has learned…he has changed his shirt!!!

“Taking it to the Streets” was beyond amazing.

Everyone was up. Everyone was dancing, clapping and singing.

Again with the tambourine craziness. It was like every time Tay hit himself with the Tambourine the crowd got louder.

And then he got out the harp. The arena EXPLODED. Forget how cray they went over the tambourine!! Clearly, no one in Worcester has ever seen a Harmonica. He blew the hell out of it…the noise was….deafening from the crowd.

Great encore.!!!
SO out comes Chris for “We Are the Champions”. I mentioned this is Chris Land right?? INSANE noise for Chris. Then comes Ace..which at this point I think the folk mom wanted to hook up with Ace, so he got some chair banging along with screaming….

The girls came out…but they were so just there….like accessories. The story was the boys. Big NOISE for Elliot and here comes Bucky, entertaining away.

Fun number.
Then the last encore with “Living for America”…led by Taylor. Very fun, lots of posing…Pointy pose ending. This is where Taylor is MC really as he is the person constantly thanking the band and the city…he is in charge here…

After the show, EVERYONE was happy…except for the unhappy kat fans (who really did not look happy)

Consensus was Taylor= AWESOME Chris = AWESOME Ace got a WOW, he is way better than I ever thought

Mandisa- great opener, great energy

Kellie- Funny as hell and really worked the audience

Elliot- great voice, so sweet…not the most energy of the night but still really enjoyable.

And now, I get to do it all again tonight!!

Lollypop’s Recap

Part 1

Hey! First of all, I must sing this ode to MJ: as a friend, as a driver (w/ this whiney nervous nelly in the passenger seat — she’s got immense patience), as a ticket-finder (3rd row, near the middle, *in front of ayla* no less), and as a writer, videographer, and photog. Thanks, baby.

It was fab to meet folkgirl and folkmom! With beer and wine in hand, respectively — what a hoot! I seriously considered walking back to folkgirl and trading seats with her b/c MJ and I were right in front of the speaker (woofer?) for the bass and drums. The soundwaves shook my internal organs. Not to be a wimp (I attended many a punk/rock concert in my day), but I was clutching my chest and crouching behind the 70+ year old white-haired lady in front of me. Let her absorb those shocks! (I’m mean…)

Taylor was awesome but I bitched about him all the way home. I guess I was hoping for an orgasm (me, not him b/c he performs as though he’s in a constant orgasmic state, truly). Just wish he had looked my way for more than a nanosecond.

Ace *was* good. The striptease was cheesy and goofy to the point of excellence. He was unabashed about all of it. And the crowd ate it up.

Chris was much beloved by the crowd. His style of singing ain’t my teacup, but I give him major points for his performances (polished), guitar-playing, and, most especially, the duet with Elliott.

Crowd loved Elliott too and he did give me and everyone direct, connected, looks, waves, and shout outs. Now if he’d cut down a bit on the leprechaun-style pacing the stage. Park it a bit, Ell. But I loved all his stuff, all the times he was onstage.

I thought the crowd liked Paris more than Lisa, but I have to give folkgirl’s assessement priority since she was in a better location to hear the whole audience. Plus, it didn’t take long for that woofer to blow my ears out.

I liked Paris’s performance, but her mic pack wasn’t cooperating during her bump-bump Beyonce number. Her voice carried well, except for the low notes. Lisa did great on the piano, but I thought her performance was kind of bleh and her voice too thin. But she was very sweet and warm and connected a lot w/ the audience. (So did Paris.)

Mandisa connected the most and sang very well in the group numbers, but was a bit shouty for my taste in her own segment. I did love her interplay with Bucky in the group numbers.

In fact, Bucky was great on stage. A real treat. And I’m not saying this because he looked me in the eye (and in the cameraphone lens), waved, smiled, and said “hi”! He did so well singing while goofing or just being flirtatious with the other Idols. He was so much better than Kellie (too wooden) during the Grease number. And he was just so nice to all his colleagues throughout the show. It more than made up for his lack of breath control during his own solos. He’s not suited for this type of performing — he’d be really good to see in the context of his own band.

Kellie was a little funny, but not as much as I guess she was in Manchester. She goofed up on “Walking” and pointed it out to all of us. But she also seemed sort of unhappy through the whole night. Maybe her wisdom teeth extraction still bothers her. Hard to know. She was much better down talking to the front row people than she was in her own songs or in the group songs. There was a point in one of the girls’ numbers where you could see them all watching her to be sure she didn’t walking into one of the others during the not-so-complex choreography. Maybe she’s just too self-conscious for live performing. Dunno.

Didn’t think I’d do a full recap! Gotta say, the Browns (Ayla and her family and friends) were so nice. She was immensely patient with everyone who wanted a photo or an autograph. She was doing that in front of the venue when we arrived, in the lobby when we were looking for the concession stand, and in the aisles next to our seats before and after the show and during the entire intermission. When Taylor came down the side during Jailhouse, it was to the right of us (yes, MJ scored the. best. tix.) and Ayla’s dad quickly said, “Ayla, Ayla” and got her over to that aisle seat so Tay could see her (he did) and acknowledge her (he did, but no more so than he acknowledged me, frankly :P). I told Ayla’s mom that she should have made it to the tour and I meant it. And the mom looked so amazing; we might be the same age, but whatever she’s doing, apparently, I’m not! They get points for being so nice during the show. (Now if only they weren’t Republicans… hee.)

Part 2

I’ve thought of a couple of other things. Ace threw out two beanies, one after his solo portion and one at the end of the show. Chris threw out guitar picks: the one he had used during his duet with Elliott and a bunch of them at the end of the show. Many fell short of the front barrier, though.

There were several empty seats in the first two rows (in front of us), espec during the second half. Maybe they were never filled; maybe some couldn’t handle that woofer. But, some of you might take a look-see and very casually go up there. There are ushers galore, but if you act nonchalant, I bet you can move up. One guy in the second row moved up to the first and boogied like a crazy man against the barrier. His girlfriend stayed in their seats in back of him until the very end.

The Idols all looked like they pretty much dressed themselves. Some of it worked (Mandisa had very nice outfits, Paris too, Taylor’s white shirt was a show all on its own), some not so much (Elliott looked too casual, although I kinda dug his super-baggy trouser pants, Chris looked like he just got off duty at his day job, Kellie make up and synthetic hair extensions were a mess).

The stage was so bad: looked like a junior high production of the Flintstones: crumpled paper covered the sides and the rickety “doors” that opened to let Taylor in or out were laughable. The stage “designers” relied far too much on blasting our retinas with laser lights and other spotlight trickery. Spoiled a lot of my cameraphone work!