Shania Boards - View Single Post - Kansas City, MO concert

Quote:

Originally posted by mbistudios
Greetings to all: I am a new poster to this board, however I have been reading this board on and off for years as I have been die-hard Shania fan since 1995. I usually link here from shaniatwaincity where I get my daily dose of Shania news and appearance updates. Now on to the show.

I purchased tickets through the online fan club within seconds the link became available: floor section F (does this mean "fanclub"?) row five, seats 7-10. We arrived before doors opened and were about 20th in line to enter. I took a Kodak disposable camera as I wasn't sure how tight security was going to be and didn't want to be hassled. As it turns out I probably could have taken my small Minolta or Canon 35mm zoom cameras and gotten much better pics. Oh well. The most interesting sight pre-show was watching the eight or so follow spot operator guys climb up rope ladders to the top of the overhead lighting rig and carefully crawl into the little seats they had to stay in for the duration of the show. It appeared the arena was almost filled but there were eight empty seats in the row in front of us.

Emerson Drive opened with about 6-7 song set. I can't say I am a fan of ED or even that familiar with them but they did a great job with a very tight performance which was well received by the audience.

Shania's band entered in pairs at the second level on all sides of the arena, spotlights following as the made their way to stage. Our seats were on the end of the stage where we had a great view of JD crankin away on drums all night!! Then Shania took the stage with a blast of pyrotechnics and great reception-she looked fantastic as always!! She was wearing a KC Chiefs jersey and when she mentioned it between songs half the audience reacted with some cheers but overwhelmingly there were strong sustained boos!? I'm thinking what's up with that? Shania responded by laughing and said something like "You're all mixed up together". I felt somewhat embarrassed by the crowds reaction as I don't feel Shania ever deserves any "boos" no matter what the circumstance. She didn't let it phase her and went on with the show.

Now I love Shania's music and play it everyday at work (I do mean EVERY day) but the sound volumn of her concert was set at ear bleeding level where I was sitting. Don't get me wrong, I like loud music as much as any body else. I have been a diehard ELP, Jethro Tull, Steppenwolf and Hendrix fan since the 60s (opps, my age is showing). I have mixed sound for bands, played keyboard in bands and now I do some location recording from time to time so I do have some qualifications for this observation. I wish I would have had my decible meter with me as I am sure they were pushing 115-120+ db range. When you run sound levels this high you loose most of the fidelity of the music and much of Shania's usual subtle vocal inflections and tones were lost in the wall of noise. At several times it almost sounded like she was loosing her voice, straining to sing. Several times I was literally scared for her and had concerns she had been pushing her voice too hard with this concert tour. I started to wonder whether or not she would make it all the way through the concert. There were a number of times her pitch was noticibly flat, I mean way flat. My experience as a sound mixer is if a singer as good as Shania is flat it's because she can't hear herself. They must have made some kind of adjustment because she did seem to improve and push her voice harder as the concert progressed.
My worries for her dissappeared as her voice improved.

Please do not take any of this as a critique, it is not meant to be. These are just my observations. I attended Shania's concert here (KC) in '98 and I loved this concert in the round even more. Did I get my $400 bucks worth? Absolutely!! I only wish I had the time and money to follow her tour around the country.

I will post more KC concert pics as I get them formatted in the next couple of days. Cheers to all!!

welcome
thanks for the review