Heath McCoy
Calgary Herald
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Review
Shania Twain and opening act Emerson Drive performed a sold-out show Monday at Pengrowth Saddledome.
Attendance about 17,000.
- - -
"Are you ready, Calgary?" teased Shania Twain's silhouette, which loomed several metres tall behind a curtain in the centre of the Saddledome on Monday night.
A tidal wave of giddy screams made for an affirmative to that query and with the bright, cheery opening bars of the sassy hit, Man! I Feel Like A Woman! the curtain dropped. No Twain. It was a red herring, but within seconds, the country pop diva from Timmins, Ont., was sprinting toward the stage from within the crowd.
Backed up by a hotshot nine-piece band that looked like the cast of Queer Eye For The Straight Guy gone Nashville, Twain, 38, danced around the stage, belting out one crowd favourite after another in a show that impressed her audience greatly, if not necessarily this reviewer.
Hits covered included the incessantly chirpy Up!; the pretty ballad Forever and For Always; the sex-kitten country singalong Any Man Of Mine; and the anthemic, Honey, I'm Home which sounds positively Def Leppard-ish. No surprise there, considering it was the yummy mommy's hubby/producer Mutt Lange at the helm when the Leps did that one.
CREDIT: Photo, Colleen Kidd, Calgary Herald
Although Twain's normally thin voice seemed downright shaky at points in the evening, she also displayed greater charisma than she did the last time she was in town in December when she seemed to be going through the motions.
Still, for the mega-star that she is -- small town gal turned feisty fairy princess in her videos -- Twain is not the extraordinary showman one would expect her to be.
With her kitschy, catchy bubblegum country songs and her fun, glamorous image -- you'd think she was the lost Spice Girl, Twangy Spice -- one would expect more from Twain.
Her moves are arena rock cliches and her delivery is lacking in passion.
But somehow her adoring fans gobble up every cutesy tidbit she has to offer.
Part of the reason for that, without a doubt, is Twain's considerable talent for including her fans in her show. She brings them onstage for singalongs; she appears in the aisles to sing to them up close; she invites local musicians to perform with her. Of course, for her encore, she appeared in a Calgary Flames jersey and gave a sincere sounding shout out to our home town warriors. All of it brings an intimacy to the show -- not easy to do in an arena -- that is truly meaningful to the Shania-maniacs out there.
Meanwhile, in a repeat of Twain's December 'Dome show, Grand Prairie's Emerson Drive kicked off the evening with an upbeat set of candy-flossed country rock.
Alternating between original tunes like the latest single Last Man Standing and covers, like a countrified, watered-down version of U2's Where The Streets Have No Name, the sextet proved themselves to be a tight, energetic gang of arena rockers at heart. Strutting frontman Brad Mates strives to be a country version of Jon Bon Jovi even if his boy-next-door vibes are closer to Donny Osmond.
The band did its job well, though, and were a perfect fit, warming up fans for Shania.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calga...a2-4785f0897be9
hmccoy@t
rald.canwest.com
CREDIT: Photo, Colleen Kidd, Calgary Herald Canadian country siren Shania Twain ran through the crowd to take the stage of a nearly sold-out Pengrowth Saddledome on Monday night.