Shania rocks the SBC Center
By John Goodspeed
San Antonio Express-News
Web Posted : 11/23/2003 12:00 AM
Shania Twain may be a superstar singer, but there's a little prophet in her, too
Her latest album is "Up!" and that's how her fans reacted when her worldwide tour stopped at the SBC Center on Saturday night.
They leapt to their feet — with most staying on them for the whole 115-minute show — even before the curtain quivered.
They went wild when she jogged on stage wearing black windbreaker pants, basketball shoes and a white Spurs jersey with Tim Duncan's No. 21 appearing and disappearing beneath her flowing brown hair.
Drummer J.D. Blair of Houston, meanwhile, sported David Robinson's retired No. 50.
Just five hits into the show, Twain paused to address the cheering throng:
"I think we're in for an amazing night here because San Antonio is rocking. You're loud. We want to leave here deaf!"
Twain and her nine-piece band did their best, blasting out a 21-song set including "Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)," "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" "That Don't Impress Me Much," and "I'm Gonna Getcha Good!"
Twain, 38, appeared to be having as much fun as the fans, pointing out their signs, talking with them, inviting two little girls to come on stage and sing with her, and sitting in the crowd to sing "The Woman in Me."
On the downside, the music at times drowned out her voice and some spark seemed to be missing — or maybe it was that she was live and not on tape.
Still, Twain's powerhouse pop with a hint of country showed why she's still at the top of her game.
Plus, her upbeat presentation proved she is no pop tart.
While other singers go for the pierced-navel look and wearing hardly anything but goose bumps, Twain came off like the nice girl next door.
She kept it clean, giving a wholesome collection of songs about love and empowerment, all the while taking bouncy steps that lacked the highfalutin choreography of a Britney Spears.
Band members sometimes followed Twain, strutting and playing like musicians at a free-form tent revival.
"Up!" follows a five-year recording hiatus in which she and her husband, co-writer and producer, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, moved to Switzerland and had their first child, son Aja, 2.
The show marked Twain's fourth stop in the Alamo City. The first was in 1993, when she was a virtual unknown on tour with Toby Keith and John Brannen.
Opening act Emerson Drive only had about a 25-minute set, but it was a whirlwind.
The six-piece band from Canada ended with a fiery version of Charlie Daniels' "Devil Went Down to Georgia" and one of their top-five hits, "I Should Be Sleeping."
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