We were 12 contest winners and 2 members from the Official Fan Club at the soundcheck..the contest winners got a free CD and a signed pic from the Promoter, but the autograph on the pic was not that good..LOL..
We went in, first we were on the floor, but they still had to put in one third of the chairs for the concert (this was at 4.20 PM with the concert starting at 8 PM)..they were going around with huge printouts of the seating chart, trying to figure out where they had to put in the other chairs..overall this seats layout was the BEST one of all the arenas I have been too..you could really see very well from every seat in the arena, and as a matter of fact all the seats for the concert were exactly the same price..no difference first tier or floor..a rather small arena, which made the in the round concert even better...
So we moved to the first rows right off the floor so to let the people work with the final chairs they need to put in..JD was already there warming UP, then Randall and Andy arrived...then slowly the others..the guys start talking saying: "So what do we do? Stupid or Honey?" LOL!
Someone replies: Stupid..
They start playing DBS..about 10 secs into the song Shania enters the arena: khaki pants, a white long sleeves tshirt, a red sweater on top and a blue vest with a hood on too...she is wearing a khaki baseball cap with the pony tail out..she wore the same glasses...she has a small black hand bag and a bottle of water..she gets on stage and goes to the opposite pit from where JD and the other band members are, she gets the ear monitors and the mike from the tech guy and gets to the top of the stage..where she lays down her bag and water at one corner and she jumps in the song almost half way in..
The other people in for the soundcheck recognize Shania when she gets to the top level of the stage..we wave to Shania, she waves back.,..she sings snippets of DBS...then once it is over she says:
"What would you do to you guys if we changed Pretty back the original starting clue?" All the guys say: ALRIGHT, good idea...Shania asks: "The E key?" and sings a couple of words...and asks again "Is this the right key?" Randall says yes..so Shania replies: "We do Pretty after Ka Ching! then I am leaving.."
So They start play Ka Ching!: Shania sings it completely, really well, very strong, powerful performance, including the moves on stage....after that they sing Pretty Face, but Shania does only bits and pieces and lots of "ta ta ta ta"...at the end the guys ask:
"So do we do Pretty tonight?" Shania says: "If I can go through it completely later this afternoon, I'll let you know before the show.."..I wonder whether she was talking about reviewing the lyrics later or the vocal parts..
During the sound check at the beginning she also did lots of vocal stuff...to test her voice I think..so after Pretty is done..she picks up her bag, water and puts down the mike and ear monitors and waves to us there..
and leaves..
The band remains to talk about other possible problems: Marc wants to do another song because he says he has problems with his guitar...so they do the first minute of MIFLAW..Allison sings Shania's part...after that it was over basically..we left...
Overall it was very interesting to see how things are done, but you definitively get much more interaction with Shania if you are seating within the first 10 rows on floor during the concert..LOL!