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Old 12-02-2003, 03:56 AM
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Twain rocks crowd with her pop twang

By Ricardo Baca
Denver Post Popular Music Writer


After selling millions of albums, it's obvious that many see Shania Twain as their everywoman hero - the universal voice that with surprising uniformity belts out countrified bubble-gum pop to the pleasure of packed arenas and worldwide TV audiences.

Monday night's show at the Pepsi Center had the ever-affable Twain in typical form. Her vocals were strong, the rock-country ballads had enough electric guitars to rival a Linkin Park concert, and at any moment you expected Twain to come soaring over the audience, tongue a waggin', perched atop a cherry picker.

Twain is a pop-rocker with a twang, and she owned the packed house for nearly two hours. There were times when the show's aesthetic got lost - when video footage of Mother Teresa showed on the big-screens during the empty jangly pop of "She's Just Not a Pretty Face," which talks about how women, too, can be pilots, subway drivers and gas attendants.

But ultimately the queen of arena country knew her place. She opened the show in a Broncos jersey, and she closed the night in an Avalanche jersey.

Twain opened the in-the-round show with "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" Multi-instrumentalists made up her band. At times there were three fiddlers walking a choreographed strut. At other times, the wall of guitars was reminiscent of AC/DC or The Cars, both bands that made Twain's producer/husband Robert John "Mutt" Lange famous.

Twain's sound wasn't limited to the rock that walks that line between rock and country. She's not afraid of the honky tonk, as she displayed competently with the pop deliverance of "Honey, I'm Home."

That confidence is what makes Twain the admired subject in the center of the arena. "Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)" was exemplary of her penchant for silly songs that deconstruct relationships from a contempo-hillbilly perspective. But the song, which came early in the show, is gimmicky and doesn't lend itself to excessive repeated listens, let alone a live performance years after its release.

The better-known "That Don't Impress Me Much," which came later in the show and includes Shania's offhand remarks like "So, you're Brad Pitt" also suffered. After such songs dominated radios and stereos for so long, the least she could have done is update the references.

The end of the show brought familiarities such as "(If You're Not in it for Love) I'm Outta Here" (featuring more audience participation, this time in the form of drummers from Cherry Creek School District) and a nostalgic take on 1997's "You're Still the One," which led the encore.
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0...1803326,00.html

Of course I'm going with the second review!
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