REVIEW: Middle-of-the-road Twain appeals
By Matt Sebastian, Camera Music Writer
December 2, 2003

DENVER — Shania Twain's music is so universally interchangeable that the Canadian superstar released her last album, 2002's Up!, in three different mixes: pop, country and the catch-all "international."

And that's her secret: Neither true country nor outright pop, Twain's middle-of-the-road approach — with an emphasis on mild, self-empowering platitudes — has made her a crossover sensation that appeals to fans of both genres.

Appearing at the packed Pepsi Center on Monday, Twain carefully straddled that line, delivering a solid but unspectacular two-hour set that focused on last year's record and its predecessor, the smash Come On Over.

Backed by a nine-piece band that was outfitted — and embarassingly choreographed — like the Backstreet Boys, Twain belted out faithful renditions of her biggest pop hits ("You're Still the One," "Any Man of Mine," "That Don't Impress Me Much") while also treating fans to some of her more twangy material, like "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" and "C'est La Vie," a fiddle-driven rewrite of "Dancing Queen."

Yet Twain doesn't have the strongest singing voice — it's good, but not great — and on a few numbers, including the opener, "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!," and the power ballad "From This Moment On," she appeared to struggle with her upper register; perhaps it was the altitude.

For most part, though, Twain and her bandmates kept the family-heavy crowd engaged by prowling the enormous, oval-shaped stage at the center of the arena, giving fans on all sides a taste of the pyrotechnic-fueled action.

Sporting a Denver Broncos jersey, Twain, in fact, seemed to devote as much time to fawning over her audience as she did singing: between and during songs, she kissed babies, scribbled countless front-row autographs, dragged children and teens onstage and twice waded into the crowd.

By the night's end, Twain's family-friendly act felt a little too much like a G-rated version of a Britney Spears concert: heavy on the gimmicks and far too light on sincerity and feeling. And perhaps that's not too surprising, given the made-to-order nature of Twain's brand of bland pop music, expertly assembled by her producer/co-writer/husband, hitmaker Mutt Lange.

The evening began with an equally slick performance by Emerson Drive, a contemporary country outfit that spent half its meager, 20-minute set as a cover band, running through Merle Haggard's "Silver Wings" and U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" before offering a rousing cover of Charlie Daniels' "Devil Went Down To Georgia," complete with instrumental nods to Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive" and Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir."

Contact Matt Sebastian at (303) 473-1498 or sebastianm@dailycamera.com.
http://www.bouldernews.com/bdc/conc...2471475,00.html

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DOWN WITH BASHVILLE!!!

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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DOWN WITH BASHVILLE!!!

By Jay Dedrick, Rocky Mountain News
December 2, 2003

Shania Twain is a people-pleaser. It shows in her record sales - nearly 40 million in the United States in less than a decade. It shows in her music - last year's Up! came packaged with country and pop mixes of all the songs, and a third world-beat mix went out to the rest of the planet.

Onstage, though, she's required to get off the fence, and she lands on the pop side with a sonic boom. Twain's sold-out concert Monday at the Pepsi Center was big on arena-rock beats and light on fiddles and pedal steel. She'll never be mistaken for the fourth Dixie Chick.

Like the Chicks, though, she brought glamour and stage appeal by the truckload. You still can't obscure the cover-girl looks that have made her a pervasive pin-up.

She took to the in-the-round stage in Clinton Portis' No. 26 (retailers, adjust your orders accordingly), accessorized with rhinestone bracelets and choker, and offered her keynote address to Twain Nation, Man! I Feel Like a Woman!

Twain played the perky, polite hostess of a karaoke party - bringing grade-school-age girls onstage to join in singalongs, sharing the microphone with fans in the crowd, even signing autographs midsong for the folks in the front row, never missing a note.

Her nine-piece band built a sound as slick as the recordings she made with her husband, onetime metal master "Mutt" Lange. Inevitably, she's applied his influence to the stage, putting on a tightly choreographed, fireworks-packed show .

The songs were equally derivative: Was that Warrant's Cherry Pie or Twain's Honey I'm Home?
If you mistook C'est La Vie for ABBA's Dancing Queen, you weren't alone.

Relatively pure country got a fair shake, too: Any Man of Mine, an encore during the two-hour set, was a twang-driven highlight, as was an acoustic take on The Woman in Me, when Twain ventured into the Pepsi Center's lower deck.

The cute kid shtick started out sweet but grew cloying; by the time Twain welcomed the drum line from Cherry Creek High School for (If You're Not in It For Love) I'm Outta Here!, scattered boos rose from the crowd.

But when the confetti shower fell during the show-closing Rock This Country, and her smile flashed on the video screens, all was forgiven.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/dr...2471505,00.html

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two great reviews against one less good = another great concert with full stadium!

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DOWN WITH BASHVILLE!!!

The first review, was phoned in. You can tell the person never went to the concert. It is all the other past "bad reviews" cut and pasted. The other two seemed to have been actually there.


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.

Now that is just plain stupid. So she should change references in songs, come one, she is not George Lucas re-doing songs to make them sound better. or update them.



-Chris

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Shania's Place
Shania: often imitated, never duplicated!!

"...Living, Loving, Laughing and Dreaming....."-Shania Twain

Very good reviews overall! It seems they complain too much on the East Coast...the reviews from the West Coast seem to be better in general...:cool:

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NEW Still the One DVD and CD combo out March 3! Order at: http://stilltheone.shaniatwain.com/

The second review was the best of the 3, the third review better than the first review which was luke warm. Suprised though that Emerson Drive is performing cover songs on their short set, instead of original material - haven't they recorded their own songs?

We forgot this photo..

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NEW Still the One DVD and CD combo out March 3! Order at: http://stilltheone.shaniatwain.com/

Some of the fans booed? WHY???!?!?

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Jud,
Can you tell me about Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir?"

I have a mountain climbing friend whose family was driven out of Kashmir at "Separation" in the late 1940's.

Bob

Review # 2 is by Ricardo Baca huh? Reminds me of a song I heard a lot as a kid in the 1950's on the radio my older brother played while we were doing chores on the farm. It was about a hero named El Fuego Baca, or something like that.

But there's some material in Ricardo's review I've not seen before. Not too many reviewers talk about aesthetics, and back it up noting the juxtaposition of video footage of Mother Theresa with pop tunes. I didn't quite agree that "She's Not Just A Pretty Face" is an empty, jangly pop song though. Some ST songs can be tongue in cheek, or seem light weight, but there's a worthy message in most of them, if you care to look. And lots of people do.

Also, many ST fans may already know that the "wall of guitars" was reminiscent of AC/DC or The Cars from Mutt Lange's circle; or be familiar with the "three fiddlers walking a choreographed strut." But as a non-fanatic, I didn't know about either of those.