Shania Twain (05.21.04)
Shania Twain
Venue: Schottenstein Center a.k.a. Value City Arena (Columbus, OH)Date: May 21, 2004
First of all, I must tell you that I'm not a fan of country music. My girlfriend is. This caused me to pay much more attention to the show itself, rather than the music. It certainly was a spectacle to see. So, if you think that I'm bashing the show, I'm not. I'm just telling you what I saw. I didn't think it was bad. It was just weird. (My girlfriend liked the show, by the way.)
After the opening act leaves the stage, they start setting up the stage for Shania's big entrance. It's a center stage show, but they dropped a big curtain surrounding the stage. This seems odd, as she's got to come from somewhere else. Well, the show starts off with a shadow behind the curtain talking, and they slowly begin to raise the curtain. Guess what? She's not there. She comes running up from the side of the stage someplace, and the show begins with some small pyrotechnics.
I didn't recognize any of the songs, but I did notice that the music was turned WAY up, when you compared it to the volume of the singing. You could only hear singing on the few songs that didn't have a full band backing them.
The show itself had a lot of weird things going on. First of all, Shania can't dance. She basically does an aerobic workout during each song. It looked like a 13 year old girl who is dancing and singing in her room. The way I figure it, if you can only sing, and you can't play an instrument, then you should at least learn to dance for your performances.
During the second or third song, she starts running along the edges of the circular stage to sign autographs for the fans. The fans also started handing her roses by the bunches, and every dozen or two, she'd run to center stage and dump them off on a guy sitting under the stage. (Note: These roses sell for $4.75 at the arena. I wonder what she does with all of them... I'd say she collected a few hundred over the course of the night. I bet they get resold at tomorrow night's show.) In any case, this rose collecting/autograph signing thing continues every few songs throughout the night.
Also, between every 4th or so song, she interacts with the crowd. She goes out and talks to obvious plants, or invites a few planted kids up on stage. It's nice to see, but obviously some of these people knew in advance that it was going to happen. I especially wondered about the person who said "I was in a coma, and they started playing some of your music, and I woke up within 20 minutes." ... This is a highly suspect claim. This story was obvious BS.
Overall, the show seemed entertaining to those who like country music. To those who don't, at least it was tolerable. Shania plays a mix of pop/country, so it's not totally country. I will note though, that the only song of Shania's that I actually knew (You're Still The One) was ruined because she brought someone from the audience up on stage to sing it for her. I paid to hear Shania sing, NOT some fan from the crowd.
In any case though, if you're a fan of Shania Twain, I'd definitely recommend checking out one of her shows. (If you're not a fan, but someone is forcing you to go to a country show, choose Shania. It's the least threatening.) It seemed fast paced, and the crowd reacted very well to much of the show. Check her out if she comes to a town near you!
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