Mariah Carey concert disappointing
"Ever get the feeling that you've been cheated?" Johnny Rotten asked that of the audience at a particularly disastrous Sex Pistols concert in 1978 shortly before that group imploded. Had the same question been posed to the fans as they filed out of the Mohegan Sun Arena Friday night after Mariah Carey's concert, the answer would have been a resounding, "Yes".
The pop diva gave a show that lasted just 75 minutes and, more unbelievably, she was off stage for about 15 of those minutes. And this for an event with a top ticket price of $150 and "cheap" seats going for $90. It's a shame, too, because it was quite the spectacle while it lasted. Although I can't claim to be a big fan of the singer, I was interested in checking out a big-time pop concert where I wouldn't leave wondering whether the singer was actually singing.
When she was on stage, Carey delivered a nice run-through of songs from her latest multi-platinum album, The Emancipation of Mimi, and a few of her older hits. Obviously, a lot of money was spent on the stage, which, dare I say it, glittered. There also was a full band and a handful of dancers with her and a large screen so she could sing along to the videos of the hip-hop stars (Jermaine Dupri, Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, etc.) that appeared on her songs. The concert itself was great fun and Carey almost had me forgetting the traffic nightmares on the way to the casino and the fact that the show started a half-hour late. I even thought her giving the spotlight to singer Trey Lorenz for three songs was just a minor annoyance. But the major annoyance was yet to come.
After she performed "We Belong Together", she said her goodbyes to the crowd and left the stage to get ready for an encore that would send everybody home feeling thoroughly entertained. It was an encore that would not happen. There was a feeling of confusion throughout the arena when the house lights went up. Could that really have been the end of the concert? Did I really pay $150 for that? Again, the answers were "Yes" and "Yes". It's just too bad that Carey decided to shortchange her audience in this way. It took what was shaping up to be a perfectly fine evening and left her fans feeling a bit cheated. What a rotten thing to do. (Connecticut Post)
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