Universal Amphitheater concert review
You can compare Mariah's concert at Universal Amphitheater to instructions from a cookbook: a little bit of dancers, a pinch of back-up singers, a bunch of band members, a pack of full voice of talent and many high notes as possible. The result: a masterpiece. Mariah's concert was extravagant and elegant.
I went to the venue at 5:10 pm trying to find the entrace to the theater, which was too small to be seen. I've waited in line up to 6:00 pm. The security guard told us that no cameras were allowed inside. They will confiscate it if you bring one. We entered the gate and I was one of the first who got in. I saw the merchadise stand at the line and bought a tour book because that was the only one I can afford and I think that's the most important to buy than the other merchandise items. I was the first one to buy the tour book.
I fall in line with the others again near the main building. The security was gonna search us if we have any illegal things like cameras, recorders and things of that nature. We got in the vicinity at 7:45 pm. We waited for the show to start not knowing that there's a sort of opening act on the way. The opening act was the D.J.'s of Power 106. They rapped the hell out and tried to pump-up the crowd. They rapped on the music of Beyonce's Crazy in Love, Snoop Dogg, 50cent's In Da Club, and others.
After their show we waited again for at least 20 mins before the Looking In intro began to play with dancers belly dancing on the stage. Mariah entered at the back of the stage (between Log 20 and Log 19) singing Heartbreaker Remix. She was wearing the pink dress with the beads. At the stage she sang the original version. The performance was OK. After that, she sang Dreamlover which was OK too. She sat on a large red couch and sipped a little bit of tea for her throat.
She sang Through The Rain with a lot of emotions. She even did a long whistle between the first chorus and the second verse. After that she sang My All like the version you've heard at the Las Vegas files. Like the other concerts, the dancers danced at the mix of My All while Mariah was changing to her next ensemble.
The Marionette show began. Mariah entered singing Clown, she is wearing the green dress. A dancer dressed as a clown tied up to three tall corporate guys dressed in black suits like a marionette. The performance was very dramatic and the meaning of the song shows in the performance. After that, Mariah sang the internet voted song for the evening, Can't Take That Away, with a lot of emotions. The version of the song was like the live performance at the Blockbuster Awards. Very awesome. She nealed at the ending then exit the stage.
The Honey video clip was shown on the screen (the first part) and after that Mariah entered and sang the song with the dance steps like the performance at the Around The World video. She was wearing the blue dress. She exited again at the stage and the I Know What You Want video was played at a large white curtain. She sang the bridge part and danced on one part. It was nice to watch. She was wearing the Harley Davidson outfit.
She exited the stage again while the dancers danced up to the end of the song. The curtain opened and you could see that Mariah was hanging on the air into a swing made out of white cloth. She landed at the grand piano singing Subtle Invitation. At the bridge of the song, she lied on the piano then goes up again and sang the rest of the adlibs and chorus at the stage. She even ran while singing "If you really need me baby, just reach out, don't you hesitate to call me."
She sang My Saving Grace saying that that's her story in a song. She sang it with a lot of emotion and the version is like the Oprah live for the first part and Soul Train live on the ending. It was live and no lipsyncing. She didn't even lipsync on the whole concert, except I think on Fantasy.
Then the great band introduction where she adlibbed with the band playing slow jazz music. She even told the story of Mary Ann's sister's boyfriend who cheats on her. And also, every backup singer sang a small part. Mariah and Trey sang I'll be There like it was been yesterday since they sang the song for the first time. It was like being on the set of the Unplugged episode of Mariah. The performance was great. With the growls in-between the song.
Mariah left the stage and Trey sang his song called Friend Of Mine with the other back-up singers singing with him. Even making them sang a few lines of the song at the ending. Mariah entered wearing the red dress and sang Bringin' On The Heartbreak which to me is the most irritating part of the concert because of the loud sound system and the excessive guitar solo. But I got through it and Mariah's voice was great and she even hit the high notes.
The band continued playing with the irritating guitar solo. The ODB part of the Fantasy Remix played on the screen and Mariah showed up again wearing the baby blue top and pink short shorts and sang the song with all the dance steps like the on the Around The World Video. After that she sang Always Be My Baby. The version was like she sang on Las Vegas. Make It Happen followed. This was one of her great peroformances for that night. It's like a mix of the live version on the Madison Square Garden video and the Diva's Live in 98. Her best performance ever.
Mariah, the dancers, and the back-up singers did their bows and exited the stage. The crowd went wild thinking that that was the end of the show. The crowd didn't stop shouting and clapping for 3 minutes and then, Mariah showed up wearing that dress with feathers and sang Vision of Love which is also her best performance. She sang it like the album version and ended it with a long high note. She even did the high note on the part of the chorus like the original version. She did the adlibs very well.
Hero followed. Another of her great performance. She even went down to the crowd and sang to them. The version was like the original version. It was a great performance for an encore. And like Vision of Love, she ended the song with a graceful and long high note. It gave me chills and also made me cry. The Butterfly chorus played and she sang parts of it and exited the stage. That was the end of this wonderful song. Her voice was fantastic as ever. And her beauty glowed from within. It was worth my money, it was worth the wait. Many thanks to Mariah Carey Magnum Opus.
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