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Mariah Carey arrives late, sings strong at MGM Grand
Going to see Mariah Carey in concert these days is a little like catching a wild amusement
park ride. There's a lot of fun and a lot of thrills but also some not-so-subliminal fear
in thinking that the ride might go right off its tracks at any moment.
The statuesque songstress with the five-octave range brought all those elements to her show
before a full-house at the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods on Friday. It was just a little more
than a week since Carey grabbed all the wrong kind of headlines for her wacky acceptance
speech at the Palm Springs Film Festival, which she later blamed on "splashes of champagne".
The video of the slurred speech instantly became a YouTube classic, so when the Long Island
native finally took the MGM stage an hour and 35 minutes after the 8 p.m. show time on the
ticket Friday, there was plenty of concern going 'round right from the start.
The anxious and frustrated crowd had been booing just a few minutes earlier and it didn't
help when an off-stage announcer said that Carey was running late due to the seemingly
obligatory "accident on 95", that seems to get brought up whenever a performer arrives late
for a show in the area.
Nevertheless, Carey did stage a pretty impressive if occasionally erratic 90-minute performance
that was musically tight and well choreographed - even if the pacing was slightly marred by
the soon-to-be-40-year-old singer's own unpredictable nature.
She definitely has a crazy side to her. One of the first things she said to the crowd was
"Who's thirsty and drinking champagne?" making obvious light of her earlier incident. She
said she was going to stick to water all night, but by her seventh song, which she sang while
lounging like a diva on a plush couch, she did indulge in a bit of champagne saying "See this
is what happens. They force it down my throat."
Carey is in the very early stages of her "Angels Advocate" tour, her first extended road show
in more than three years. She was ably backed by a four-piece band, three singers and numerous
exceptional dancers, who often grabbed the attention when the singer slipped off stage for a
half-dozen costume changes. Her dresses were all skin tight, typically sparkling and all
designed to flaunt her abundant cleavage.
After a brief introduction, the concert kicked off with the thumping dance track "Shake it
Off", the erotic "Touch My Body", and one of her first vocal showcases of the evening, "Fly
Like a Bird", which peaked with some of her trademark sky-high upper octave notes at the end.
Mid-set standouts included her early smash "Make it Happen", before "Angels Cry", the latter
which featured two dancers spinning high above the singer's head. In a set-up routine, she had
a crew member come out and fix her hair, as Carey drew laughs when she said "I am a diva. A
diva's a good thing."
She didn't totally stick to the script though. She seemed to be having problems with her
in-ear monitors and was not pleased with some of the directives she was apparently receiving
through them, including the set list. As the night progressed so did the pauses between songs
and she blew the lyrics and had to re-start one of her biggest hits, "We Belong Together",
right after saying that Billboard magazine had crowned it the most popular song of the decade.
Still with tracks such as "The Impossible" (husband Nick Cannon briefly came on-stage and
gave her a long kiss after that one); a tasty mash-up of her own "HeartBreaker" with Diana Ross'
"Love Hangover"; Carey's mega-hit "Emotions"; a fierce rendition of the Eminem-dissing "Obsessed";
and the encore of her classic "Hero", it was undoubtedly a crowd-pleasing night.
Hours earlier, the vocal trio RydazNRtist opened the night with a brief 15-minute set that was
well received by the audience.
(MassLive)
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| Saturday 16 January 2010
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