| 17th August 2007 10:34 PM |
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| Dan |
I have recieved numerous PM's, emails and even some phone calls lamenting the lack of long and rambling concert reviews I often post here. So, this one is just for you. And don't laugh, I was supposed to take a little kid - except I couldn't find one in time.
Unfortunately the Gibson Amphitheatre schedule is pretty thin this year and as a result, so is the potential for seeing free shows with comp tickets. A few days ago while checking out Poison availability, I notice Hilary Duff is playing there too.
I call up my friend who she nearly got a restraining order against last year and tell him about it. I am still pretty much joking when I say "Hey dude, we should go." Surprisingly, he was totally down with it, if only to celebrate the fact that he cannot be legally barred from attending.
I admit my standards for what I will see at this venue are a lot lower than for gigs in Hollywood and points beyond since it's within walking distance from my sweltering little hovel.
Later on while flipping through the LA Weekly I see the Gore Gore Girls are playing at Amoeba that same night, but at 7:00. I think I can still do both. I tell my friend that I will be there a little late and he says he will probably still go to the Hilary Duff show and we will see each other there.
The Gore Gore Girls was quite a fun show. They totally rocked. I might go see them again tonight for free at the Echoplex. They played a bit longer than I hoped for so I missed the 7:56 subway by a few seconds, end up not making it to Universal until about 8:35, shortly before Hilary Duff is scheduled to go on. There is almost no sidewalk action and I don't think this kind of show attracts scalpers or even people holding extra tickets.
I am there less than a minute when I see a late arriving couple go up to the will call window. I overhear the guy saying "can't we get anything closer?." "All we have is balcony." As he takes the tickets and starts to leave, I ask if he has an extra. He says he has one more and goes to the window and says "I think I will take that other ticket after all" and he hands it to me while the lady he is with says "You like Hilary Duff?"
This question takes me by surprise and totally throws me off guard. I have no idea how to even answer it. It's not the kind of question I ever expected anyone to ask me. After an awkward pause I say "Uh... um... I don't have air conditioning and I thought I would come hang out here." Sounds good enough I guess. The only other Citywalk option would be a movie but I can usually do the concerts for cheaper.
I get a few extended stares from staff and patrons alike as I arrive at my last row seat in the sparesely populated balcony to the sound of little girls' high pitched screaming, stomping their feet, doing the wave and chanting "Hilary! Hilary! Hilary!" No sign of my friend but neither of us has cell phones. Turns out he never showed up anyway and I have my own Hilary Duff scandal to contend with by merely attending, though I still plan on never letting him live down his own experiences.
The lights go off to massive shrill cheers. The show itself was typical overdone production, obviously canned lead vocals, back up singers (though I think they are lip synching too), dancers and lame prefab pop songs with the actual band confined to a very small sliver of the otherwise massive stage. With the amount of tickets this tour is selling I am surprised she is even using a band. I would like to say what an awful show it was but it was so dripping with mediocrity where she couldn't even do a decent job of being bad. The little kids are totally loving it though, dancing around and waving $10 glow sticks in the air while most parents seem to be barely tolerating it. I was truly thankful for the air conditioning.
The stage banter was just as forced and contrived as the music, and if it sounded like she was talking down to the crowd, she probably was as the average age of the fans fell somewhere between 5 and 10.
The set structuring with a half hour of encores was odd since after the first "goodnight" a good quarter to a third of the building rapidly emptied out with parents grabbing their sproggen and running for the doors hoping to make it out of earshot before the little darlings realize it isn't quite over yet. I have never seen people run so fast before when bailing early. I wouldn't have been surprised if there were a few trampling deaths on the stairs last night.
One of the encore songs was a bizarrely upbeat cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," and she also did "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "Love Is A Battlefield" which meshed a little better with her own material, assuming any of the material she performed last night counts as her own, those were the only 3 songs I recognized.
For the encore I walked down to an orchestra section seat where the screams were deafening and overwhelming, a kid in front of me had her hands over ears in between the songs and I popped in my ear plugs for the first time that night. Things were much more sedate on the balcony, the front rows were parents with kids who apparently didn't want to spend as much money on tickets and in the back rows off to the sides were the bored or curious expressions of people who obviously didn't pay to get in.
It wasn't any less any boring than some other shows I caught for free at the same venue though I guess those were being passed off as serious music and were mostly attended by adults.
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| 17th August 2007 10:54 PM |
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| mojoman |
wat iz eh hillary duff?.. |
| 17th August 2007 11:56 PM |
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| robpop |
quote:
mojoman wrote:
wat iz eh hillary duff?..
I did not know,so I googled her. After seeing her, I'd really like to google her. |
| 18th August 2007 06:54 AM |
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| corgi37 |
She looked better in the Lizzie McGuire days. She looks bizarre to me. Anyway, i like my teen idols flawed and trashy, hence my never ending love for Britney Spears. |
| 18th August 2007 11:29 AM |
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| robpop |
quote:
corgi37 wrote:
She looked better in the Lizzie McGuire days. She looks bizarre to me. Anyway, i like my teen idols flawed and trashy, hence my never ending love for Britney Spears.
Is that Lizzie? I did not realize that? You're right. She did not live up to her potential. Never the less, I still wouln't mind.... |
| 18th August 2007 11:46 AM |
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| mrhipfl |
She does an incredible cover of "my generation."
"I hope I don't die before I get old" no joke! |
| 18th August 2007 01:25 PM |
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| fireontheplatter |
this much i know
hilary duff is very very very very very very very very very cute |
| 19th August 2007 12:02 PM |
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| gimmekeef |
Dan, was this The Debbie Gibson Amphitheater? |
