Carey rations it, then turns it on at Pepsi
Mariah Carey's tour might be meticulously orchestrated from city to city right down to song list, lights, dance steps and cymbal crashes, but her voice moves like a gymnast across the floor mats, and while that, too may be carefully planned, she rarely sings the same song the same way twice. And that's what people came to see and hear at the Pepsi Arena Friday night.
As she rose from underground in a bikini for the opening song "It's Like That", Carey's voice twisted and triple-flipped a few octaves from the start. She stayed on the second deck of the stage for "Heartbreaker" with her dancers, then stepped down one of the two staircases to join her singers and band on the first tier.
Notorious for over-singing and almost single-handedly creating a movement of over-singers through her career, it seemed the 37-year-old rationed out her voice for several tunes, like "Dreamlover". And just as you thought she was saving her voice at certain points, thinking about the next umpteen shows ahead of her, she reached for the high octave to show her vocal muscles.
She slowed it down with "My All" from the "Butterfly" album. She's probably best on these sultry ballads, where she draws attention to her vocal acrobats by conducting herself with her right hand, making visible the rise and fall of her voice. But here again she stayed in her comfort zone and chose not to push her range.
She followed with the more interesting "Shake It Off", where she started to dig in a bit, but then dropped the intensity, ended the song and left the stage for a deejay to run the show while Mimi exited stage left. "All the ugly people be quiet," he shouted ignorantly.
Carey returned in a yellow gown and finally let it rip for "Vision of Love". (Note, she did not sing this, she sang "I Wish You Knew" which started with the "Vision of Love" intro.) It was cool to see her turn it on for "Fly Like A Bird" from her recent "Emancipation of Mimi", which didn't give her the same amount of room to roar, but she pushed it as best as the song let her.
Other good ones, which she sang from a stage in the middle of the floor, included "I'll Be There" (note again, she did this on the stage not in the middle of the floor, they left out "Your Girl" which she did perform in the middle of the floor as well as "Always Be My Baby"), "Fantasy" and "Don't Forget About Us". (This was on stage too, note again.)
There was musical-chair mayhem during opening act Sean Paul because Carey does not like the appearance of an empty arena. Friday night the top and bottom-priced tickets sold better than the middle-the arena was less than half-full-so the Pepsi closed the top to fill the middle seats, literally relocating those seat holders during the show. Needless to say, there were many unhappy campers and harried ushers.
Jamaican born and driven hip-hopper Sean Paul, surrounded by women barely wearing bikins, rapped through a 50-minute set. The poor sound made it impossible to understand anything he sang, other than the 50-plus "shout outs" to "Albany ladies". The women screamed and danced at his command, and when he yelled to raise peace signs and then lighters after several songs, a few hundred lighted cellphones went up in the air. (The Daily Gazette - Michele)
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