Sparky's Review

[Livia]

Fabio's name is Joe and mini-Stevie is Elise. They are married, from New Jersey, and both VERY cool people! It's hilarious to watch people react to them. Friday nite, some dude bought her a rose, he was convinced she was Stevie. LOL Elise has a VERY heavy "Joy-Zee" accent - usually she has to "tawk" to convince people she's not Stevie. Again, it's hilarious!!

[MacMan]

Originally Posted by sparky

Everything worked. The little candles on the piano, the film clip, the chiffon drapes which echoed the design of the film, her costume, hair...

Great review Sparky!!

You mentioned the candles on the piano, and this reminded me of something very strange.... You know that Royal Blue cap or cloak or long coat that Stevie wore back around 98/91 it has the gold embroidery around the edges of it, and looks very heavy? For some reason - at the Friday show, that was what was draped over the piano for BATB, but inside out... and the candles were placed ontop or next to it on the piano. I saw a guy bring it out to lay over the piano, and thought when I saw it, is that the cap people were referring to her wearing... and how is she going to get it on if it's draped over the piano? Just something I noticed... and wondered if anyone else noticed that as well.

[GardenStateGirlie]

Originally Posted by amber

That frickin mini Stevie gave me blasted heart palpitations! Now i know exactly how I will feel if I ever see Stevie. But then, we saw her all the time. Her and her Fabio boyfriend. We were sitting in a bar, and she walked into the women's bathroom, then didn't come out, for like, 40 minutes.

Seriously, how many times did we stare at that woman? The similarities were uber creepy. Of course they'd be from Jersey

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by MacMan

Great review Sparky!!

You mentioned the candles on the piano, and this reminded me of something very strange.... You know that Royal Blue cap or cloak or long coat that Stevie wore back around 98/91 it has the gold embroidery around the edges of it, and looks very heavy? For some reason - at the Friday show, that was what was draped over the piano for BATB, but inside out... and the candles were placed ontop or next to it on the piano. I saw a guy bring it out to lay over the piano, and thought when I saw it, is that the cap people were referring to her wearing... and how is she going to get it on if it's draped over the piano? Just something I noticed... and wondered if anyone else noticed that as well.

It was heavily featured in the TimeSpace era. I was right up against the stage under Scott's feet basically - so I saw it in detail and it looked like that cape and was beautiful

[sparky]

Originally Posted by MacMan

Great review Sparky!!

You mentioned the candles on the piano, and this reminded me of something very strange.... You know that Royal Blue cap or cloak or long coat that Stevie wore back around 98/91 it has the gold embroidery around the edges of it, and looks very heavy? For some reason - at the Friday show, that was what was draped over the piano for BATB, but inside out... and the candles were placed ontop or next to it on the piano. I saw a guy bring it out to lay over the piano, and thought when I saw it, is that the cap people were referring to her wearing... and how is she going to get it on if it's draped over the piano? Just something I noticed... and wondered if anyone else noticed that as well.

Thanks Mac.

I totally noticed that ! I remember it from the Timespace tour - I think she wore it for HAEWAFY. I though WTF ? That's a cape, not a piano shawl ! But, if you're Stevie, or Scarlett O'Hara, any fancy piece of household fabric can double as clothing.

[sparky]

Originally Posted by GardenStateGirlie

Seriously, how many times did we stare at that woman? The similarities were uber creepy. Of course they'd be from Jersey

When she was standing next to me, my friend and I about spit up our drinks.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by sparky

When she was standing next to me, my friend and I about spit up our drinks.

She even kind of laughed like La Nicks, though any exact imitation of La Nicks' laugh would be impossible. I thought they were really funny and fun to be around and enjoyed meeting them and Livia is correct, the people's stares at her were hysterical

[GardenStateGirlie]

Originally Posted by sparky

When she was standing next to me, my friend and I about spit up our drinks.

****, that's $14 dollars wasted. No good.

[sparky]

Originally Posted by GardenStateGirlie

****, that's $14 dollars wasted. No good.

THANK GOD, my drinks were 11 in the Seahorse. Or 9, if I got the cute bartender.

[MacMan]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

She even kind of laughed like La Nicks, though any exact imitation of La Nicks' laugh would be impossible. I thought they were really funny and fun to be around and enjoyed meeting them and Livia is correct, the people's stares at her were hysterical

That mini Stevie situation the night I saw her... Friday, was pretty funny. First, I did this double take walking out of the place and by her... cause I only had a side view.... Then while a group of us were waiting just outside the doors to the place after the show... she's was out front with Chris Nicks, which I thought was kind of odd... But then I said to a friend of mine... Look at all the attention she's getting... Maybe she's a hired diversion....lol

[skcin]

Originally Posted by MacMan

That mini Stevie situation the night I saw her... Friday, was pretty funny. First, I did this double take walking out of the place and by her... cause I only had a side view.... Then while a group of us were waiting just outside the doors to the place after the show... she's was out front with Chris Nicks, which I thought was kind of odd... But then I said to a friend of mine... Look at all the attention she's getting... Maybe she's a hired diversion....lol

Haha! I thought the SAME thing. Like she's Stevie's stunt double, lol! Amber or Theresa then said "Yeah, but what stunts does Stevie do?"

OK, now about Spark's review. I will say that on Tues, I was not really impressed with the screens (any of them ) at all, with the exception of B&tB. On Wed, when we were more towards center, and they seemed to have worked out the kinks a bit, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Looking at my pics (they're in the "MY take on Vegas thread - I tried to take one of each song so people that couldn't go would get an idea of how they looked) I think in general they were very cool. Exceptions being:

Rhiannon - unicorns. Need I say more?
Landslide - WTF?
Edge - agreed - the same dove on the enitre song was boring. Of course, I was staring at Stevie anyway, sooo...

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by MacMan

Great review Sparky!!

You mentioned the candles on the piano, and this reminded me of something very strange.... You know that Royal Blue cap or cloak or long coat that Stevie wore back around 98/91 it has the gold embroidery around the edges of it, and looks very heavy? For some reason - at the Friday show, that was what was draped over the piano for BATB, but inside out... and the candles were placed ontop or next to it on the piano. I saw a guy bring it out to lay over the piano, and thought when I saw it, is that the cap people were referring to her wearing... and how is she going to get it on if it's draped over the piano? Just something I noticed... and wondered if anyone else noticed that as well.

I certainly did notice it and even tired to get a picture of it after the show but it came out too dark.

[skcin]

I thought it was the Desert Angel cape - is that the one you guys are talking about? The one from the Enchanted box set book where there's a flag superimposed over her photo & the words to Desert Angel?

I don't have a still pic, but you can see it at the end of my Wed. video as she's walking offstage (I believe it's right after she leaves, I swung back to her mike & you can see it on the way.)

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by skcin

I thought it was the Desert Angel cape - is that the one you guys are talking about? The one from the Enchanted box set book where there's a flag superimposed over her photo & the words to Desert Angel?

That's the one.

[The Tower]

Originally Posted by sparky

Since I saw two shows, I have to kind of gang this together. I am not going to go into all the specific songs, the order. My response is delayed and all of that is done to death.

I was gonna do a review thang, too. But since your review is very close to mine own feelings and a lot of things have been done to death, I will just plop my comments in on this thread.

The setlist was tired. I promised myself I was going to stay away from the Ledge starting Tuesday morning and I stuck to it. It was good to be surprised, even though the setlist was not surprising.

Geoffrey and I got up at 4am to catch our 7am flight and we weren't able to check into our room until 1pm, so our asses were dragging. I had planned on meeting and seeing people at the show, but being tired we barely managed to get it together to see Jason and Amber.

What can I say? The impact of "Beauty and the Beast" so heavily tilted the judgement scale for this show. It can't be reviewed as a whole entity. So, removing BATB from the setlist, here's my high/lowlights:

Biggest duds:

"Enchanted"- This song is supposed to be a "rocker" and she just did nothing with it. Lazy, lazy, lazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzy vocals. Either do the song or don't do it, but please no phoned-in performances, please.

"I Need to Know"- This is a complete waste of time- permenently delete it from the setlist, please.

Biggest surprises:

"Landslide"- I cried on this one both nights. Why did I cry to this song that has been performed to death? Especially on Saturday, when she dedicated the song to Caesar's Palace It was her voice. Stronger and more vibrant than I've heard since the 80's. No joke.

"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"- Doing it in the new lower key is abysmal. Friday night's performance was disheartening. However..... for some reason she really rocked it on Saturday night. I don't know why, but it was different. She was on fire.

The "I Told You So" of the tour:

"If Anyone Falls"-

Originally Posted by The Tower

I really, really, REALLY hope she doesn't do "If Anyone Falls"! The last thing I need to see is that damn carousel scene from that wretched video.....

I loathe that video. What was she thinking?!?!? Then again, she had just gotten off the treadmill from the "Stand Back" video, so maybe she thought that carousels and sad attempts at ballet would be happenin'.

Sure enough, we got endless loops of Stevie doing bad ballet. Thank gawd we didn't get the carousel shots.

Biggest Letdown:

"How Still My Love"-

"But you don't forget me...
Ooo no...you don't forget me
Oooo no... my lonely"

ONE!!!! Hello, Stevie- you forgot the climax of the song....

Best Song of the Night (other than BATB):

"Fall From Grace"- !!!!!!!!!!!! This song was everything that "Enchanted" was not. More proof that Stevie has still got it.

Some of the graphics were really awful. The white mares on "Rhiannon", the computer silhouette of the dove on "Edge.." over and over and over and over, and the disco blocks on "Stand Back" I leaned over to Geoffrey and said, "Next thing you know the screen is gonna click over to a game of pong."
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I have to say, that Stevie's voice was the best that I have heard in a long, long time. One thing I really noticed is that she was holding all her notes out instead of dropping them off. She looks fantastic, too. I looks like she lost the little bit of weight she was carrying from the second leg of the SYW tour. She needs to get rid of those Reeboks, though- it looks like they limit her movement.

What can I say about "Beauty and the Beast" that hasn't already been said? I think Sparky said it best here:

Originally Posted by sparky

Now, the problem. BATB, in perspective, also showed how much the rest of the show lacked. Was it a fine show ? Sure. Was it all that special and memorable as a whole? Not for this veteran fan. BATB made the entire trip worth it.

Immediately after BATB on Friday, I ran over to Jason freeeking out and the consensus was that BATB proved just how much Stevie can really do if she chooses to do it. It's so frustrating because we know how good she can be and so often she chooses to be lackluster. Tears just poured down my face during that whole song. I was seriously in an orgasmic state when did the pleasure/pain-I've changed part of the song. Words cannot describe it, you really had to be there to feel it.
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Sorry I missed you Sparky (and many others)!! Like I said, Geoffrey and I were tired as hell. Amber and Jason both tried to cajole us into going out to the bars, etc. but we were two tired old grammaws. We slept in most of Saturday and barely made it to the concert after showering and eating, etc. Sunday was just a clean up and go home kind of day.

All in all, it was worth it- mainly because of "Beauty and the Beast". It's one of those things that you look back on ten years later and remember as clear as a bell. It ranks up there as probably the best performance of her career, no exaggeration.

It was great meeting Amber, Mariel and Jason. Sorry we didn't get to meet and greet more peeps.