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2007 |
Hillary Duff with Click FiveAugust 19, 2007 by George Ziemann -- August 21, 2007 Maybe a year ago, I saw Hilary Duff quoted somewhere as saying that she didn't care what 30- to 50-year-old critics said about her because "they're not in my demographic." While that may be true, her demographic needs a ride to the show, not to mention a credit card to buy tickets. I wouldn't normally go to a Hilary Duff concert, or any other pop star, for that matter, but I made an exception this week. My daughter, Mackenzie (aka Mac), turned 11 recently and one of her birthday presents was two tickets to the show. It was going to be her first real concert (Roger Waters notwithstanding), as well as a birthday present, so I really wanted her to have a good time. Despite what my opinion may have been prior to the concert, Mac is a real Hilary fan. To her, Duff is a TV star, movie star, and a singer. She's been watching Hilary for years as Lizzy McGuire and in movies and in the music videos that the Disney Channel runs frequently. From my perspective, at least it wasn't Britney Spears, who Mac also used to be a fan of, until this last Christmas, when she gave me her Britney CD and said she never wanted to hear it again. The concert was at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, which I had never been to before. It was a good place to see a concert, big enough to feel like a concert but small enough to feel kinda cozy. We were in the 3rd row of the "Club Level", which is the 2nd floor balcony. The seats had a good view and we both had binoculars. Sadly, we had forgotten the glow sticks which we had purchased ahead of time, an integral part of an 11-year-old's concert experience. Everyone else had them and Mac didn't even ask for new ones. She just went, "Oh snap!! I forgot the glow sticks." That was a good thing because, judging from the price of a 12 oz. bottle of soda pop ($4), I figured the glow sticks were about $25 each. None of that really mattered though because Mac was already sponging -- soaking up that whole first-time experience of seeing an artist you really like perform live, that pre-show anticipatory build when the appearance of even a roadie taping down a set list elicits a wave of screams. If there is one thing I was not prepared for, it was the sound of three or four thousand little girls screaming at once. When the first band finally came out, the sound that went up from the audience was one of the most frightening things I have ever heard. It was an ear-piercing, high-pitched knife of noise. And they were holding back. Mac said, "I'm not screaming until Hilary comes out." Opening act was called Click Five. They must be another Disney act because I recognized some of their songs, although I couldn't name one on a bet. They really weren't bad at all, like a non-offensive pop punk band. The guitarist/singer had the erratic-stumbling-around-the-stage thing down pretty well. No real mastery of musicianship here but they were tight and the keyboardist even endured an uncooperative stand that kept lowering one end of the board he was playing with his left hand. They finished the song with a roadie holding the thing level. After they were done, I said to Mac, "Wow, I actually recognized a couple of their songs." "Yeah, they've been together a long time. Maybe two years." She was properly impressed with Click Five, but knowing this was her first show, I explained to her that there was more to the stage than the front ten feet or so that Click Five had been limited to. Plus more lights. And hopefully, more to the sound system because I was thinking that Click Five might have sounded better if they were a little louder. She looked at me funny when I said that part, but when Hilary Duff came out, the level did go up significantly. Not enough to drown out the screams from the horde of pre-teen girls, though, which was also significantly louder because they weren't holding back this time. Mac and I both independently determined that Hilary was not lip-syncing, despite almost every song requiring at least minimal choreography. She had four dancers -- two male, two female. And she had an actual band, which was not too shabby at all. Hilary was definitely NOT Britney Spears. The entire show was tasteful, energetic, G-rated and really well-done. She sang for at least an hour and a half, her voice was strong and solid, with two back-up singers adding depth. She even did Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield" during the encore, the only song that Mac didn't recognize. But she, and every other kid in the place, knew the words to every other song. Not exactly what I'd look for in a rock show, but it was a perfect show for an 11-year-old to see. She was extremely pleased and content, a minor dream fulfilled. The next day she learned that "your favorite band sucks" prompting a discussion about how it really doesn't matter what other people think because she had an awesome time and they weren't even there. Then I asked her if she learned anything at the concert. "Yeah. Click Five got crap." The kid's got potential. |
