Originally Posted by
reese
I'm just getting back to my hotel room after attending this very concert. Much of what was posted above was true.
The doors opened at 6pm and the concert was supposed to start at 7pm. When I attempted to go to my seat, an usher informed me that I couldn't go in because the artists had gotten in late and were doing a sound check. We could hear certain songs being played so it seemed things would be happening soon. They didn't end up letting the audience in until around 7:30 or so, as I recall. On stage, we could see Babyface's drumkit so there was no reason to think anything was wrong. But things just dragged and dragged with no explanation.
Then around 8:30 or so, the crew began dismantling Babyface's set, which resulted in a large boo from the audience as we knew that meant he wasn't going to appear. I assumed Babyface was cancelled because if both he and Anita performed their sets, the venue would probably go into overtime.
At this point, a rep from Live Nation [although I thought he said he rep'd the venue] came on stage and said that due to technical difficulties, Babyface wouldn't be performing but Anita would be. Again, there was a boo and I saw a couple of people leave. Anita finally came onstage around 9:15 after a stupidly long keyboard overture, followed by the rep introducing her, followed by another few wasted moments before she finally appeared.
All of the above said, I have to say Anita put on a great show and the audience loved her, singing along loud and often, a bit too often for my taste. Anita apologized for the difficulties, saying it was due to the video wall not working. In any event, she really did put on a great show. But I did feel her comments about the sound were a bit much. Technically, she seemed to know what she was speaking of but after a while, I think she should have stopped mentioning them as she sounded fine to the audience. It was the monitors on stage that she was having trouble with. It reminded me of one of her concerts I attended in the 80s where she did the same thing. I will say though that Anita wasn't nasty or rude with her requests, she was just rather specific.
Technical difficulties aside, I am glad that I went. Anita must have done three or four encores before finally leaving and I stayed until the very end.
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