Mariah Carey

This is a peculiar name to be on this blog. I'm still a little bit surprised that I am writing it. But yes I did go to the Mariah Carey concert in Boston. And it was surprising that I enjoyed it so much.

Looking back, I realize that for the price I paid ($ 140) I better have been satisfied with the performance. I am not really the type to go to the mainstream pop stadium tour. I'm not particularly fond of any pop artist to actually want to attend their concert. Not that I don't enjoy her music. There was a point when "Shake It Off" was the number one song on my iTunes and "Always Be My Baby" is a seminal landmark in the musical history of moi. But still wasn't really rushing to the concert.

But of course good 'ol Untouchable (my just thought of name for my friend/co-worker) was not to be denied. Seems that as a child she and her sister used to pretend to be Mariah and Whitney and she was Mariah. So over a training one day, and a subsequent Ticketmaster race, we were there two rows away from a stage they had set up in the center of the arena.

Sean Paul opened first. Uhhh mixed bag at best. He's not exactly the most energetic. Couldn't understand why he was taking breaks when he wasn't doing to much. Also his song choice was suspect. Considering that he's a warmup act, the idea is to do all the hits that people know, especially more uptempo tracks. Alas, he did not want to follow this logic. Plus, he had a live band. This is fine and dandy but live band and dancehall reggae don't exactly match up. Guitars kind of weigh down the beat. So even on the songs that were danceable, you didn't feel like dancing but rather nodding your head. Great music but misguided purpose.

Anyway, after an extended wait that included watching a soon-to-be DSS custody 4 year old do a dancing exhibition, Mariah came out on the stage. She started off with "It's Like That" and breezed into a couple of tunes from her most recent album. For the rest of the night she was a strutting chanteuse, severely limited because her penchant for high heels. Not much dancing was young Mariah doing. And yes she doesn't hit high notes the way she used to. And her performance was inconsistent. But still somehow she really pulled it off. Maybe I was twisted because of her revealing choice of outfits (which included a matching purple tube top/boyshort emsemble with open toe stilettos). Still she entertained. It was probably watching the reactions of her more faithful fans who were crowded around me, including Untouchable. Ahh, just one more experience to add to the book.

The real fun happened after we left. We got stuck in the parking lot because some girl was screaming at a guy for hitting her car. Of course Untouchable being the devil she is rolls down the window and starts egging them on. Then we kept bargaining with the bootleggers trying to sell crappy tour t-shirts. We finally met one outside who actually agreed to the deal we were offering. But he was on the street and the light turned green, long story short, Untouchable really drove off with the shirt. We were laughing forever. Because of this we did get lost but we made it out safely anyway.

Once again a concert proved that it is really a lot about the shared experience.