More Reviews

I went to a couple of live shows this week. Here are my thoughts.

Riverdance (Tuesday) - First of all, the venue was in Grand Prairie, so it took about 1.5 hours to get there.  Ugh, I hate Dallas traffic.
Too many cars + clueless drivers driving too fast = accidents. 
Anyway, my mom and I left the apartment at 6 and the show didn't start until 8, so we still had plenty of time.  The theater was really nice: incredibly quiet despite the thousands of people, and plush comfy chairs in the lobby.   It had been awhile since I had seen Riverdance (2 or 3 years ago on PBS, when Michael Flatley was still the lead dancer), so I had almost forgotten what the big hoopla was all about, and doubted whether this group would be able to pull off a good performance without their main dancer.  But, alas, it was a great show.  It was sorta slow at times, when they had groups singing in Irish, but the fancy footwork routines more than made up for it.  It amazes me how many taps they can complete in a minute, and it's an incredible sensation to see it live; at times, it looked like their legs were made of rubber, the way they were moving so quickly.
Grade: A (The females looked like fairies)

Music Temptation 2005 (Friday) - Yes, that was the official name of the event.  Basically, there were about 5 or 6 of the biggest Indian playback singers (most of the music in India comes from movies, so a playback singer is the person who actually performed the song versus the actor/actress lip-synching in the movie), complete with musicians and "Bollywood Dancers."   The event was at the Dallas Convention Center complex, which is in the rundown part of downtown Dallas.  Traffic wasn't as bad as when going to Riverdance, and parking was much cheaper, so no complaints there.  This event was much less professional than Riverdance though.  They didn't start seating people until about 15 minutes before the show started, which meant it was an hour into the program before everyone was seated.  So yeah, there was tons of movement and noise in the audience for at least an hour and a half.  After people settled down, the show was much easier to enjoy.  Admittedly, I'm not hip to all the latest Hindi songs (or to any of the older ones that were performed), but it was definitely fun to hear the ones I did recognize.  The last performer, Kunal G., actually came out into the stands and shook hands and signed autographs while singing.  The whole performance lasted over 4 hours, but it was definitely entertaining.  Quite different from Riverdance in terms of venue, audience, and just overall quality of show, but still entertaining.
Grade: B (Yeah, as fun as it was, I don't think I'll be going to one of these again.. unless of course Aishwariya and Preity Zinta come together or something)