Last night I had the chance to watch Stevie Wonder for the first time at the ACC. I have to admit, it was a great show. The band was great. Stevie was great. Most of the music performed were songs that I have grown up with. High energy to begin the show, laid back during the middle and incredible energy to close. The audience was completely sold on everything that was on stage. Fans of Stevie Wonder's music were not disappointed having performed many of his Old Motown hits, through his big 70s and 80s smash songs right up to a couple of his most recent projects. It is almost a given that Stevie's vocal, keyboard, and harmonica expertise were brilliant as well as his killer band which helped drive and keep everything together. To sum up, the performance by all the musicians was amazing.
My major concern is with the ACC and probably with stadium concerts on the whole. It seems you can never produce an intimate setting in these sorts of venues due to their vast size and concrete structure. The sound bounces all over the place so there is a great amount of clarity and tone that is lost in that environment. In addition, whenever Stevie was speaking, it was hard to make out what he was saying due to the poor acoustics that the arena provides which is unfortunate due to the various topics and tangents that were touched upon.
Stevie's music can make a lasting and personable impression on a person when listening in the car or on the radio or in the privacy of one's mp3 player, but to recreate that in a large setting is very difficult, or rather, near impossible. Having stated that, it was still a remarkable show and being a Stevie Wonder fan, I came away having a fantastic time.
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