Wango Tango 2003: Eyewitness Report

You know those outdoor stadium concerts where it's 95 in the shade all day and you are sweating bullets and paying for six dollar bottles of water to keep from passing out while you pray for the sun to go down? Wango Tango 2003 wasn't one of them, thank God. The water wasn't cheap but the weather was cool and cloudy at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California for the KIIS FM radio-sponsored concert. It's the biggest, single day, multi-artist festival in America. Dubbed "The Ultimate Reality Show", the star-studded event featured a massive line-up of performers including Christina Aguilera, Nelly, Boomkat, Michelle Branch, Craig David with Sting, Sugar Ray, Lisa Marie Presley, Daniel Bedingfield, Tyrese, O-Town, Bowling for Soup, Amanda Perez and a special performance by NSYNC's JC Chasez of his song from the film "Drumline". The concert was topped off with fireworks and a 30th anniversary performance by legendary rockers KISS.

Presenters who introduced acts included Cris Judd, Corey Feldman, Ryan Seacrest, Paula Abdul, Hilary Duff, Lance Bass, Wayne Brady, and bachelor Evan Marriott.

At this year's Wango, the phony, manufactured popstar gave way to "real" musicians, those who write songs and play several instruments. Techno-pop lip-synchers weren't given a great reception while the "classic" stars and earnest songsmiths were cheered.

I'm not going to review this awesome 70,000 audience member concert as such but tell you what I heard, saw and give you a little "you are there" buzz. I finally arrived about 1:00 PM, got my press pass and got inside the Bowl to my floor seat in front of the stage and two giant video screens to catch part of Boomkat doing their single "The Wreckoning" which got a good reception. Singer/actress Taryn Manning was upbeat and audience- friendly and the sound was balanced well on the number. I spent most of the Amanda Perez set looking for the Press Tent, which I never found and no one seemed to know directions to. L.A. has a huge Latino population and, from the sound of the cheers, Amanda's fan base is growing.

My friend and I found our seats and settled in just in time for me to grab my camera and get some shots of hottie Tyrese who was a big lady killer wearing a body-displaying white tee and 3 or 4 carat diamond stud in his left ear. He seemed annoyed that the concert security (which was pretty surly) wouldn't let him come off the stage and walk among his fans. In retaliation, the R&B star pulled a hot 18-year-old fan up on stage and put the moves on her while crooning several of his more personal tunes. Since the program was running late, the artist got cut off before finishing his new single "Signs of Love Makin'. This garnered boos at the powers that be from Tyrese fans. You can catch him on June 6th in his co-starring role in 2 Fast 2 Furious (check out TeenHollywood.com that week for my recent movie interview with Tyrese).

Punk powerpoppers Bowling for Soup led by Jaret Von Erich, livened things up a lot with fun rude tunes like "Girl All the Bad Guys Want" and "The Bitch Song." "Soup" is one of the few bands to include a shall we say "portly" member who rocks out with the skinniest of them. The band will be joining the Van's Warped tour in June. Suddenly, "whoa" what or who is that? A bunch of colorfully-dressed dudes hopping high all over the stage and doing acrobatics wearing several feet high antiGravity boots. It's "Anti-Gravity", a New York-based aerial performance group that blew the crowd away several times during the show with their athleticism and gymnastic moves on the springy boots. It was performance art at its best.

Ashley, Jacob, Trevor, Erik and Dan...O-Town made their second appearance at Wango Tango. Although the Boy Band craze is definitely on its last legs, the veterans of "Making the Band" rated cheers and shrieks from diehard fans as they delivered "All or Nothing at All" to their thrilled fans who sang along. Your reporter did manage a few pics before the guards threw me out of the press photo pit for the rest of the concert for not having the "correct" pass. Oh well....

Voted "hottie they would most like to shack up with" by 12 to 17-year-old boys, Jennifer Love Hewitt joined the fashion statement most of the female acts at Wango Tango were making by wearing a tight-fitting white tee. Her big hoop earrings peeked out from under her still short, black hair and were bouncing all over as she sang "Bare Naked", "Say What you Wanna Say" and a joke song dedicated to Valentine and Jo-Jo, two local L.A. D.J.'s. Jennifer is certainly happy, perky and eager to please the audience. Her voice isn't quite strong enough to carry a live, stadium-sized performance but she gave it a try and seemed to love doing it. Points for that.

London by way of New Zealand hottie Daniel Bedingfield recorded his debut album "Gotta Get Through This" in his bedroom but he's come a long way. Wearing a worn, brown leather jacket, the singer attacked his songs with great feeling. His intense, earnest, honest lyrics and vocal range in performance of "If You're Not the One" and other numbers was the most infectious and passionate of the day so far.

Sugar Ray, those stoner surf rockers, performed one of the longest sets of the day with the familiar "Mr. Bartender", "Someday" and their heavy metal-sounding tune called "Answer the Phone" which they explained was about "getting drunk and calling people in your high school yearbook". To fans' delight, Mark McGrath spent a good deal of his time on stage skipping up and down a long ramp that reached far out into the audience.

As the sun started lowering around 6:00 PM, the American Idol contestants were marched to a standing, raised platform in mid-arena to sing "God Bless the USA". Most of the audience joined in on the "proud to be an American" anthem while turning toward a large American flag, flapping above the bowl. The microphones weren't working properly but the patriotic song received huge cheers none-the-less. The "idols" finished off their short appearance with some cute buddy banter between arch rivals Ruben and Clay.

Bring on the classics! Rock and Roll hall of famer Santana dropped by before launching a world tour next month. "Maria, Maria" was played while the music video steamed up the huge screens and those Latin drums got me to my feet. This guy is still amazing. His fingers fly over the strings and the most awesome, virtuoso riffs come out. A majestic, lone hawk flew in and circled directly over the stage as if in approval. By adding singers Musiq, Michelle Branch and the Calling's Alex Band, to his set, Santana demonstrated his generous nature and his ability to shape-shift his talent and re-shape over and over as music changes around him. I was honored to watch it happen.

Santana called her "the songbird of our times" and Michelle Branch, songwriter and player of keyboards and various guitars, impressed. Why she was dressed like an Apache Indian in green headband, uneven scarf skirt and suede boots, I don't know but who cared? She rocked and announced her new album and sang "Breathe" and a lot of feisty, soul-baring tunes that are her trademark. She shared with the audience her amazing rise to fame from sitting far back in the cheap seats at this very concert two years ago to stand on its stage. There's hope for talented gals everywhere.

Lisa Marie Presley's face on those huge screens was spookily like her famous dad's, complete with curled up lip and those gorgeous eyes. She was wearing two humungous turquoise rings the size of the state of Texas! Her performance fell pretty flat due to an unbalanced sound system (her band badly drowned her out). To be fair, this was her first huge stadium concert and she seemed nervous and unsure but seemed to loosen up as her set went on. There was a tech problem with her S.O.B. song which didn't help. Now if she can just do a few more club tours, loosen up and develop some stage presence, she might have something.

Kids ran around the huge bowl passing out lightsticks and glow necklaces until, from where I sat on the bowl floor, we were surrounded by a multi-colored Christmas tree light effect. J.C. Chasez of N'SYNC performed "Blowin' Me Up" the number used in the film "Drumline" along with a local L.A. area high school band which won a competition for the honor. Chasez and the show-style band moved all over the stage and down the long ramp to a great audience reception.

Okay, besides Santana, my fave performance of the night was smooth-singing Brit R&B star Craig David who ditched the UK garage beat and went for one acoustic guitar player to accompany his smooth, soulful voice. The guitar was great and Craig was hot on "Fill Me In" and "Seven Days" and added machine-gun rap lyrics that prove he can take on that genre as well. Sting walked on stage in a black leather jacket to huge cheers for his duet with David on "Rise and Fall" and the two part harmony was incredible. Could have used a couple more songs from Sting as well.

While waiting between acts, the 70,000 strong audience started doing "the wave" in a dizzying circular rise and fall of their own.

The now raven-haired Christina Aguilera, wearing some kind of weird leather, belly-baring jumpsuit, looked rather strange but put on a hot show opening with "Dirrty". Her fans went wild as she showed off her vocal range and belted out a stirring rendition of "Fighter" and the bluesy "Impossible", her duet with Alicia Keys. Lisa-Marie could take a lesson from the way this diva works her crowd. She tried to be self-deprecating and began "Beautiful' and a new single by saying they were dedicated to "everyone who has ever been stabbed in the back or discriminated against". Overall, a tuff, hard, emotional performance. This bodes well for the upcoming Stripped and Justified tour.

A huge part of the audience had evidently come to see rapper Nelly or else they were the loudest fans in the stadium! The hip-hopper opened with "Hot in Heere" did new single "Pimp Juice" and often stopped a rap to let his fans shout out the words. All the rap fans were on their feet in droves movin' to his groovin' and watching Nelly and his posse move energetically up and down the ramp. At one point, the rapper's posse members appeared to grow in number until he seemed overshadowed but the fans loved him.

We seemed to wait forever (20 minutes) for Classic rockers KISS to set up their light and fire show but those of us who stuck around got a short but energetic 30th anniversary performance from the wildly costumed stadium rockers who got everyone on their feet to sing "Rock and Roll All Night" as the fireworks popped and the huge Wango stage finally went silent for another year.