« All You Need to do to Get a Crowd to Scream is Yell the Name of Their City »

…. and so goes the concert mantra of Hilary Duff. When in doubt of what to say next, holler *Torontooooo*.

In a venue packed to the rafters with pre-pubescent girls in pigtails, glitter and, for some reason, trackpants, it was an ideal event to take 2 someones who were 7 and 9.  We fit right in. Not like the fellow in front of us in the ticket queue, mysteriously aged and dressed in black, until his girlfriend showed up, and we breathed a sigh of relief.  It’s hard to think about twenty something males going to a Hilary Duff concert on their own.

A lengthy delay gave the crowd ample time to buy the requisite glow sticks, and when the lights finally wend down in the Ole’ ACC, the audience was replete with neon fireflies.  That visual effect by itself made the drive downtown worth it.

We were surprised to know so many songs, despite the fact that there are 2 tweeny-ish girls in our house most of the time.  It was after the 3rd song that we realized that YTV plays most of Hilary’s music videos between TV shows.

I’ve got tinny ears at the best of times, and spent a few songs disappointed that I couldn’t hear what Hilary was singing, the lyrics lost in waves of instrumental melodies.  When I whispered my disappointment to the Wiz, he said he couldn’t hear her either, and we chalked it up to an intentionally blurred sound effect.  Apparently The Duffster needs some serious post-production work.  But the kids didn’t mind.  Thousands of screaming girls, singing and swaying and waving those glowsticks like crazy.

But I’ve got to wonder, if you are the type of performer that requires such post-production work, why would you go on tour? Simply hoping that your audience doesn’t notice that your voice in real life is blurry, or that they are immature enough to realize that concerts don’t normally sound the way that yours does…..

Bah - the kids loved it.

It was essentially a kid’s concert, considering the audience and atmosphere.
But how does Hilary move up the foodchain? What happens when she gets to be in her late 20s and is tired of being a children’s entertainer? How does she get from here to there?  She’s got to walk a very fine line right now, squeaky image, song lyrics that are fun, uplifting, motivational and directed to elementary school girls. It’s not only the kids that she’s got to impress, it’s their parents as well.   At some point, she’s going to need to morph into a Christina Aguilera to continue her entertainment career. Gulp. Look out tweenies.