Review: Alicia Keys with Ne-Yo

She's got skills: She can dance and sing and she rules the piano. Alicia Keys is super. Photos by Keith Myers/The Star

Anyone who sings a song called "Superwoman" needs the extra game to back it up. Alicia Keys has it, and more. Thursday night, she rolled into town, just ahead of the monstrous thunder, wind and light show, and whipped up a storm of her own inside Sprint Center.

The place wasn't sold out, but the crowd was big (around 10,000), loud and appreciative, although it endured a sound mix that was bad at its worst, tolerable at its best.

Keys is something rare these days: She sings, she writes songs and she plays several instruments. She has also learned that being a gifted musician doesn't necessarily make someone a  great entertainer, so she has developed and honed some skills that add polish and energy to her live shows. She's not a great dancer, but she can hang with the boys and girls around her.She has also figured out how to stoke the mood between songs, without talking too much. (And being as pretty as she is doesn't hurt either.)

Keys' performance followed a set by Ne-Yo that included "Do Yo" and "Because of You." She opened with the intro to "As I Am," launching a show that would evolve into a extravaganza. She brought a big band/orchestra and a small army of backup singers and dancers. She moved back and forth between the piano and keyboards to high-energy dance routines with her young dancers. She also brought a stage set loaded with video screens that broadcast the show to the fans sitting farthest from the stage. The sights were bright and flashy; the vocal mix, however, was thick and muddy in several spots around the arena.

The show lasted about 100 minutes and it covered more than two dozen songs. There weren't any big, raucous sing-along moments, but she ignited lots of cheers (and singing) for "My Boo" (one of her singer/dancers filled in for Usher), "Like You'll Never See Me Again" and her closer, "If I Ain't Got You." Before  "Superwoman," she advised the crowd: "You have to do what you love." Clearly, that's what she was doing for nearly two hours on a stormy Thursday night in Kansas City.

| Timothy Finn, The Star

Set list: As I Am (intro); Ghetto Story; Waiting for Your Love; Where Do We Go From Here; You Don’t Know My Name; Teenage Love Affair; Lady Marmalade (backup singers); Heartburn; Sure Looks Good to Me; How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore; Butterfliez; Goodbye; Prelude to a  Kiss; Superwoman; I Need You; Reckless Love; Diary; My Boo; Unbreakable; Like You’ll Never See Me Again; Go Ahead; A Woman’s Worth; Lesson Learned; Karma; Fallin'; No One; If I Ain't Got You.

Comments

[Michael from Kansas City]

I attended this performance last night. Even though she is beautifully talented and yes, is very gifted with all the difference things she has the ability to do as an artist, I was so very disappointed. I can't believe that Alicia Keys was satisfied last night with the sound system throughout the arena. If I didn't know the songs by heart, {and some I didn't} I could barely understand the words she was saying. The bass and the electric guartars over powered her very words. The bass was so high at times, I couldn't make out a word she was saying and the bass felt like it was going right thru my chest, it was so loud. I also can't believe that the editor of the KCStar/Timothy Finn didn't mentioned anything about this. I was so very clear what was going on, from the minute Ms. Keys came on stage. It wasn't like this at all with Ne-Yo, his musical back ground was absolutely great, and his words were clear. Alicia Keys is a GREAT artist, why did she need the constant blast of bass, and other instruments to take us away from hearing her words, when she was singing. God only knows. If I would of known that this was going to be this bad, I wouldn't of waisted 130.00 each x 2, for 20 rows back from the stage. I would of saved my $ and put her music on my pod and listened to her. I can only hope Ms. Keys has an opportunity to listen to a video of some sort, to show her how bad her sound system really was last night. I wish I could blame it on the Sprint Center, but I can't. NeYo sounded great with his musical back system. Why would an artist of this statue personally feel her sound system was okay. When it was so bad, within 30 minutes of her coming on stage, I wanted to leave, it just wasn't fun anymore. If she just shut the bass system off, it would of been a great start. But then again, when she played the piano and sang without other instruments, you could still hear just screaming in the microphone, and I and others barely understood her words. I've read that she has canceled in the past weeks/days other scheduled dates {in other cites}, so maybe she was still not feeling well, and not on her toppest game. If that was the case, she should of canceled this event too. I and many others left probably 25 minutes before the show ended. And It probably took 25 minutes just to get the bass ringing out of ours /my ears, when diving home.
Alicia, I hope you or your people are reading this, and not put other shows through what we went through last night. And for the editor/Tim Finn, whatever you reported about this show last night, were you even at the same show? You were obviously smoking the same stuff, the whole front section was smoking last night. Because your report was weak and not accurate, and you failed as a reporter, with not mentioning any of these things I am talking about now. Just because your ticket is free, and you probably love your job, shouldn't you be accurate and truthful with what you report. I could only hope.
I came home last night to listen to what the real Alicia Keys sounds like. I just don't get it, why would Alicia Keys sound any different than what has made her a great artist, to date.
I'm sorry to me, that I waisted my time and my money. This is such a let down, from where I had this artist professionally, as a singer, to where I have her now.
This is the part, over and above it all, and is the most disappointing, {feeling let down with her performance}.
Michael From Kansas City...

[Tim Finn]

Um, I mentioned the bad sound twice, once at the beginning of the review and again at the middle. It was real bad in some parts of the arena, a little better in other. I was able to make out the lyrics to most of her songs. (And I didn't think the sound for Ne-Yo was all that good either.)

[Michael from Kansas City]

O' Tim my man, you do read these comments. Surprised to say the least. After going back and re-reading your column, yes I stand correctly, you did mention {mildly} some bad sound system. But the way I express this event, sounds like we attended two different venues. I speak for many, many others, as I know you are doing this gig, with this column all by yourself. I just found your article way toooo nice this morning, and felt I needed to correct you in many areas, with really expressing and communicating on, what I and others not just saw, but more importantly heard. Your column was a walk in the park, and your words were not expressing what the real deal was here. I by no way want to correct you, on how to work your column, but I could only hope that your used more expression when describing something, that needed to be said.
Give or take a word. Thank you for your follow up comments. I do read these comments too.
Michael from Kansas City.

[east side mike]

I loved every bit of the concert and was glad I was there I like my music with the big bass sound. I spent a lot of cheeze to get my speakers at home to sound that way.She was in St Louis sunday and sold out.I think Kansas City considering the weather turn out pretty good.If you had listen to the weather reports like many you might have stayed home and missed a real star.

[Tim Finn]

I didn't see people leaving in droves until the encore. The people around me (and I watched/listened from three spots) seemed pretty happy, some were real excited. The sound at a show gets different reactions every time. I thought it was great at Bon Jovi; lots of people agreed; some strongly disagreed. In Section 116, where I first sat, it was bad. As I moved farther away and towards the back, it got better. This was one of the bad ones -- like Van Halen -- but I've heard worse, too.

[Vandelay]

"Bad sound mix" seems to be a constant complaint of Sprint Center concert-goers. The sound issue comes up in almost every Sprint Center concert review I've seen on this blog. Maybe the Star should write a story focused on that. Talk to some of the local sound engineers (some of whom get contracted for these concerts) to get their take on it.

[Andy]

Wow...The sound was horrible, especially her piano mike and her vocal mike...

It was kind of interesting reading the review from Minneapolis the night before...that review was much more in tune than you were Tim...Also why no mention of Jordin Sparks?

We left about 1/2 through Ms. Keys set, and my wife said that she had never seen so many people leaving in the middle of concert as she did last night.

[Geordan]

Oh, but don't these pics of Alicia look terrific? I wouldn't listen to her music if you put a gun to my head, but she is pretty hot....guess I'm just shallow like that. Thanks for the photos!

[john]

That was the worst quality sound I have ever heard at muscial concert. What was even more shocking was the lack of adjustment. Why not turn down the sound? Why not turn down the bass? It ruined the show. The piano sounded terrible. It was hard to hear her voice. Distortion and reverb dominated. If this does happen at all sprint center concerts then we have a civic disaster on our hands. I hope it is not the acoustics. That was worst concert i ever attended. It was completely due to the poor quality sound... or should i call it noise.

[William]

You people must relize you have a glass bowl not the concrete. The glass vibrates sound where concrete the sound bounces off and starts work together. You will never have the sound you had at Kemper. I know that is a bad word but kemper was right on with sound. At Kemper when they held church services and people were all quiet you could hear without a mic. That want be true at the Sprint center.If you think this was over powering just wait til tina gets here with her bass jumpin . Alica has been use to out door stadium preformances, maybe she is to big for little Kansas City. i saw her in new york and everything was great

[east side mike]

Read the review in the St Louis dispatch it sounds like we got the B show. They had Cedric the entertainer who is from St Louis and she talked about her life and total music experience. She entertained for two hours. Boy I wish I had made that event cause it sounds like they were cookin

[Wadkc]

Oh course you wouldn't Geordan, she can actually carry a tune and some of her music is catchy and has a melody.

[Michael from Kansas City]

Hey my man Timothy Finn, with reading all these comments, could we all be wrong here, with how terrible this who show was, or what. What in heck are we going to do, with the kind of money KC has put into this Sprint Center, can't we get a better sound system. After everyone of these shows go on, they should be in the board room fixing this very serious problems, w/ the sound system, and what have you. I don't know much about much, but what I do know is, if everyone complains enough and boycotts these events, just maybe the big dogs just might do something. Like fire the very people that put this whole sound system together. And if we do not have qualified people to do the job in KC, then hire outside the box. Other venues aren't having these problems, and aren't half as nice as the Sprint Center. Are we all show and no action, it sure seems like it.
Is this the best we can do, or the best we can expect KC to do, God, I hope not. Wheres Kay Barnes when we need here.
Please someone take charge, take action, just take care of this problems.
Michael again...From KC

[smartman]

The sound systems used at Sprint Center by touring acts are contracted by the artists for their entire tour. There are a number of sound companies but the major suppliers are Clair Brothers, Showco and Meyer Sound Labs. The poor sound quality at SC has more to do with the design of the arena then the lack of quality of the sound systems or sound mixers. Very little money was spent at SC on acoustical treatment. The technology employed in todays touring concert systems is beyond belief. Prior to touring most artists have weeks of rehearsals during which lighting cues and choreography are developed and refined. During these rehearsals basic sound mixes are established as well as cues for audio effects like echo and reverb. It's a very precise and technical process. The major task a sound contractor faces when entering a new building is equalizing the system for the room. With most sound systems this is accomplished by allowing a computer program to measure sound pressure levels and frequency dispersion throughout the arena and establish or provide input to the sound engineer on how to eq the system to deliver the best sound quality possible. With some systems mulitple eq's and settings can be used so that the speakers delivering sound to upper levels are set differently then the speakers delivering sound to the lower level. It's not an exact science but it is far better than it was 10 or 20 years ago. A venue like SC, that was designed primarily to hold sporting events is not the best environment for high quality audio. Kemper Arena is a far better venue from an audio standpoint. SC, with its' bowl shape and lots of hard reflective surfaces is a nightmare for a sound mixer. At this point it's probably too late for AEG to make any substantial fixes to SC that will improve sound quality. That's something that should have been done in the design phase. To properly treat a venue like SC to be a good sounding room would have added hundreds of thousands if not several million dollars to the construction cost. We were promised a "state of the art venue" by the city. It's clear that we didn't get that. SC was built on the cheap. Cost was more of a consideration than providing a great customer experience. Seating is cramped, the bathroom facilities waste hundreds of gallons of water at each event. One of the many promises that the city made was that the SC would capture and hold rain water that would be used for toilets and urinals. That didn't happen. The only people that got what they wanted from SC were Kay Barnes and AEG. The rest of us got screwed.

[Geordan]

wadkc says,

"Oh course you wouldn't Geordan, she can actually carry a tune and some of her music is catchy and has a melody."

Yeah WAD, her music is perfect (for your naive, untrained ears, anyway). But that just means there is no room for spontaneity or surprise in her music. You could say that Mariah Carey's music is "catchy" too, but I would rather listen to the collected works of Yoko Ono than to sit through one of her lifeless cds. To each his own, Mofo!

[TC]

Is anyone suprised that the sound at the Sprint Center sucks? The sound on my Sprint PHONE service sucks! Good luck getting Sprint to make any changes in response to concertgoers' criticisms, too. It takes six phone calls and three hours on hold just to get any customer service from Sprint. Tim's review seemed pretty on-target to me; I was at the show too and I thought the sound was horrible. I have to admit I'm not much for R&B and don't know much of Alicia Keys' music, but I was glad to have the chance to see her. At first I thought the sound was simply a function of the emphasis on bass that is common to R&B. Granted, this is apples and oranges, but I saw George Clinton several years ago at Sandstone and the sound was terrific - it even complemented the driving bass. I've also seen other R&B artists in other venues with much better sound quality. Ne-Yo's set was almost indecipherable because of the poor acoustics or poor sound engineering or some combination of both. AK's set was a little better, but not much. She did put on a great show, however, and her talent is remarkable, no question.

[Wadkc]

Wow Geordan. "Mofo"? How creative. What we're back in 3rd grade? "Naive, untrained ears"? Since music is in the ear of the beholder, I would say it really doesn't matter. That being said, I probably have more background in music than you or your limitless mind.
I never mentioned I was a fan of Alicia Keys or Mariah Carey, far from it. I was just noticing how predictable your comments were. Actually I take that back...Alicia Keys was fantastic when I saw her at Clive Davis's party before the Grammys. Keep Yoko for yourself, I'm sure you dog is very chipper the moment you throw it on. 30-15.

[Mrs.Cheez]

My daughter and I had the opportunity to attend the concert and we both had an excellent time with the exception of the sound quality during Alicia Keys performance we were in the front rows the sound was horrible for the first 30 minutes and improved somewhat but for what was paid the sound shouold have been better and I agree that Ne-Yo's sound quality was great ....just a hunch but I saw online a few days before the concert that she had cancelled a few shows and just assumed that the really loud bass was to cover any voice problems she may have had it did indeed to seem to me that she was pitchy at first but overall we enjoyed just having a great concert in Kansas City.

[Gayle]

I saw Alicia Keys at Madison Square Garden June 18th and it was the worse sound system I have ever heard in my life. The bass was too loud and made the type of sound my car speaker makes when I blow the speakers. Also, the music and Alicia's voice sounded muffled. On the other hand, Neyo's sound was excellent. I am an Alicia fan, not a Neyo fan, so I am disappointed Alicia was not better.

PS: Spoke to a friend who saw Alicia June 17th in Newark and she said the exact same thing about a lousy sound system.

Many reporters are unjustly praising her concerts? If they told the truth then maybe Alicia would hear it and she would replace her sound technician with one who is not deaf.