The Colosseum at Caesars Palace (Las Vegas)
July 26, 2003
There were a lot of merchandise- from glow sticks, buttons, key chains to hats, shirts and shorts. They were expensive but I bought myself a Program ($30) and a Poster ($15).
The stage was hidden behind this huge curtain with pictures of a butterfly, charmbracelet and miscellaneous circus animals depicted on them. Randy Jackson, who has worked with Mariah many times and one of the judges of American Idol, was in the audience.
There was no opening act. The show began with the curtain parting and clips from Mariah's songs playing with a screen showing a city (sort of like Paris). When the camera zoomed inside a colored window, the Heartbreaker remix began to play.Mariah Carey entered through one of the doors below me. I really didn't get to see her that well but she looked beautiful even from afar. She wore a short pink and silver dress with rhinestones. The song then merged into the regular version of Heartbreaker. A guy was "drawing" her as she performed. After that, she sang Dreamlover. She sat down on a big red chair for Through the Rain but got up as the song reached its climax. My All was next and they took out the guitar solo to include the dance remix version, where she ran off stage to change clothes. They had good dancers but I didn't pay to go see them so I didn't pay that much attention to them. The crowd was really funny. They were cheering so loud that Mariah had to stop introducing some of her songs and say she loved them too. She sipped some tea and told jokes. Her jokes aren't really funny but it's cute when she tells them so we laughed.
Before she came back, they put on a marionette show. Guys on stilts wearing face masks with sunglasses came out chasing a guy in jersey, and so did Mariah wearing a long glittery gold dress. She looked beautiful and elegant. The "E" on "marionette" was backwards like on the cover of "The Eminem Show." All this was for Clown, of course. Fans got to pick a song online and for this show it was Can't Take That Away. Wow!
Another costume change, with the Honey video playing on the screen, Mariah came out with a Chinese-inspired blue-flowered dress. Most of them audience were talking along with the dialogue and laughed at the end of it even though we must have seen it a lot of times already. She changed into the sexy Harley Davidson outfit like she wore on the I Know What You Want video. Busta Rhymes, although rumored to appear since he had a show in Vegas the next day, wasn't there so it relied heavily on video footage. She only sang the bridge but Busta's part too. Her dance moves were cute since she moves so slowly, like she's the laziest dancer ever.
For the next song, Mariah came down from the ceiling sitting on a swing covered in white drapes. She wore a short white dress and was lowered to piano covered with pink butterflies. She sang Subtle Invitation, which is my favorite song off Charmbracelet. It was awesome, especially during the end where she ran around the stage singing the background verses. I think we gave her a standing ovation every time she ran around or hit the high notes really well. The next song was My Saving Grace and as they sang, the screen showed pictures of young Mariah and newspaper articles of her "breakdown" and release of her new album. One of the fun parts of the show was when she introuced her band and background singers. It was refreshing to see her interacting with them, ad-libbing, singing, and just having fun- especially when she said she couldn't do hit low notes but then ended up doing one. She shook her booty once and the crowd went wild because she's so fine. She sang I'll Be There with one of her background vocalist, Trey Lorenz. A guy ran onstage during the song because I think Mariah jokingly asked if someone could join them. Lucky fool got to hug her but I think they might be tightening security in future shows from now on. Then Mariah had to leave again and so Trey Lorenz had a solo performance. He sang Friend of Mine and it was great.
For Bringin' on the Heartbreak, she wore a red dress like in the video and there was a lot of going on the stage. She sang the remix of Fantasy, where she had to change into a pink outfit similar to the first one she wore earlier but with shorts. I thought the next song- Make It Happen- was the last one she'll do and I was kind of disappointed because she didn't sing Vision of Love and Hero like I thought she would.
But, I guess she knew the audience would clap and chant her name for like five minutes to do an encore. I thought we were wasting our time but she came out with the dress with feathers at the end and she looked absolutely beautiful. My favorite look of hers of all time. She sang Vision of Love and Hero, which was up to par with the Daydream video tour version. That was really the last song because MC said so. And the screen said, "The End."
Her voice was so powerful, better than her studio voice. Also, a lot of the songs weren't edited like in the Around The World video. So yes, it was an awesome night and much better than I expected. The whole experience was amazing.