Live Earth

Watched a fair bit of it. Way cool at times, way boring at others. The Police were awesome, though Kanye West could have stayed backstage. His monosyllabic grunts added nothing to Message in a Bottle, though the togetherness message of having him and John Mayer join the Police onstage for that tune was cool enough.

One of the big hilights for me was Madonna's performance of Ray of Light. I've never been a huge fan of hers (I think she has a nasally, flat singing voice), but I had the surround sound system cranked up when the station I was watching switched over to that and it friggin' ROCKED! I have to admit, seeing her with a guitar strapped on was darn cool, even if what she was playing was pretty straightforward. And it wasn't just a prop, her guit was right up there in the mix with everything else. Good for her and her kick-ass band.

I particularly enjoyed Spinal Tap. Fans were waving zuccinis, and one person held up a sign that said, "Turn it up to 11."

I only caught bits and pieces but I was very impressed with the Foo Fighters.

I am like totally bummed I missed SPINAL TAP. And yeah, Frank, the Foo Fighters were great. I love to see performers give 'er like that.

On the other end of the spectrum you had peeps like Kelly Clarkson -- who has a fabulous voice and is the best of the American Idol winners imho -- but she still needs to learn how to perform.

I wonder if they'll have everything from all the concerts on, like, 120 DVD's.

I think you can download 'em somewhere.

The saddest part is the fact that the message didn't seem to really get through. Did anyone else see the news reports showing Wembley Stadium a foot deep in plastic bottles, papre napkins, wrappers and other garbage. I think it was just a big music festival. I doubt anyone really considered the message.

Based on that, I'd say the message got through more for those of us watching on TV than for those in attendance.

There was nothing better than seeing Crowded House live again in Sydney! I was so darn happy.

I totally didn't know that it was happening until like nine that night. I missed out on so much! But the Foo Fighters were awesome! I love rock bands.

I watched highlights on NBC. My daughter kept dancing around in front of the screen.

ChunkyC said:

On the other end of the spectrum you had peeps like Kelly Clarkson -- who has a fabulous voice and is the best of the American Idol winners imho -- but she still needs to learn how to perform.

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We were on vacation and caught only a few minutes of the show, and saw Kelly Clarkson perform.

I disagree with your assessment, Chunky. My wife and I both found that Kelly Clarkson was in very poor form. Her voice sounded very strained and hoarse. In short, it was awful. We noted that by the end of the show she wouldn't be able to sing or talk at all.

Then, the next day, she was hosting American Top 40, sitting in for Ryan Seacrest. Her voice sounded okay, but if she's going to do a radio show more often, she really really needs to learn how to talk on the air. In spite of the fact that AT40 is scripted, she peppered every single break with a lot of "ums" and "uhs."

But I guess I'm picky.

allen

I agree, her voice didn't sound great, but she does have a fantastic set of pipes when it's in shape. My primary beef was that her performance was weak, I was willing to make allowances for her having strained her voice leading up to this concert.

I was having a cookout and missed most of it...I caught The Foo Fighters and The Police and that was great!!! John Mayer and Kanye West didnt add much to Message in a Bottle, but it was great to see everyone having a good time.

Are they going to replay this anytime soon?

I tried to watch. There was some stupid Asian group in yellow jumpsuits playing some kind of weird violins. I stopped watching immediately and never bothered with it again.

Oh, wait, I watched that until some awful female singer came out prancing around. THEN I turned it off.

Massive Kelly Clarkson fan here. I've seen her live and I can assure you, she's usually in far far better shape than that, both vocally and performance-wise. And she can perform her ass off (take a look at the VMAs). People slated her because her vocals were pretty all over the place in that performance, but she still got crowd pumped like crazy. I think she prefers the more intimate crowds, though.

She's working herself too hard, IMHO. Her voice can be amazing for sure, but she doesn't give herself a break with the vocal-taxing songs and constant touring, etc....

She's a rambler for sure, but for me that's part of her charm. She's just an average, every-day, natural sort of star, and that's endearing to me. You get these performers that are just so preened and polished (e.g. Beyonce) that, even though they may be great, they can get boring. It's hard to relate to people that are pretty much perfect all the time.

RLSMiller said:

She's working herself too hard, IMHO. Her voice can be amazing for sure, but she doesn't give herself a break with the vocal-taxing songs and constant touring, etc....

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I think you are right on the money here.

Justin91 said:

Are they going to replay this anytime soon?

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Looks like a lot of it is available on MSN for the next little while.
Live Earth site.
Info about on-demand video.
liveearth.msn.com

Hi

What's the point in having knees up if nothing is going to be done to the earth that we live in? I only caught glimpses over here but i wasn't sure of the motives.

I'm all for big concerts but has this really impacted the world and changed them to actually DO SOMETHING? I doubt it, well certainly not on a global setting.

Please correct me if I'm wrong!

Kev

Has it had an impact? Hard to quantify. I know I'm using canvas bags when I go to the grocery store, for example, but I was doing that before. Hopefully others will start doing such things as a result of having such ideas brought more forward in their consciousness by the messages delivered along with the music. And that's really what this was all about, to cause people to think about such things more than they did before.

Hopefully it will have an impact. I'd like to think it has and will continue to do so.

I hope so too.
K.

ChunkyC said:

Has it had an impact? Hard to quantify. I know I'm using canvas bags when I go to the grocery store, for example,

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You take your own bags to the grocery store? You realize they supply their own, right?

Do they at least give you a discount for that?

Shadow_Ferret said:

You take your own bags to the grocery store? You realize they supply their own, right?

Do they at least give you a discount for that?

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Well yeah, of course I know they supply their own.

BUT -- in Canada at one national grocery chain alone, they will use one BILLION plastic bags this year. These bags are a petroleum product and they are not biodegradable. You can ask for paper, but millions of trees are cut down every year to make paper grocery bags. Both kinds are generally used once then thrown away.

I couldn't care less if I got a discount for using my own reusable canvas bags. I'm doing it because I think it's the right thing to do. But, they do take a few pennies off for each bag of your own you bring, each time you use it.

ETA: Just did a little math -- by using our own bags, my wife and I throw away around six hundred fewer plastic bags per year. That's just two people.