This concert review originally appeared on shutter16.com written by Ash Starkweather
Shania Twain is no stranger to anyone these days. She has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making her the best-selling female artist in country music history and arguably one of the best musical artists of all time. Her debut self-titled album came out in 1993 with three hit singles leading up to her second release in 1995, and wrapping up the third album in 1997, making her one of the largest artists to come out of the 1990s. She had one more album come out in 2002 before she went on hiatus. Sure, there was the greatest hits album in 2004, but we did not get a new full length album until the release of Now in 2017.
Bastien Kaltenbacher, better known as Bastian Baker, is opening up for Twain on 77 dates of the NOW tour. Baker also previously opened for Twain on the final two remaining dates for her 2015 Rock This Country Tour. If you do not recognize him from the previous tour, maybe you saw him on The Voice (Belgium) where he coached the third season of the show. Baker kicked off the show that night with himself solo onstage with an acoustic guitar. Fans stayed seated, but enjoyed the short six song set leading up to Shania’s appearance.
It should be no surprise to any Shania Twain fan that this show is absolutely phenomenal. The woman had her own show in Vegas at the Cesar's place for a few years, so she surely knows how to entertain a crowd! Twain does not let the big shows or fame go to her head, rather when she starts her show she literally walks out - through the crowd to get to the stage! Welcoming and thanking fans before making her way up to the stage. She kicks things off with her latest single, Life’s About To Get Good before taking it back to the Come On Over days. The stage set up throughout the duration of the show and performers were all on point, the choreography must of taken months to master! They even feature a kiss cam early in the set- and you again could find Shania out in the crowd, kissing on a lucky guy! Surely, a moment he will never forget.
About half way through the set, she delivered a powerful song called “Soldier” - dedicated to the men and women who serve our country. During this, there were pictures up on the video walls and she hopped on a guitar case and floated around the arena to get closer to the fans again. From the floor she picked out two lucky fans to go up on stage with her. The first, was actually at her 2015 Rock This Country tour and had the same opportunity to go up on stage and take a selfie with her and say hello to the crowd, talk about luck, twice in a row! He was all for everything Shania, flashing the crowd getting down on one knee for her to help her up on the piano and even singing his own version of “You’re Still The One”. Yes ladies, this man is single as he declared it in the microphone about three times.
Getting back into the music, things just got better and better as Shania finished out her nineteen song setlist with fans on their feet singing along. She brought Bastian Baker back out on stage to help her sing “Party For Two”, and he hopped on guitar to also help with “Swingin’ With My Eyes Closed”. She ended the set perfectly with “(If You’re Not In it For Love) I’m Outta Here” and some confetti guns into the crowd as the arena went dark. Fans roared for Shania as she came back out for a two song encore with none other than what she had been teasing us with all evening, her massive hit “Man! I Feel Like A Woman”. What we mean by teasing, the band will cue a few notes of the song and she even had the exact outfit on earlier in the set, but put it off on us till the end before finishing it with “Rock This Country”.
It seems like Shania is about half way through this run, but she has dates lined up through December overseas as well. Be sure to keep up with her on all her social networks, and for sure check out a show if it is coming anywhere remotely near you! Seriously, we drove six hours for this show, not a second was wasted!
