Shania Twain – Xcel Energy Center – St. Paul MN – May 15th 2018

Shania Twain Now! Tour 2018 Xcel Energy Center St. Paul, Minnesota 5/15/18

Every once in a while, I end up seeing an artist that I’m mildly familiar with. And end up being so incredibly impressed that I want to kick myself for not seeking them out sooner. To me that perfectly describes Shania Twain. The reason I say this isn’t because I don’t care for country music but like most people you get exposed to new artists through friends you know who like them. I don’t know if I’ve ever known anybody that’s a huge Shania fan. I was aware of her music and knew several of her songs although I had no idea I knew as many as I did. She similar to Cheap Trick in that you can take someone to one of their shows as well and it’s almost impossible for them to not enjoy the songs even if they’ve never heard one single song before.

She is currently on her Now! Tour to support her brand-new album of the same name. What she did was present her audience with a fantastic display of artistic showmanship. When I go to an arena tour, I don’t care who it is I want to see a show. I don’t want someone who just stands there and does nothing. I want to see great lighting, affects and all of the other things you would come to expect in a show.

She opened up with a brand-new song off the new record “Life’s About To Get Good”. From what I can tell she’s been able to maintain that pop appeal in her songs. Quite honestly I have to say that I heard a lot of riffs in her older music that you could tie right to bands like Def Leppard and Aerosmith. It’s one of the interesting things to me about country music nowadays, it’s really more rock ‘n roll with a fiddle. That’s not meant to be mean spirited, just pointing out what I hear. I personally think it’s wonderful and is made the music even more appealing. She ended up doing a total of 21 songs and went through her entire career. She did all of the ones you would expect her to do like “Any Man Of Mine”, “From This Moment” and quite possibly her biggest hit “Man! I Feel Like A Woman”. It was nice how she tied it altogether with the new songs as well.

It was fun watching the audience who seemed so overwhelmed by the confetti and some of the other special effects like dry ice. My buddy Wil and I were smiling watching all of this happening because we were at a Kiss concert with country music. One of the highlights for me though was a song that she did titled “Soldier”. She thanked all of the men and women who have dedicated their lives and served our country. As a proud American, seeing these types of things is very important to me. She seemed very happy to be there, engaged and having a good time. Perhaps to some people reading review they think that might be a bit silly but there’s nothing I dislike more as a concertgoer than seeing a band who doesn’t give a shit and seems like they just want it over. And equally important, there was no political commentary one way or another. She showed up to entertain her fans with her music and that’s exactly what she did.

The whole performance was incredible from the musicianship, to the dancers and everything in between. Oh and did I mention she sounded absolutely incredible? Beautiful voice and a lot of fun. Another artist I highly recommend you get out and see when given the chance.

Review and photos by Tommy Sommers