Concert date: 7/26/99 Denver, CO

Review of the show:
Slow start, strong finish for flawed concert

%%byline%%By Michael Mehle

News Popular Music Writer

"Sing Whitney! Sing that song!" So shouted a particularly vocal fan at Fiddler's Green on Monday, and he wasn't just making noise.

Forty minutes into her first Denver concert in eight years, Whitney Houston hadn't come close to showing what her vocal chords could do. Performing mostly new songs from her latest album, My Love Is Your Love, Houston hit some impressive high notes on Heartbreak Hotel and Until You Come Back, but she otherwise seemed stuck in warm-up mode.

It wouldn't last. The R&B diva used the last half of her two-hour concert to turn things around and bring the crowd to its feet with a lively and schizophrenic mix of dance, pop, R&B and gospel, flexing a powerful voice that has helped sell millions of albums and set soundtrack records.

The slow start wasn't for lack of production: four dancers gyrated behind her, a quartet of singers filled in the harmonies, tiny lights lit up the back of the stage like a starry night and Houston descended onto the stage from a large silver staircase as her band pumped the pulsating grooves to the opening Get It Back.

But it was another 40 minutes before she would find a higher gear, starting with a dynamite version of I Learned From the Best and continuing with the early dance floor tunes of I'm Every Woman, I Wanna Dance With Somebody and How Will I Know.

Later, she showed her Wyclef Jean-penned reggae side with My Love Is Your Love and opened her pipes for some raise-the-roof gospel that left the singer panting on her back, gasping for air. ("Somebody help Whitney!" shouted the same man, who, it turned out, was just making noise the whole evening.)

She would pull herself together to finish off her set with the obligatory I Will Always Love You, a reminder that the singer has been busy with movies, not concert tours, the past eight years.

For the fashionable sorts, Houston wore two outfits of the same ilk, each with a brightly colored robe covering equally fancy capris pants, tight tops and high-heeled boots.

And for those who like their divas with some entertaining attitude, Houston had it to spare. After a throat problem caused the cancellation of two early shows on the tour, Houston walked about the stage with a towel wrapped around her neck, and a dancer would occasionally replace it. The singer also missed an earlier news conference, and engaged in confounding stage banter that included (among other oddities) a thanks to the Lord for the moon.

Strong finish aside, the concept behind the concert on Monday was flawed. Houston's tour this summer is supposed to be an intimate, high-price affair geared toward theaters.

Locally, promoters tried to have it both ways at Fiddler's Green, where their idea of transforming the amphitheater into an intimate venue boiled down to not selling tickets on the lawn. Seats sold for $95 to $55, but Fiddler's didn't look or feel much smaller. Indeed, her fans seemed equally confused, and fewer than 7,000 were in attendance.