Concert Reviews

Reba McEntire

The Singers Diary
January 28, 2000 (San Jose Arena)

Concert Review by Jeff Krasky

Whenever an artist attempts to do something radically different with their stage show it instills a small seed of doubt in the back of my mind. Huge changes can spell disaster really quickly. Thankful that was not the case on January 28th when Reba McEntire brought her part play/part concert “The Singer’s Diary” tour at the San Jose Arena. It was an incredible couple of hours that I was glad to be a part of.

The first thing I noticed when sitting down was the towering stage. It dwarfed the San Jose Arena and made it feel like a small performance hall. The end result was that the Arena and the concert took on a very personal, intimate feel. There really wasn’t a bad seat in the entire place.

I was lucky enough to pick up sixth row seats on an Ebay auction. I’d never gotten to sit this close to the stage at a Reba concert before. Let me tell you, the difference is incredible. When Reba takes the stage and you’re in those first few rows you could swear that she spends the entire night looking right at you. She makes better eye contact and connects better with the crowd than any other performer I’ve ever seen.

The play part of the performance serves as an opening act of sorts to the concert that follows. This was the part of the concert that critically I was most concerned about. It seemed almost impossible to pull of smoothly. I was wrong. The play went through Reba’s life from being discovered singing the national anthem to recording her first single. Mixed in with the play were older Reba songs, it was great to hear these songs performed live once again. When Reba divorced her first husband and moved to Nashville (this is all happening in an acted out play) she and two other dancers appear on stage for the first of the really lavish song performances. “Respect” showed that Reba indeed was back to the top of her form. The stage during the play has to be the most complex setup I’ve ever seen. Every part of that stage was constantly moving around giving new effects and setting up for next scenes of the play without any real pausing. I was shocked when Reba did a tribute to her band that died in the plane crash and sang “If I Had Only Known”, a song she hasn’t performed in I can’t tell you how many years. You could see she was still struggling with singing it. It was a touching and memorable moment. The next scenes involved Reba resuming touring after the loss of her band. These scenes were done with Reba’s back to us playing out to a San Diego audience that was being shown on a big screen in the back of the stage. She walked under the stage and instantly came out of an elevator in the top of the stage (I’ll let you figure out on your own how the little trick was pulled off). The long hair was gone (she was wearing a wig throughout the play) and she was in a completely new outfit, the first of one of the many costume changes.

A full-blown concert started the second the elevator lifted her to the top platform of the stage. Complete with an announcer stating “San Jose Arena please welcome Reba McEntire”. It was an effective way of pulling off the switch from play to concert seamlessly. The concert contained newer Reba music making the entire performance a nice blend of old and new. Expect songs like “Why Haven’t I Heard From You”, “Forever Love”, “The Fear Of Being Alone” and “Take It Back”. During the upbeat songs the stage filled with dancers and effects. During the slow songs subtle lighting effects brought those songs to life. The new version of “Fancy” was an absolutely stunning production. I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who still is going to see the show but it was easily the highlight of the evening. We also heard a few songs from Reba’s new album So Good Together. “What Do You Say” was performed flawlessly and “So Good Together” closed out the show.

My only complaint with the show was we didn’t get to hear a number of songs like “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter” or “And Still”. But when you consider the fact that Reba performed for 2 hours straight with absolutely no breaks, this is forgivable.

Reba will have you going through a roller coaster of emotion by the time you’re done with her “The Singer’s Diary” tour. Her newest tour strikes me more as an experience than a concert. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen or probably will see again. If Reba was to do another live concert video, this would be the tour to record. The tour is selling like mad and it’s justified. Run out and get your tickets if you can. I can’t wait to see how she tries and tops this one next year. Welcome back Reba, we all missed you.

Photo Credits: Angi Cirigliano (Guest Photographer)

Reba McEntire Live Concert Photos