American Idol Winner's Concert Falls Flat
Mar. 19 2009, Published 11:18 a.m. ET
American Idol winner Taylor Hicks didn't exactly sell out his show at The Roxy in Hollywood, California on Wednesday night. Ticket retailer Goldstar.com was offering tickets for free on their Web site earlier that day, and judging by some reports, the few fans that showed up got what they paid for.
"It was fifty percent full and the VIP section was only twenty five percent full," once concertgoer tells RadarOnline.com. "People who had paid the full $36.50 were mad since many people were claiming free ones." Who was in the crowd? "Mostly women in their late forties, early fifties."
Most reviews of Hicks' performance on Goldstar.com complained about the terrible sound quality at the sparsely-attended concert. The music apparently sounded so bad that it even caused one obvious fan of Hicks to leave. "Taylor was full of charisma and charm. He knows how to connect with his audience. That was the good part..." wrote the anonymous commenter. "His voice was drowned out by the volume of his band, which was very loud and rather monotonous. I had enough after 20 minutes and left."
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Other Goldstar.com users chimed in with similar complaints: "Sound person was asleep at the controls. The crowd was pretty tame." One commenter added: "It was hard to "hear" Taylor sing compared to the other artists. His music "behind" him drowned out his voice. That was disappointing."
Another concertgoer was especially miffed that Hicks, who had two opening acts, was so late to perform. "The show was supposed to start at 8:00, but Taylor did not take the stage until 10:30. ANNOYING!"
Sounds like a show that wasn't worth the wait.