Hannah/Miley show howling success
By Cathalena E. Burch
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.11.2007
GLENDALE — A throbbing, pulsating roar began at the karaoke and merchandise booths in the courtyard of the Westgate City Center.
By the time you entered Jobing.com Arena, you were assaulted with an all-out, ear-splitting wall of scream.
This is what it must have been like when the Beatles arrived in America, or when Elvis did his trademark hip-swivel for the first time on national TV: all-out, uninhibited pandemonium.
Welcome to the new generation of pop music stars, manufactured and nurtured by Disney for an audience of tykes and tweens and approved by parents. Stars like Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers, who performed a 2 1/2-hour shriek-fest sold-out concert Friday. They are this generation of 5-to-12-year-olds' Elvis, Rolling Stones and Beatles.
Will Montana, aka Miley Cyrus, be remembered 20 years from now? Perhaps.
Or, in the words of Cyrus' Disney alter ego, Hannah Montana: "Who said, who said I can't be Superman / I say, I say I know I can."
The young audience and their parents screamed with such enthusiasm and volume when the Jonas Brothers took the stage that you feared your eardrums would shrivel in retreat. The three Jo-Bros set the energy level at high; the crowd filling nearly every seat in the arena bolted to their feet and that's where they stayed. Parents and kids sang along to the trio's remake/tweak of "Kids of America" — they're "Kids of the Future" — and went absolutely, bouncing-off-the-walls nuts when big-Bro Joe sauntered to the edge of the center runway and assumed a Mick Jagger swagger in bright-red polyester pants.
The intensity and volume amplified when the first of the headliners took the stage.
You see, the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus show was two concerts. The first 45 minutes was dedicated to the upbeat, inspiring sugary pop songs the blond-haired, preppy-dressed Disney TV character sings on her show. She is consumed with hanging out with friends and hiding her double life with bubbly lyrics in "Life's What You Make It," "Nobody's Perfect," "Old Blue Jeans," "Who Said," "I Got Nerve" and "Make Some Noise." (One of Hannah's highlights was joining with the Jonas Brothers on the slamming dance song "We Got the Party.")
The second 30 minutes was Miley Cyrus, the 14-year-old daughter of country star Billy Ray Cyrus. She's slightly anti-Hannah — tousled brown-haired, tight black jeans and chains, heavier makeup and a tank-top covered by a leather vest. She and her BFF are ditching the boys and going on "G.N.O. (Girls Night Out)." There's none of the Avril La- vigne-style teen angst, but there's hints of loosening the Disney ropes of innocence that bind her.
Miley sings about getting the guy with a whisper of attitude that is edgier and more defiant than Hannah. Her music squeezes the sugar out and reaches for a rock personality: driving guitar riffs, raucous drum rants and a thumping bass line.
In the end, Hannah and Miley came together — courtesy of a video screen — to perform a duet of Hannah's theme song, "Best of Both Worlds." Perhaps this is the perfection the lyrics portend, where Hannah and Miley can meet in the middle and envelop themselves in the wall of screams from adoring tweens.
Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@azstarnet.com or 573-4642.
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