(1) Walk On was great but I wish they had the choir more up front... it looked weird with them in the audience. I also think "Walk On" shouldn't have opened. The camera work on the band was great but it seemed like there was technical difficulties for the band's intro to the song. I blame the show. It was cool to see U2 standing up and applausing for Bob Dylan. I liked the playfulness between Kid Rock and U2/ Bono.
(2) Wow, Tony Bennett and Billy Joel were great. Billy Joel... yeesh he got bald and fat big time... almost unrecognizable...
(3) I was thinking how weird it would be if U2 won the award that Train did and had to greet Don Henley...
(4) Train was just aiite.
(5) N'sync with Nelly was disappointing... lip synching it seemed was their (N'sync) thing even though they put up a great intro of "Gone." I'd rather have seen them singing that song and didn't care for Nelly being in that "Girlfriend" song. "Gone" was really that good. Too bad they screwed up IMO.
(6) Allison Krauss is awesome!
I know Emmylou Harris is awesome. Don't know Gillian Welch but loved their collaboration on the soundtrack and on the show. Soggy Bottom Boys were good for what they are and the guitar work was great.
(7) Alicia Keys... good performance but the part where they're yelling out "remix" was stoopid.
(8) Lady Marmalade... Don't care for it and getting sick of hearing it, but they made a decent performance... at least sounded different. A lot of cleavage for sure.
(9) Dave Matthews... I think "Space..." is just an average song with a great chorus/ backing keyboard part. It was just a solid performance IMO. Great atmosphere.
(10) Bob Dylan... his voice cracks me up but it was a fine performance though I couldn't understand a thing he was saying. I haven't listened to
Love and Theft but that song he played was great. Reminded me of Busta Rhymes and the tempo changes and "junk" style noise form the guitars was awesome.
(11) Beyonce Knowles is hot and it was a cool duet with that Sanz (?) and Destiny's Child.
(12) Mary J. Blige looked like she was at church. Heh. Crazy wild performance and I don't really like that song as much but she made it good.
(13) Could do without the speech on downloading music... LOL at the students used for their "research." They could have put that time for better use like allowing the speakers to finish their speeches and doing some proper tributes. The speech also took away fromt the Lifetime Achievements portion.
(14) Outkast was cool and the kid was cute. Defintely brought something different to the Awards. Ms. Jackson is all good and they looked dang serious though. Weird...
(13) Nelly Furtado and Stevie Vai was what I was so looking forward to. "I'm Like a Bird" is a great pop song. Though I love the extra vocal flourishes of produced song... this low key version with Vai on guitar was cool. Defintely super cool highlight. Furtado is a cutey and a dork. Great combo. Virtuosos are always cool.
(14) Alan Jackson... nice country song and well meaninged... but I feel a little 9-11'ed out and it's somewhat too schmaltzy for my tastes (lyrically that is)
(15) India Arie's performance gave me chills... It was top 3 of the night. Too bad she didn't win a Grammy.
(16) The close was cool with McKnight, Green, etc. Nice closer.
My major complaints... I hated how several artists weren't aloowed to finish their thank yous. That music to kick them off was stinking annoying. It was also stinking annoying that when they announced the artists for nominations, they didn't always highlight the artist.
Stewart was aiite but I thought he was way funnier last year. However presiding over an awards show is difficult. Also b/c the emphais of the music in the show seemed to be roots related or mellow rock, it sort of made the show too mellow. Where is the rock! I'm not a fan of Linkin Park but it would have been fun to see them there or to see some more rap... I mean if Walk On which is medium range song has the most power in it then there is something wrong there. Oh well.
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~ "You can't resist her. She's in your bones. She is your marrow and your ride home. You can't avoid her. She's in the air; in between molecules of oxygen and carbon dioxide." ~ RC
[This message has been edited by Flying FuManchu (edited 02-28-2002).]
