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>>If you are a real Danity Kane/MTB fan, you know you remember this scene.
When I was 14, I never missed an episode of Making the Band 3. My friends and I would sit together at lunch and analyze everything that happened with Danity Kane and Day 26, perform choreography, and yes, harmonizing badly (vis-a-vis the above).
Needless to say, when I watched the group crumble in the season finale, I took it personally.
I was definitely disappointed the whole group couldn’t work out their differences (and don’t get me started on Aundrea backing out just months after they announced their reunion), but I’ll take what I can get with the newly dubbed “DK3” — Dawn, Shannon and Aubrey. Who ever liked D. Woods anyway…
Nine years after MTBIII’s premiere, let me get to Danity Kane’s performance at Irving Plaza in NYC.
My 4 takeaways:
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- I expected Dawn to be the star of the show — she wasn’t. Out of the five members of the group, Dawn has been the only one to consistently put out music and retain some buzz in the industry, so I assumed she would be the frontman, but they were very diplomatic with lead vocals and the choreography. No one got more shine than the others.
- The sound was TERRIBLE. I don’t know if it was the sound engineer or the venue’s system, but good Lord. I couldn’t hear anything the girls were saying from the moment they stepped on the stage, and what’s more, I couldn’t really hear what they singing either. Major factor…
- Lip-synching and backing track… why? Throughout the show, they used back tracking complete with ALL of the pre-recorded vocals. I can understand why some of the high-energy performances (perhaps) required lip-synching but it made it impossible to hear what was (meant to be) live and what wasn’t, to the point where I can’t make one single comment about how they sounded, vocally, because I have no clue.
- The crowd was HYPE, and they had every right to be. Despite the sound issues, DK killed the performance. I just knew Dawn was going to come out and outshine everyybody, but all of the girls held their own. You can tell they are taking this seriously, and they’ve been working hard. I can’t imagine doing more than 5 minutes of their choreo, let alone doing it while carrying a baby.
With their latest releases “Lemonade” and “Rhythm of Love,” it would seem the girls are shifting their sound away from the R&B-influences of the past, but I hope they can find that hit single to get them back on top.
I would love to see what they could do on tour with a budget… slayyage.
BONUS: For anyone who wants to take a trip down memory lane, you can watch the final season with the whole group on YouTube. Anyone else here for a new MTB season?