Audience sees a new, much improved Dido
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Dido talks! And dances and smiles and can actually perform onstage.
The British disco/pop singer's concert Wednesday night at the Paramount was in stark contrast to her KeyArena show three years ago, when she was not ready to appear before an audience. The quiet, immobile, frightened girl of that show was replaced by a vibrant, talkative, immensely likeable woman who was eager to please an adoring capacity audience.
Backed by a first-rate five-piece band, and surrounded by a flashy but not overbearing lighting scheme, the rejuvenated Dido, opening her first American tour since that last embarrassing one, seemed ready to take on the world. Dressed down in blue jeans and white blouse, with her streaked-blond hair cut shoulder length, she looked like some of the disco bunnies who danced in the aisles to her livelier, clap-along songs, like the delightful "Sand In My Shoes" from her latest "Life For Rent" CD.
She did almost all the songs from that album, as well as from her other, debut disc, "No Angel." The newer songs were clearly better, especially those that had bite, most notably "See You When You're 40," a put-down of a former lover. She called it "the nastiest song I've ever written." Another one, called "Mary's In India," told a tale of her seducing her best friend's boyfriend, but insisted that it was a fantasy and that she and Mary remain best buds.
Her more mature songwriting was most apparent in "Don't Leave Home," which she explained was not a love song but rather an offer of help to a drug-addicted friend. It packed the strongest emotional wallop.
Dido became famous in 2001 when Eminem sampled her song "Thank You" in his huge hit, "Stan." When she sang it, she showed that, unlike Eminem's song, it's not cynical but rather a genuine, heartfelt thanks to a former lover.
She seemed a little disingenuous, however, when she said she wrote the song "Life For Rent" when she was "homeless," since Dido comes from a very wealthy family and is one of the richest women in England. But it was not so much about homelessness as it was about loneliness, which was also the theme of several other songs — which leads to the question: Is Dido a poor little rich girl?
The band Aqualung, pared down to two members, was to have opened the show. But the star, singer Matt Hales, dashed home to England for the birth of his son. So his brother, Ben, performed solo, accompanying himself on guitar. He charmingly apologized for his weak singing, saying "I can trash myself all night."
Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312 or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com
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