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Title: Controlled Spontaneity
Source: London Free Press
Source: Entertainment; Pg. D1; Review
Date: September 10, 2002
Author: James Reaney, Free Press Arts & Entertainment Columnist
Topic: Summer 2002 Concert Review

Pop's little blond boy in a bubble was all over the Western Fair yesterday.

Song-and-dance princeling Aaron Carter put in safely organized spontaneous tours of the fair before headlining at the grandstand to a chanting, screaming crowd, mostly girls.

To me, there is something cold and contrived about the whole Aaron (A.C.) Carter phenomenon. The other 2,527 spectators at last night's show would disagree. Those fans deserve a lot better than the calculating little prince who removes his top du jour to cartwheel bare-chested at strategic moments during his show. But their cheers make clear their love is total.

Presumably, the cheers penetrated the thick bubble around the 14-year-old. Carter is protected by early stardom, intense commercial tie-ins and the protection of his mother and manager. It all combines to cocoon Carter wherever he goes, like candy floss floating down from the fair's hot Inverter ride.

Carter used the show to sell his new album, Another Earthquake, keeping the title song as one of his closers. Since playing a sold-out Centennial Hall last year, he has kept his funky band, beefed up his choreography with his dancer/gymnasts and given space to his backup singers.

On the down side, Carter's act now has awkward pauses, including at least one costume change masked by a shaky shout he would not return till the crowd chilled a bit. He came back with -- surprise, surprise -- a denim outfit replacing the floppy white shirt he'd worn earlier before noticing the crowd was out of control. How spontaneous.

Still, even a more pathetic shout of "How you doin', Ontario?" -- talk about playing it safe -- was also cheered.

Carter's singing was often strained and there were probably better 14-year-old belters over at this year's Youth Talent Search elsewhere on the grounds. Carter's rap-lite wasn't bad, when audible, but too much was lost.

A white-painted prop piano was rolled out during another slack moment for Carter to use during a limply sung ballad. The no-key wonder sounded better when Carter jumped atop it to posture than it did when he played at playing the great white hulk.

No opening act was allowed any chance to upstage the young star. Triple Image were limited to 10 minutes. Jump 5, from Nashville, was jump, jump terrible, leaping around with a few bad gym moves. Also on the bill was No Secrets, all young women.

Carter was on the grounds even before the fair opened yesterday, for an interview with CBC-TV's kid's show InfomatriX. The coverage will air within a month.

No sooner did Carter and his entourage appear than tearful young girls began to follow in their wake.

Some watched, weeping, while Carter played -- and won -- two games of Whac-A-Mole from his even younger CBC interviewer. The large, cloth mallets needed for the game are just the thing for a bubble boy prince of pop to keep the world at a distance.

Carter did a little victory dance, showing off his stage style to celebrate the victories.

As master of the quick, brotherly hug and the instant photo op, Carter was able to soothe some of the saddest-looking girls. Others he charmed instantly. Heads turned as he romped, barefoot and in white tank top and baggy white shorts, on the gym jump ride.

By then, Carter had floated over to YTV, a network jumping on the CBC idea for its own slice of Carter.

"Yo, Aaron, your shoes," a huge member of the entourage called out as the barefoot princeling hot-footed away from the ride's ropes for more hugs and snaps.

Two young fans are reported to have waited all night at the fair's gates for a chance to be first-in-line for Carter when the grandstand opened.

It seemed the only young person not totally overwhelmed by proximity to Carter was his 11-year-old CBC-TV interviewer. Like a celebrity, the interviewer is known to his fans by his first name only -- Jonah.

Young Jonah nudged longer answers out of Carter than many a frustrated adult interviewer has been able to do, though their talk bore the same carefully prepared no-controversy-here tone that controls any Carter interview.

Jonah confessed it was just his second celebrity interview for InfomatriX. Before Carter, he talked with NHL defenceman Adam Foote. "But he's my uncle's brother-in-law," Jonah said of Foote, "so I was pretty well prepared."

IF YOU GO
What: Western Fair
Dates: Till Sunday
Hours: Today, Wednesday, 3-11 p.m.; Thursday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
Admission: Age 13 and up $8; kids 12 and under free
Activities: Midway Pub and Grill with stage, Rural Route Discovery, Kiddyland, Kids Zone, Children's Village, Boomer Plus Zone, Sinbad High Dive Show, Canadian Raptor Conservancy, Dr. Rock's Dinosaur Adventure, Cirque Equinox, Imax, racing pigs, arts and crafts displays, Western Fair Museum and Archives Grandstand shows
Today: Spirit of the Dance, 8 p.m.; $20, at Western Fair box office or 432-6600 or 438-7203, ext. 267
Tomorrow: Terri Clark and Tracy Rice, 8 p.m., $20

NOTES: James Reaney is a Free Press reporter covering arts and entertainment.

GRAPHIC: 3 photos by Sue Reeve, The London Free Press; 1. TOP GUN: Aaron Carter made a brief visit to the Western Fair midway yesterday before his evening performance on the grandstand. ; 2. Here, he plays a game with Danielle McGimsie, a co-host of YTV's Hit List. Carter was being filmed as he toured the fair.; 3. IN HIS ELEMENT: On stage, young Carter has all the moves of a far more experienced star. As the throng of adoring young female fans made clear, he's their adolescent idol.

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