March 20, 2005 Ashlee Simpson serves up bubble-gum-lip-gloss pop
There are really only three things that most people want to know about the Ashlee Simpson show Friday night at the Orpheum Theatre: Was it a train wreck? Did she lip-sync? Did she reprise her ``Saturday Night Live'' hoedown?
The answer to all three is no.
The singer performed about an hour's worth of her surprisingly brawny, slickly conceived pop rock with enthusiasm and heart if not a preponderance of style or technical skill. Her acid-reflux corrugated throat held up adequately and with the help of a strong backup singer and a really loud band, the former ``7th Heaven'' star didn't embarrass herself.
Simpson has had her fair share of doubters since the moment she got her own fishbowl reality show solely on the strength, apparently, of being Jessica ``Is this chicken or tuna?'' Simpson's little sister. Throw in the lip-syncing, Texas jig debacle of ``SNL'' and the much mocked Orange Bowl appearance, and it's all added up to what Simpson herself called her ``tough year'' Friday night.
None of which mattered to the sold-out crowd of preteen and teenage girls who convulsed in paroxysms of euphoria when the corporate-packaged 20-year-old took the stage to the strains of the title track of her debut, ``Autobiography.''
No doubt it was the first concert for many in the audience and the memories - the smell of bubblegum lip gloss, the frantically waved glowsticks, the hysteria - will likely not include the singer's shortcomings.
For a more objective observer, however, it felt a lot like Fisher-Price's My First Rock Concert.
Simpson spaced out her big radio hits like ``Shadow'' and ``Pieces of Me'' judiciously, sat for a brief two-song acoustic set, debuted one new song - the droning ``Undiscovered'' - switched costumes a few times, did a medley of cred- building covers and flung her body across the stage in a way that split the difference between Mick Jagger's chicken dance and Avril Lavigne's graceless stomp.
Only the covers truly faltered as Simpson's heart clearly wasn't in the Pretenders' ``Brass in Pocket'' and Blondie's ``Call Me.'' These songs also starkly brought into relief her vocal limitations and the anonymous feel of her own material. Only Madonna's ``Burnin' Up'' and Hole's ``Celebrity Skin'' actually came close to approximating the originals, and let's face it, Madonna and Courtney Love both possess many musical gifts and an abundance of star quality, but neither has a blockbuster vocal technique.
As montages from her show, baby pictures and videos flashed on an overhead screen, Simpson went through her motions competently enough, seeming like an actress thrilled to have been awarded the role of rock star.
Openers Click Five swung for the power pop fence and flied out. The quintet boasts a Berklee pedigree and offered up a few flavorful chops. But their best, a romp through ``I Think We're Alone Now,'' was at least twice as old as most of those in attendance.
