For Christmas, I tried to think a little ‘out of the box’ when it came to Col’s Christmas present. As it happens, my husband absolutely LOVES music – as many people do – and when I saw a couple friends informed us of a concert venue less than five minutes from our house, I just HAD to check out the upcoming artists.
I stumbled upon an Abba tribute group, called Arrival from Sweden and I figured that would be PERFECT to take Col to see, he enjoys Abba’s music (and, more importantly, cause when I’m being brought along with him to an event, it’s very important that I like it obviously! LOL!) and we were quite excited when we pulled in to the Stafford Center’s car park.
There are a few good points to note about the Stafford Center, free parking, no fees when you book and a huge TV screen for those up in the balcony (that’s us). The concessions are cash-only, but they do have an ATM on-site.
I have to say, as an act, I was disappointed with them. In November 2011, Col and I landed some tickets to go into town and see a Beatles tribute act, Rain (blog post: here) and I still get chills when I think about it, it was out of this world. We spent most of the show on our feet, singing, dancing and it even reduced me to tears. With ‘The music of Abba’, I was bored to tears! Aside from the girl who ‘played’ Agnetha, (her voice was beautiful and she really gave it her all with the dancing and entertaining) I really wasn’t impressed – and I’d even go so far as to say that I could have done a better job than the girl who played Anni-fred, and for sure the two men (who were great musicians, but we just barely heard them sing, they just didn’t have strong voices).
The piano was poorly mic-d up, we couldn’t hear it at all, and for any number of Abba tunes the piano needs to be heard (Money, Money, Money for example).
My favourite song of the night was ‘The Winner Takes it all’, which was sung by Agnetha. She did a great job on it and I was singing along, right there with her!
All that said, it was a good night, though at $30 a pop for the balcony tickets, I feel it a little overpriced for the quality of the show, but Col enjoyed himself and we discovered a new concert venue, so it was a pretty worth while investment all round and we’re already checking on what else will be coming up in the Stafford center!