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Things you liked about the HIStory Tour

Rudolf said:
Gold pants, gold pants.. What do they have to do with a good concert, a performance? I mean, even if he's just standing there and barely moving or being worst live vocal shape ever, it's amazing because it has gold pants.. They're just some damn pants to me lol. Sorry, I can't understand what's so spectacular about them.
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You don't get it, you're a straight guy and the ones who love the gold pants are straight females. Some people could think the same about his white socks, his black mask, his aviator sun glasses, etc. Michael has the quality of making a simple clothing like white socks iconic.
 
Although HIStory is my least favorite tour, I have plenty of positives to say about it:

1.) The primary gold/silver outfit (I like the gold pants, but for a different reason than most of the fans who do)
2.) I loved the opening medley, particularly hearing the playback of Mike singing Janet's parts and hearing MJ do the spoken-word part of In The Closet live.
3.) The fact that MJ performed some of my favorites such as Stranger In Moscow, Earth Song, and Blood On The Dance Floor. I also love the Off The Wall medley, but I wished he performed it more.
4.) The magic trick transition from Thriller to Beat It
5.) Any performance of Dangerous. It's a flawless routine!
6.) The new spins he took on Smooth Criminal and Billie Jean (Intros, longer dance breaks, etc.)
 
The intro to Smooth Criminal was breathtaking! It sounds like a completly diffrent song
 
a little question. (and maybe stupid...)

MJ only started beatboxing in Billie Jean only in this tour, right?
 
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Scream/TDCAU/In The Closet medley is one of the greatest works of stage entertainment ever.
Michael's dancing was incredible too, especially in 1996. Personally, I think he never moved as great as he did in Bucharest '96.
 
Even though I often forgot about the tour because I didn't like the lip-syncing, I do like:
Billie Jean Freestyles, Smooth Criminal, Stranger In Moscow, Off The Wall Medley, Scream & the "Put on this jacket, drink this juice" part from a J5 Medley :)
 
1) Billie Jean sung live somewhere in australia
2) Beat It
3) the 2 Different Thriller Jackets
4) D.S. Come Together Red Jacket during earlier concerts
5) Moscow Show With The Smooth Criminal Malfunction, WBSS 2nd Verse,
YANA And TWYMMF sang with a hand mic
6) TWYMMF Taiwan :p Michael Trips
7) Smooth Criminal Tokyo Where He Fall's During Lean
8) Scream 1st Verse Sung Live
9) Ripped His Golden Pants during an concert i think in brunei?
10) Fail Smooth Criminal Lean in Amsterdam and Billie Jean where the ponytail comes off
11) Earth Song in seoul where the fan grabs on the cherry picker
12) Copenhagen Michael Birthday he Even Cried :) and the epic billie jean where he sits on the stage :p
13) Stranger In Moscow Where Michael Sits On The Ground and where the fans clap and get crazy for 2 straight hours
14) BOTDF crazy moves and the red jacket
15) Billie Jean Moves Where Awesome After The Moonwalk
16) Scream where michael jacket opens Munich
17) BOTDF Michael Lies on The Stage In Milan
 
All of his robotic dance moves.
They Don't Care About Us performance
Scream performance
You Are Not Alone performance
Blood On The Dance Floor performance
Stranger In Moscow performance
Smooth Criminal pperformance
Dangerous performance
Wanna Be Starting Something performance
 
Dangerous Dance
Billie Jean Beatboxing
Come Together/D.S Performance
BOTD Performance
OTW Medley
The Opening Video
 
Well, gold pants, Blood On The Dance Floor, Earth Song, Billie Jean, Dangerous and Smooth Criminal performances.
It's a shame that HIStory tour was 90 % lip-sync, I would have wanted to see Michael singing live BOTDF.
 
There are much better concerts from 1996, like Brunei, Kuala Lumpur, Auckland, Amsterdam. In Seoul he was slow.
 
Is it me or is the speed for some of the songs slowed down a little on some shows? On certain shows (Aukland comes to mind) the speed on Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal and Beat It seem to be a bit slower than the album versions
 
^ i think they were all the same in the tour. Though I'd have to check and compare peaks to be completely sure.
But Billie Jean was always bit slower, I think. It has also slightly lower pitch.
 
Michael always performs "Billie Jean" with his hair in a ponytail, but during the second leg of HIStory Tour, at a concert in Amsterdam, Michael performed the whole "Billie Jean" number with his hair down because his hairtie fell out! I'd like to see that in pro shot!
 
In the early tours the musicians played the old songs too fast. In this tour Michael made a concerted effort to have the musicians play the songs at the speed that they were on the records, and make drum beats more like they were on the records..such as Wanna Be Startin Something, and such...also...his way of singing I'll Be There. Keeping the songs at authentic speeds allowed him to dance fully, the way he wanted to. I appreciate that.

on a different note, this is not something i liked hearing, and it's sobering to the core, and hurt me to my heart, now looking back on it. Near the end of the filmography roller coaster ride that is the intro to his HIStory concert in Finland, he sounds prophetic. He speaks of dangers ahead.

 
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Being there, seeing him perform, his addresses to the audience (one time I saw him he was really chatty, he even sat on his briefcase shortly before his Billie Jean performance!) and knowing that with the purchase of the concert tickets I was actually going to see THE MAN!
 
The things I most like about The History Tour are:

-The Setlist
-The staging and costumes
-The performance of Billie Jean (When comes with suitcase, just magic), They Don't Care About Us, Earth Song and Smooth Criminal
-The Jackson 5 Medley (First by the time when Michael talks to the public, then it is one of those moments when he sang live) :D
 
analogue said:
I hate lip syncing as much as the next person but the HIStory Tour wasn't all bad. So what things did you enjoy about the HIStory Tour

Personally i enjoyed

.In The Closet being included in the setlist
.MJ's robotic dance moves during Stranger In Moscow
Smooth Criminal is always great
.MJ's dancing at the end of the Off The Wall Medley was awesome
.The end dance to Billie Jean was fantastic. The best he ever did it out of all the tours in my opinion
.Blood On The Dance Floor sounded awesome. The live version is alot more funkier than the album version
.The live performance of Dangerous
.Earth Song performance
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The Billie Jean breakdown and Stranger in Moscow live are maybe Michael's best ever moments of dancing in his career. Especially the Basel 1997 show :D
 
I actually preferred the faster pace of the songs on previous tours as it gives more the feeling that it is fully live.
But what I liked was Michael's stage entrance that was awesome. The outfit was cool too. Then there is actually a decent setlist compared to the dangerous tours with lots of History tracks but since they're not live it is also kind of pointless. In the end it was still not 50% of the album he was supposed to be promoting so it's really a minor plus point but it was a start.
I like how he kept adding stuff to his Billie Jean performance, it is his live crown jewel and each tour it got expanded and a bit different dancing wise.

Missed opportunity award goes to stranger in Moscow. It had the potential to be one of his all time classic performance IF it was live. The performance itself is ethereal and magical

My answer to what I didn't like about the tour would be annoyingly long though :p
 
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What I like about the History Tour:

1. The performance of They Don't Care About Us. I just wish it was performed fully and not as part of a medley.
2. The setlist. Although not as good as the bad tour setlist was still miles better than the dangerous tour setlist, as it showed more love to the history album.
3. I really like the ad-libs during the ending of Heal The World.
 
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