No Rock And Roll Fun

JEWEL LOSES LUSTRE: Being cynical types, we'd have thought that the title of "Worst Jewel Gig" ever would have been a tricky one to award, but by the sounds of it, her second show at the Hampton Beach Ballroom Casino last Saturday might be a shoo-in.



The first show of the evening was "rocking." The second? According to the Portsmouth Herald:

People were literally walking out of the show," she said. "As soon as she came out, she began to insult us. We thought she was joking at first because it was kind of weird."
Witnesses said Jewel went on a tirade of insults from poking fun at fat people to others with no teeth. At one point, she asked the audience to yell requests and then told them to "shut the hell up."
"I saw her live in Boston and it was the greatest show I’ve ever been to," Dion said. "I don’t know if she was having a nervous breakdown or what. She told everyone to stop looking at her teeth and look at her breasts."
Jewel was on stage for about an hour and played only four to five songs. Halfway through the show, Dion said Jewel began to talk about Zoloft and Paxil for about 10 minutes.
"I don’t know what that was all about," said Nicole Dion, who came from Canada to see the show. "I don’t know if she was on it or what. Maybe she didn’t take it."
Dion said Jewel stopped in the middle of her trademark song, "Who will save your soul," because everyone was singing along. "She said, ‘I would have never guessed you all know the words.’ I don’t know if she was kidding or what."
Nicole Dion said the entire experience made her no longer want to be a Jewel fan.
Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom officials said they have not received negative feedback about the show, but radio station 107.1 WERZ that sponsored the concert did.
WERZ Operations Manager Michael O’Donnell said he heard comments about Jewel’s strange behavior during her second performance.
"I got a lot of negative feedback from people who attended the second show," O’Donnell said. "They were upset with some of the comments they heard her make.
"She said she saw a better audience at a barroom brawl and that all drinkers and smokers were sinners."
Dion said she doesn’t blame the Casino, but believes something should be done to make it up to them. She said not only was the show bad, but people were not allowed to buy drinks or smoke a cigarette in the smoking room.
Kristen MacKinnon, a manager at the Casino, said it was Jewel’s request that smoking not be allowed at the show. Alcohol was served, but not in the main stage area because Jewel requested no waitresses in the main ballroom while she was on stage.
Dion said Jewel came out for an encore, but instead of singing one of her hit songs, she yodeled for a minute and then left the stage.

Jewel's manager's response was, apparently, "she sometimes does a lot of tongue-in-cheek hunour during her shows."