Iglesias' son is more mild than wild

Posted: March 19, 2002

With a name like the "One Night Stand Tour," Enrique Iglesias' road show promised the sparkly, all-ages audience at the Tower Theater on Sunday evening some steamy sexuality.

Instead, the scion of Julio and his large ensemble presented temperate Latin music, playful, romantic and grand. But moist? Not really, unless you were outside in the rain.

The lack of heat isn't his fault. Iglesias - looking lithe at the Tower, and sharply dressed in a sport T-shirt and mod-Moe Howard hairdo - has a voice that lacks expressiveness but is big in its command of tone and heaving, stage-whispery sighs. Tackling new-wavey stuff such as "Solo en Ti" ("Only You"), a coy "The Rhythm Divine," and floaty bits of "Love to See You Cry," Iglesias is fine - a fluttering Bryan Ferry mowing the misty moors of "Avalon."

But competing with the hard Survivor-guitars of "Love 4 Fun" and "Can I Have This Kiss?," anthems such as "Bailamos" and "Hero", or even the chunkier parts of an above-mentioned "See You Cry," his voice is drowned out. Iglesias gets lost in a programming hell of flittering "Latin" guitar solos, slick synth, and preset "conga" breaks.

He rises above it all when he sits with a pair of acoustic guitarists, speaks plainly to the screechy girls, and sings the spare, slightly country ballads "Por Amarte," "Si Tu Te Vas" and "Experiencia Religiosa." If just for that moment, Iglesias' vocal turn - including a Slim Whitman-like yodel - is delicate, pretty, and hushed in near-prayer.

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