June 21, 1998 -
The Spice Girls played the Nissan Pavillion in Haymarket, Virginia Sunday night.
The show capped off the first week of the US leg of their current SPICEWORLD world tour.
The first show of the tour to go on sale was Madison Square Garden in New York. The show suspiciously sold out in 12 minutes. Upon hearing this, I decided that it would be a good idea to camp out for tickets when the girls played our area. And a good idea it was, too. Andrew Heiliger and I arrived at the ticketmaster location at 5am...5 hours before the tickets were to go on sale. We were third in line, by the time 10:00 rolled around, there were maybe 20 people in line. By the time the people at the end of the line got their tickets, the pavillion seats were completely sold out. Our seats were for row P, which we were happy about.
The big day finally came and Andrew and I, along with Brian and Allisan piled into my little Nissan (what a coincidence) and headed on out to Haymarket. For those of you who have never been there, the Nissan Pavilion is out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by one lane roads as the only enterance to the park. Needless to say, traffic was heavy but we passed the time by enjoying both Spice Girls albums a number of times, as well as taking turns hitting on Allisan.
Once we arrived at the park, and parked out car 3 and a half miles away from the gate we made our journey on foot to the arena. Along the way I stopped and purchased an ice cold 20 oz. bottle of Sprite for three bucks! (That's a reasonalble price!) As we walked, we towered over the hordes of 5 to 13 year old girls, most of them dressed as thier favorite Spice Girl. We find our seats, which were nice and close and we could make out the people on stage very well, without the aide of the giant screens that surrounded the stage.
It's 7:30pm and time for the show. Some DJ from Z-104 takes to the mic, "How's everybody doing!?!," she asks. She is met with a thunderous roar/squeal from the millions of little girls!
Time for the opening act we figured! Who could it be, we wondered. ALL SAINTS, 98 Degrees....perhaps a reunion of THE PARTY...nope, we settled back into our chairs for the opening act of a half hour of tv commercials and music videos! At 8:00 the girls took to the stage!
A giant video screen that covered the back wall of the stage displayed a space ship (or is it Spice Ship) landing, at which point the doors opened and the fab four emerged into a high powered rendetion of "If You Can't Dance!" The girls went wild, the crowd sprung to their feet and the evening was off to a spicy start!
Although the show got off on a slow foot, midway though the girls began a climb of musical energy that left the crowd wanting more!
The recent departure of Ginger Spice, from the group only brought the Spice Girls closer together and the chance to shine even more! 
Posh Spice, who seems to have the least amounts of singing on the records, rose to the occasion and picked up the majority of Ginger's lines without fail. It's obvious that the soft spoken Posh has been working on her voice quite a bit, for it was loud, powerful and right on key. At the times where Ginger would have been singing, the girls covered it up completely effortlessly! A few times on the backing vocals tracks, Ginger's voice could be heard, and she could be seen in a few rapid cut video clips on the back wall. But Ginger's sudden and abrupt split from the group in no way deminished the girl power and energy of the show. (I'm starting to sound like a press release!)
My only complaint with the show is not with the girls, but probably with corporate head honchos. Fourty-five minutes into the show, the girls left the stage and the audience was treated to another half hour of tv commercials. It totally ruined the flow of the show. It took another 20 minutes into the second act when things started to flow again! I understand the bills need to be paid, but at 45 bucks a ticket, I think we deserve a little more respect.
As much as people would like to dismiss the Spice Girls, they are currently a force to be reckoned with. Fun and friendship and two aspects of life that deserve to be celebrated, and the Spice Girls capture that and so much more!
If you missed the show, pick up a copy of "Spice Girls Live from Istanbul" on video, it is pretty much the same show as performed on their current tour!
-Ed Bouligny 6/24/98