Dido Throws Fans a Curve; Travis Hits a Home Run

How close to a disaster was Dido’s performance Saturday at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater?

Let’s put it this way: Even the freewheeling Sony ad department would have a problem putting a positive spin on this one.

Despite rewarding moments on her hit album, “No Angel,” the electronica-minded singer-songwriter from England had no more business being on stage in a vast outdoor amphitheater than struggling pitcher Eric Gagne had being on the mound this spring at Dodger Stadium.

After Gagne gave up almost six runs a game, Dodger manager Jim Tracy took the ball from the promising young starter and sent him to the minors for more seasoning.

By the 20-minute mark of Dido’s nearly 90-minute set, you kinda hoped Tracy or someone would take the microphone from her and reroute the tour into a more intimate setting that would be better suited for her trance-inducing, trip-hop style.

Not only was Dido upstaged by the evening’s co-headliner, the feel-good Scottish rock band Travis, but there was also such an exodus to the parking lot during the closing moments of her set that the walkway resembled a cattle drive from a John Ford western.

Thanks to Eminem’s use of her “Thank You” recording as the chorus for “Stan,” his high-profile tale of fan obsession, Dido has become one of pop’s hottest properties.

Her version of “Thank You” is a Top 10 single and her album has sold more than 3.1 million copies in the U.S. alone.

There is much to like in the album, where the mystery and restraint of her warm vocals and the lush, dance-world strains allow your imagination to fill in the blanks in the tales of romantic longing and need.

In transferring the music to the Verizon Wireless stage, that delicate balance was shattered. The spectacle-minded set, featuring enough lighting rigs to illuminate 10 miles of the San Diego Freeway, demanded stage presence--and Dido simply didn’t have any.

She moved about awkwardly, draining the music of the mystery and grace it offers on record. This stripped her best songs, including “Thank You” and “Here With Me,” of much of their power and left her lesser ones sounding simply mediocre.

Imagine film noir without the shadows.

The shame was that she has assembled a top-notch six-piece band (guitar, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards and DJ) that often delivered the album’s sound spectacularly. If you could return the shadows to her music by putting the show into a more intimate setting so she wouldn’t have to try to connect with fans sitting on blankets a football field away, Dido might have a fighting chance. She certainly sounds like she has another hit in the instantly appealing “See the Sun,” one of the new tunes she played.

If Dido didn’t prove ready for this prime-time setting, Travis showed it is overdue for it.

Ever since its “All I Want to Do Is Rock” single in 1997, this band has seemed to have the passion, craft and determination to be greatly successful on both critical and commercial levels.

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Even its melancholy tunes, including last year’s near-hit “Why Does It Always Rain on Me?,” are coated in an uplifting, sing-along style that conveys the comforts of friendship and community.

If the music hasn’t yet gained the widespread audience in this country that it has in Britain, it has produced a loyal core that greeted Travis with such enthusiasm Saturday that the Dido-drawn fans seemed surprised at the uproar.

Travis’ new album, “The Invisible Band,” won’t be released until Tuesday, but the group, led by singer-songwriter Fran Healy, is so confident about the new material that it played six tunes from the album, including the spirit-lifting “Sing” and the Beatles-ish melodic sweep of “Pipe Dreams.”

By the end of Travis’ hour set, it was hard to see the dividing line between the Travis and Dido fans. The applause was pretty unanimous.

Now, if Eminem would just use part of “Sing” on his next album, Travis might be on its way.