Cheetahs’ live show strays from nature

IT might not be quite fair to rename the Cheetah Girls the Cheater Girls -- after all, technological, um, enhancement of concert vocals has become pretty routine in mainstream pop. But when your appeal is based on keeping it real, you might want to keep it a little more real than the Cheetahs did at Gibson Amphitheatre on Tuesday.

The trio has ridden the synergy of a Disney Channel movie, big airplay on Radio Disney and a hit soundtrack on Walt Disney Records to the pinnacle of teen popularity. The three were charming and engaging when they spoke between songs, and their interracial composition and affirmative message give them a down-to-earth wholesomeness.

But for most of the 50-minute set, that quality was countered by voices that sounded disconcertingly disconnected from the girls on stage, coming through with the rich, perfect sound of studio tracks. The apparent lip-syncing and the use of recorded backing music created an atmosphere of artificiality.

The trio -- Adrienne Bailon, Kiely Williams and Sabrina Bryan -- sold out the amphitheater (scaled down from 6,000 seats to 3,800), and the energetic tweens in the house waved their glow sticks happily as the Cheetahs delivered their pop-flavored R&B.; But it was a subdued Christmas ballad that stood out, simply because it was sung with their natural voices.

The opening act, Aly & AJ, is also part of the Disney music-cable machine, but the two sisters are a different musical proposition, blending their voices in tart harmonies and favoring a folk-rock sound somewhere between Avril Lavigne and Fleetwood Mac. The singing was strong in their short set, but the bare stage and use of recorded backing lent things a cut-rate, canned feel. Give them a band and a show of their own.