Bounce for Madonna

Madonna Day dawned gloomy and damp and the dampness continued right to the end of Madonna's 'Confessions' show at Wembley Arena, very hot and sweaty in the auditorium. And what an excellent show it was, with Madonna striding across the stage and catwalks to make sure people could see her while her dancers were all over the place, even at one point, jumping into the audience and racing round.

There were a few jaw-dropping WOW moments and not knowing where to look since so much was happening in front on the stage, to either side on the catwalks and even behind us at the end of the catwalk - that's one of the drawbacks of being near the stage. Madonna used the central catwalk quite a lot to get right into the middle of the audience so that more people can see her close-up. What a fit woman - how many people could keep up that level of activity for nearly two hours? A lot of stamina.

My favourite sequences were:

# the opening where a huge glitter-ball descends to the end of the main catwalk in the audience and out steps Madonna in her pervy black riding costume while the dance troupe are all done up in harnesses prancing round the stage to 'Future Lovers'.

# 'I Love New York' with Madonna the rock goddess, the background is the New York skyline and she gives it some major league guitar hero power chords with madatory feedback and then launches into a guitar-based 'Ray of Light'. I love the rock version of 'I Love New York' (which is on the new live album) but couldn't bounce to 'Ray of Light' as instructed because of me back >sigh<.

# the red disco sleaze opening sequence ('Music Inferno') leading into 'Music' with Madonna and two dancers coming on in John Travolta white suits and striking the 'Saturday Night Fever' pose - that was excellent, particularly with the dancers zooming round on rollerscates. Then having a Dresden's moment by ripping off her suit to reveal the leotard underneath.
The show was incredibly professional and a lot of money was obviously lavished on the set and on the dance troupe to get them to that level of performance. The only bits I wasn't too overjoyed about were the simulated dance-fight sequences, particulary during 'Sorry' where Madonna whoops some ass in a sort of cage-cum-club scene and when a couple of the dancers fight all the way down the catwalk. It was very well done but jarred a bit with me.

All in all, I give the show 10 out of 10 and big kudos to Madonna!

Now then, the audience... Once again we had two beanpoles right in front of us - how does that happen? The god of audience manipulation has it in for me. Luckily they left to stand by the catwalk at the first opportunity so that was ok. They were both incredibly thin and looked like they would snap in a medium-strength breeze - they should see a doctor if the lack of actual body isn't chemically achieved. And if it is then they should stop it. Most odd. I obviously don't get out enough if I'm surprised by how stick thin some people are. There was also the inevitable bloke drinking beer all night with his back to the stage talking to his mates - why? I don't understand paying those ticket prices and then not even looking at the stage. That's his loss.

Photos courtesy of the fans at Madonnalicious.