After a high class dinner of beer and chips we took our seats. Walking down, down, down, almost to the arena floor and the reality of seats in row A - great seats! Naturally, Madonna ignored the fact of transport problems for her fans and came on a mere hour after the supposed start time (did anyone really think she'd start at 8.15pm?). And that's when the fun started, with the walls of the giant cube on stage showing the Sweet and Sticky video as a warm up to the main event of Madonna appearing on her M-throne, a big grin on her face as the crowd reacted to her presence. Her dancers bowing as she walked down the stairs from her throne to the opening of 'Candy Shop' and off we go!
Being so close to the stage was great, we could see everything she and the dancers did, cavorting across the stage and up and down the runway, smiling and laughing, flirting with the crowd - it looked like she was having a great time. Costume changes were covered by extended dance scenes and, at a couple of points, by videos shot for the show. No doubt they also gave Madonna a breather and chance to get her breath back properly. She's obviously very fit and I felt totally out of breath just watching her skip across the stage and then go all double-dutch during the '80s portion of the set, a brash, colourful backdrop with everyone in colourful tracksuits and caps (not everyone wore a tracksuit in the '80s y'know).
A hard, guitar version of 'Human Nature' had the video of a blond woman in a lift that turns out to be Britney Spears rather than Madonna was a thrill, even though I knew to expect it. The guitar came out a couple of times and, later in the show, her 'Romany' band accompanied her on 'La Isla Bonita', followed by a lovely, acoustic version of 'You Must Love Me'.I liked the revamped versions of the songs, with themes from '4 Minutes' invading songs and others being mash-ups with slices of songs spliced into others. She didn't just use her own songs for this but had a great version of 'Rain' spliced with the Eurythmics 'Here Comes The Rain Again' during a video break. Whoever did that had a great ear for the sounds and it really works, listening to one song and then veering off into another every so often. With a catalogue like Madonnas there's an awful lot of scope for doing that.
It was a thrill to hear 'Holiday', which I wasn't expecting, and that segued into a tribute to Michael Jackson, with a dancer dress as Jackson appearing to the opening beats of 'Billie Jean', doing some moonwalking and then leaving while Madonna called on us to give it up for one of the greatest artists ever with a photo of the young Michael on the giant video walls. That was a nice tribute. A final tribute was at the very end of the show when Madonna and all the dancers wore a single sparkly white glove on their right hand during 'Give It To Me', with Michael songs playing as the audience left the arena.
Favourites were 'Vogue', 'Music', 'Miles Away', 'Into The Groove' and the lovely version of 'You Must Love Me'. It was also great to hear 'Dress You Up', with the audience singing along lustily, and an upbeat and electric version of 'Frozen'. 'Ray Of Light' got the arena bouncing before closing with an extended 'Give It To Me' and Madonna and the dancers returning to and vanishing in the cube on stage. Madonna certainly knows how to design and build her shows to a climax, and then pulls it off with her own performance and the dancers she surrounds herself with. It was a great show, and all the better for actually being able to see it all!
No comments:
Post a Comment