After all the years of waiting, and all the hours spent perfecting my moves and learning all the choreography that she performed during her Drowned World Tour (by dancing along with the dvd in my living room), last night I finally had the opportunity to see Madonna in the flesh when she rolled into Vancouver with her Sticky & Sweet Tour.
The rainy scene outside BC Place Stadium was completely chaotic. Clearly they had too few people scanning tickets for the crowd of somewhere around 50,000 people, and the air-locked doors made the lineups take forever. Once inside, we grabbed an $8 beer and checked out the merch booth. Huge fail. Seriously. When merchandise is cool, I love to buy something- but the $70 shitty t-shirts on display last night were not even tempting.
An hour after the show was scheduled to begin, there was a huge roar when the lights finally went down. Several massive video screens displayed bright animation, as androgynous dancers rose out of the stage. A wall turned around to display the Queen of Pop in a black leotard, sitting on a rhinestone studded throne.
The show, as you can imagine, was quite a production. That's what kept going through my head as I was watching it. When you think of it in those terms, it really was quite a show. Between the lights, screens, sound, elaborate costumes and props- it was definitely a spectacle. The woman is 50 and damn, can she move it. Her tightly choreographed two-hour set was obviously designed to accentuate her physical strength and flexibility. Power yoga does a body good.
I can't say that it was a bad show because it wasn't. She looked hot, she sounded good (for the most part) and I could actually see her from our nosebleed seats. I guess I just feel a bit deflated on account of the fact that the show didn't completely blow me away as I'd imagined it would. I suppose that's what happens when you build something up from the time that you're six years old. It makes it hard for it to measure up, no matter the quality of it. Maybe if I wasn't hating her a little right now for her recent public comments completely slamming her soon to be ex-husband Guy Ritchie, I would have enjoyed the show more. I don't know. I just didn't walk away thinking it was the greatest show I'd ever seen, that's for sure. She didn't even play Material Girl.
In her review published in today's Vancouver Sun, Elaine Corden said:
"If Madonna's astonishing work ethic was evident in every choreographed step, it was admirable but also somehow tragic. The most famous woman in the world seemed very alone onstage, surrounded by accessories but seemingly intimate only with her own drive. It was only a brief moment, observable only to a keen eye, but it resonated."I couldn't have said it better myself. On my list of things I must do before I die, where it says "see Madonna in concert," I have officially marked "check."
3 comments:
I was there last night too and I felt the same way. Probably the building it up in our heads thing. You took some nice pictures.
Thanks for the review. I've been feeling the same way about her too recently. She is SUCH a powerful woman, but, at the same time, seems very lonely. I still would've gone to see her though - hella jeals!!
I heard the concert was awesome. Nice post and photos! Glad you had fun.
I heard she was doing a ton of squats on stage... she must have quads of STEEL.
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