Madonna thrills fans at Pepsi Center
Is there such a thing as a bad Madonna show?
A friend asked me that question a couple days ago. He wasn’t sucking up to Madge, the 50-year-old Queen of Pop, rather he was pointing out the obvious. Madonna is Madonna, and her well-documented past defines her as much as any live performance.
As a lifelong follower of Madonna, I can tell you there is such a thing as an off night for the diva. But her Tuesday-night bash, at the Pepsi Center wasn’t one of them. Madonna was dynamic and effervescent on Tuesday, playing to the capacity crowd with every trick in her long and playful book. She’ll repeat her performance tonight at the Pepsi Center.
Madonna can start the night (90 minutes late) with two lackluster songs – “Candy Shop” and “Beat Goes On” – and move onto a set that is as risky as it is expected. With an artist of Madonna’s years of experience, the success of a big show comes down to one simple element: The setlist.
It’s that simple. How many fans at the Pepsi Center on Tuesday were waiting to hear “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You,” a B-side from the new “Hard Candy?” Not many – as was obvious when the arena quieted during the unremarkable track. How many were wondering – out loud to their friends – if she would play “Human Nature” or “La Isla Bonita?” A lot.
Click here or the Full Article link below to continue reading this review by Ricardo Baca at The Denver Post.
Seriously. The arena was packed with thirty- and fortysomething ladies reliving their youths. Some were dressed up, veil and all, like Madonna circa her “Like a Virgin” days. Others simply bopped about like excited teenagers, gossiping about the Vegas setlist and the Britney rumors and the elaborate costume changes.
The show was obviously scripted to the very last step. But that’s not to say it was all the expected.
A late-set “La Isla Bonita” was thrown into a upbeat, cumbia-gypsy haze, and the hyper-Latin approach worked wonders for a great, but aged, song. “Human Nature” is Madonna’s sexy entry into the dark and moody world of trip-hop, but her current performance of the track posits it as a slow, angry rocker.
“La Isla Bonita” was the show’s brightest, boldest, most daring moment – a triumph of reinvention, like Madonna herself. “Human Nature” was a low-point – a brave attempt at trying something new, but a low point regardless.
“Borderline” was a success story. With Madonna and her electric guitar, the song was gallantly transformed into an arena anthem from the 1980s – not all that unlike a great Journey song. Sounds weird? It was. And it was great.
At other times, Madonna kept with tried and true formulas. “Get Into the Groove” was a delightful explosion of color. No experimentation here, just pure pop goodness – set against the backdrop of bright Keith Haring animation.
“Music” was a buoyant and throbbing gay disco – the American arena equivalent to Berlin’s Love Parade. Her courageous, late-set take on “You Must Love Me” – from the filmed version of the Broadway musical “Evita” – was spot-on and gorgeous with its string accompaniment.
It was also a needed opportunity to hear Madonna’s actual voice. Madge let her back-up singers work a lot of the heavy lifting – hit choruses and the like – but with “You Must Love Me,” it was only her and the strings. And her voice sounded solid – a strong tip of the hat that we have many more years of her music ahead of us.