|
| |
::MUSIC NEWS::
LE Newsletter -
August 12, 2010
|
| |
Rihanna’s First Headlining Show Dark And Steamy
Source: www.thestar.com -
Nick Krewen
(August 06 2010) Welcome to her nightmares. Psychiatrists would
have a field day trying to figure out the
meaning and the metaphors for what is going inside
Rihanna’s
head after what she unloaded on the Molson Amphitheatre audience
Thursday night.
For her first headlining show, The Last Girl On Earth, the
22-year-old Barbadian R&B princess bombarded her audience with a
steady stream of dark and apocalyptic imagery for more than half
her 100-minute act.
In light of the domestic brutality she allegedly experienced at
the hands of former paramour Chris Brown, a lot of the screened
and mimed visuals were shockingly angry and violent.
With a tri-sectional video screen revealing the words “This is a
dream, and when Rihanna dreams, they become real,” to the
pre-recorded strains of “Mad House,” for the introduction, the
two-time Grammy winner opened her show with the curious choice
of “Russian Roulette,” a tear-jerking ballad on her fourth and
recent album Rated R that is a tale of a dare with fatal
consequences.
Dressed in an LED-beaded dark gown that literally lit up her
body and physically transformed her into part of the light show,
no sooner did Rihanna conclude “Roulette” when she was joined by
six rifle-toting, helmeted dancers engaged in a Nazi march who
“executed’ her by firing squad while dropping bombs filled the
screens behind her.
The gunplay and war references didn’t stop there: the comely
model, now wearing a flesh coloured, thigh-revealing leotard,
donned her own helmet – albeit one with Mickey Mouse ears – for
“Hard” and suggestively straddled the smoking cannon of a pink
army tank located just off the front of the stage.
By the time the third song, “Shut Up And Drive,” had concluded,
Rihanna had just bashed in the hood of a wrecked car with a
baseball bat and was sporting a mischievous grin.
Apparently, she was just warming up, as the 15,000 in the
audience—a 3:1 ratio favouring women to men – cheerfully egging
her on. Following “Fire Bomb,” – with the molten electric guitar
lead being provided by Extreme axeman Nuno Bettancourt, heading
a seven-piece band – and an appearance by giant stilted monsters
during “Disturbia,” Rihanna found it time to turn to her
attention to something else: sex.
“Rude Boy” fulfilled that need, as four male “cameramen” tripped
over themselves to video her while she posed seductively on a
pile of TV sets.
The head-spinning array of bells and whistles more than made up
for those who were hoping that lightning would strike twice with
guest cameos by Rihanna superstar rap collaborators Eminem (the
current chart-topping duet “Love The Way You Lie”) and Jay-Z
(“Run This Town,” “Umbrella”), since both made surprise
appearances at her former lover Drake’s hometown show Sunday.
Although this wasn’t in the cards, Rihanna did pull a page out
of the Alice Cooper handbook with the appearance of gigantic
stilted monsters that haunted and attacked her during “Disturbia.”
She also borrowed liberally from Pink and dangled a pair of
acrobatic dancers from machine-gun-shaped trestles for a bit of
aerobic work during “Te Amo.”
There were also hydraulics galore, fireworks, a handful of
costume changes and a parade of #1 pop hits – “Hate That I Love
You,” “SOS,” “Wait Your Turn” and “Live Your Life”—with the
occasional scent of dancehall thrown into the mix during the
23-song set list.
Distorted volume aside, the elaborate sophistication of
Rihanna’s performance couldn’t have been more markedly different
than the simple presentation of opening act Ke$ha.
While Rihanna stuck to being earnest, L.A.-born,
Nashville-raised firebrand Ke$ha Sebert was the exact opposite:
cheeky, trashy, escapist, and carefree.
Adorned in an Metallica t-shirt, gold hot pants and torn
stockings and dedicated to frivolous fun, Ke$ha belted out
mindless party anthems from her debut and only album Animal,
highlighted by the #1 smashes “Tik-Tok” and “Your Love Is My
Drug.”
Yes, her two shirtless male dancers – each sporting their own
hot pants designed with the American flag – were incredibly
tacky and over-the-top, but even though Ke$ha’s
synthesizer-heavy dance pop seems to be tailor made for
airheads, there’s enough contrived craftsmanship to suggest that
she’ll be around for longer than a one-hit wonder.
By the time Rihanna rolled out the encore smash “Umbrella,” she
had proven herself a worthy headliner and had taken no prisoners
with her relentless sonic assault.
Still not convinced, though, that I’d want to meet her in a dark
alley. |
|
| |
|
::LANGFIELD
ENTERTAINMENT:: ENTERTAINMENT NEWS WITH A CANADIAN TWIST::
