Britney lip-synched all but one song, but we were expecting that. My personal pop star philosophy is that if you're gonna phone it in vocally, your dancing should be spot-on. But she was kind of lost in her own overwhelming production (thankfully the technical gimmicks and sheer number of dancers almost justified the $120 ticket price). They obviously gave her some basic choreography outlines but a lot of the time she improv'd (and poorly, I might add), and seemed dropped-in courtesy of Papa Spears' enterprising accord. She made a few generic comments during the show, and managed to remembered what city she was in. In general and at large, her presence suggested a kind of indentured servitude.
There were some honestly scary Circus freaks on stage, and the false opening dragged on WAY too long. Her entrance was not as grand as I imagined or would have choreographed.
Britney one-upped Madonna a few times in the sexuality department. At one point she was hoisted mid-air in an S&M-style swing with two leather-clad men. It was quite impressive from an acrobatic standpoint. With that said, Britney owes quite a bit to Madonna's '93 "Girlie Show" tour.
For a moment, the clouds broke and she appeared in Bollywood pastels, mounted a giant rising umbrella handle and sang one of her cutesy ballads above the stage. And then it was back to the bowels of Circus mayhem.
All in all, we managed to stay mostly mobile with the set, but I wouldn't say I was enraptured the way, say, a Madonna concert could absorb me. But there were some genuine ass-shaking highlights. Did it all come togther from a conceptual standpoint? Let's just say, my final take was Gimme More (both literally as a missing song, and figuratively).
My friend Amanda won stage-side tickets so she sold her original tickets in my and Paul's section. She's so lucky! She's a star.
The Pussycat Dolls got a little tired, even for a 40-minute set, but at least they belted out some live runs. And I was kind of jealous of their outfits.
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