Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve never had much use for Madonna’s output, though have grudgingly accorded her some kudos for keeping the whole thing going like she has. I never cared for the continual self-reinventions, the teeny-pop dance music that I associated her with in the past, or the overdone theatrics and stage presentation. Hell, I don’t even like overdone theatrics when perpetrated by my fave rock groups.
But I did watch the concert last night, and thought there was an edge there, that you don’t usually hear in pop, especially today. No one could have mistaken her for Britney Spears, for example. Madonna played guitar, albeit not terribly skillfully, and I noticed that she doesn’t always sing on key, but I really liked some of the arrangements. I don’t know if she had much to do with that or not, but most of the arrangements sounded great…sparse and powerful, and centered very much around the guitars.
I like Madonna in that “I own the Immaculate Collection and the Ray of Light CDs” kind of way and I thought she put on a great show last night. I applaud her for playing guitar - she was doubled by the real guitarist most of the time, but story is she’s only been taking lessons for a year. There were songs where her voice suffered, but there were others where she sounded fantastic. I think she is fantastic entertainer, very fun to watch, and a great dancer. She did a few annoying gratuitous “Look at me, I’m so shocking” things, but yeah, that was some decent rock and roll we saw last night.
I’m so sad I didn’t see it. I LOVE Madonna. I simply don’t understand the rancor that people waste on her. She’s never claimed to be the most dynamic musical talent in the world. She’s a performer. I mean, watch The Girlie Show concert, it’s like going to a circus. It’s a spectacle. And her music is so fun. I hope they release this concert on DVD or something so I can watch it.
Yeah, I really enjoyed the show last night. Her voice did suffer on a few tunes, but not so much as it seemed to during the “Ciao Italia” concert from the Who’s That Girl tour (I have that on video from way back, though I think it was on cable at some point). Whether that’s from increased lung power on her part or less dancing than she used to do, I’m not sure.
I thought the video stuff in the background was cool. Overall, the show made me realize how long it’s been since I’ve seen a really good multi-media kick-ass concert and I’m glad I tuned in.
Well, javaman, one early hominid to another, just as you, I have no use for such theatrics myself. Cavewoman is another story, though, and I humored her last night by watching it with her and a friend of hers (both of them clad in retro-Madonnawear). Not bad, for what it was; the stage show was impressive, if pointless. I found it rather funny at first to see her playing an instument behind a microphone (like a real-live “rock star”) instead of dancing about doing allegedly provocative things. After a while, though it started to wear on me (“Oh, look, she’s playing the guitar again” “Wow, I’d nearly forgotten she could do that in the past 5 minutes.”) But why, I ask, is she doing the actual-instument-playing thing? A couple ideas come to mind: 1)She’s taken an interest in actually playing music on her own instead of singing and dancing along to live or pre-recored back up, or 2) She’s trying to differentiate herself, and, by extension, her music, from other female pop artists for the benefit of a) younger fans who might lump her in with teeny-poppers, and simply opt for the CDs with the younger, prettier faces on them, or b) her older fans, who might be trying to justify to themselves that she isn’t part of the flood of manufactured pop tripe on the shelves
And it was quite a show, I give her credit for that, but as a rule of thumb I try to avoid actual attendance at concerts that are likely to have anyone on stage whose sole purpose is to dance or at which costume changes exceed on-stage clothing removal. That aside, I did particularly enjoy her performance of my favorite song of hers, “La Isla Bonita.”
That was a very cool rendition of La Isla Bonita - I loved her costume and the staging.
I prefer going to see smaller bands in more intimate clubs rather than paying through the nose for arena shows, but I was glad to watch Madonna’s from the comfort of my couch - I would have been there watching Six Feet Under at that hour anyway.
I saw the show last night I will admit that I am a musical illiterate. I know nothing about music and very rarely participate in music discussions because I know I am inept, but I’m hoping somebody out there can explain to me why all the violence?
If you watched the stage dancers you would have seen the dancing light girl during one of the first few songs. She was more of a contortionist costumed in bright red lights happily gyrating to the song, minding her own light girl business and some strange, vacuum cleaner, elephant trunk looking beast intruded into her little spinning dance platform grabbed her from behind and killed her!!! I was so enthralled with the little light girl, happily watching her twist away, and then there she is, a lifeless little light lump on the floor. All I have to say is… Why Madonna? Why did you kill the little dancing light girl?
I watched the rest of the concert, but my little heart was broken. I waited for the return of the light girl and all I got was some guy being shot by Madonna and then his lifeless body was kicked. And can someone please explain to me why a concert has a Matrix-like fight scene in it? Did I miss the point of the songs?
Again, I will admit that I don’t know much about music or artists and their styles, but I didn’t expect to see a concert by Madonna where people are dying on stage. Poor little light girl.