CONCERT REVIEW: Madonna gives lackluster audience 'C' grade - News

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Nov. 10, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

CONCERT REVIEW: Madonna gives lackluster audience 'C' grade

'Sticky and Sweet' singer belts out new tunes, revamps old at MGM

By JASON BRACELIN
REVIEW-JOURNAL

JASON BRACELIN
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REVIEW

Who: Madonna

When: Saturday

Where: MGM Grand Garden

Madonna performs Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden after arriving onstage draped over a gleaming throne. The singer performed two shows in Las Vegas as part of her "Sticky and Sweet" tour.
Photo by Ched Whitney/Review-Journal

She entered upon a gleaming throne, leg draped over one of its shiny arms, exposing the goods like a little girl who keeps pulling her dress up over her head.

"Don't be fooled by my humility," she'd later wink, which was kind of like a shark urging you to pay no mind to its teeth.

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Madonna's no more subtle than a cat in heat, its hindquarters in hot pants, its mind in the most glittery of gutters.

She speaks her mind and she grades on a curve.

"I'll give you a C," she told a near-capacity crowd at the MGM Grand Garden on Saturday night, underwhelmed by the crowd's enthusiasm in joining her for an a cappella version of "Open Your Heart."

It wasn't three songs into her set before she was flipping the audience the bird and bemoaning the relaxed vibe in the arena.

"There's a lot of laid-back people here tonight," she sighed at one point. "It's freaking me out. ... (Expletive) you."

But Madonna has always delighted in pushing peoples' buttons -- she's that kid in the back of the classroom, lobbing spitballs and trying to get the substitute teacher to lose his cool -- and she did her best to overwhelm at the first of two Vegas shows on her current "Sticky and Sweet" tour.

During the propulsive pop of "Beat Goes On," she and a phalanx of dancers rode down the runway that jutted into the crowd in a sparkling white convertible, undulating to the beat.

She took to the stage skipping rope and playing double- dutch during the cardiovascular aerobics routine that was "Into The Groove," interacted with a quartet of Madonna look-alikes from different eras of her career during "She's Not Me" and flung herself around a stripper pole mounted on a movable DJ booth at one point.

Through it all, an interesting duality emerged that defines a Madonna concert: They're highly choreographed, down to every more, and she lip-syncs (though not exclusively), not even pretending to sing the chorus on a show-opening "Candy Shop," for instance.

But she also dramatically re-configures many of her songs live, transforming them into new shapes and forms, thus keeping the show from feeling overly canned despite how prefabricated it really is.

Few popsters would ever think of toying with some of their biggest hits the way Madonna does on stage.

Clutching a bright purple Gibson SG guitar, she turned early dance pop confection "Borderline" into a riff heavy rocker with flared nostrils that actually had some crowd members playing air drums.

"Hung Up," the heart-pounding disco dervish from Madonna's last disc, "Confessions On A Dancefloor," was given a similar treatment, slathered in muscular power chords until it could nearly be classified as a metal tune -- seriously (Madonna's live guitarist, Monte Pittman, actually plays with long-running headbangers Prong).

"Ray of Light" was also turned into a bawdy, Bic-in-the-air sweat bath.

Elsewhere, Madonna ramp-ed up the BPM and added some serious torque to the bass lines in "Music," once a spare and slinky little hip-shaker, which got turned into a concussive, full-contact rave up, as did "Like A Prayer."

And during "La Isla Bonita," Madonna brought out a fiddle player, an accordionist and a pair of older gents with guitars and wide smiles to add some indigenous instrumentation to the song, turning it into a raucous foot-stomper that sounded as if it were inspired by gypsy punk fireballs Gorgol Bordello.

Throughout the course of the show, there were a few moments of understatement, and they were a welcome break from the bombast, namely porcelain-delicate ballad "You Must Love Me" or the forlorn "Miles Away," which she sang atop a piano cloaked in a flowing black robe.

Yeah, it was all patently ridiculous at times -- Madge in glittery red and silver shoulder pads during "4 Minutes." Huh? -- and we could have done without all the video interludes and dance routines, especially the one where a couple of dudes sparred to the beat in a makeshift boxing ring for no apparent reason.

But to lampoon a Madonna gig for its occasional detours into the absurd its kind of like critiquing a stripper based on her math skills, it's missing the point.

And the point is that bigger is almost always better, audacity certainly trumps reticence.

This was underscored by the time the show reached its sweaty conclusion with a seismic, hands-in-the-air "Give it To Me."

"Don't need to catch my breath," Madonna howled on the tune, the rare sentiment that the crowd couldn't echo on this night.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. SDW wrote on November 16, 2008 11:23 AM: OMG, as any Madonna fan knows, we expect some playful banter and abuse from Madonna. If she didn't, THEN we'd think she was in a fowl mood! If she doesn't flip the audience the bird or call them mother-effers, then something is definitely not right. It may seem twisted to others, but for TRUE Madonna fans, we get it. More importantly, we LOVE it, as odd as it may sound. BK wrote on November 13, 2008 05:41 PM: she did not lip sing at all at least not in L.A. and she does even the like Vegas crowd. Anat wrote on November 12, 2008 08:37 AM: This author missed mentioning that Madonna also yelled "[Expletive] you" at the crowd for what she perceived is a crowd of smokers who ash their cigarettes (despite the fact that not one person was smoking in the arena). She was clearly in a foul mood, and took every opportunity to bash the crowd. MARCUS wrote on November 11, 2008 12:01 AM: I agree, it was a boring show compared to her last 3 tours. If I wanted to see a big video show I would stay home and wait for the DVD to come out BogusMadonna50 wrote on November 10, 2008 10:28 PM: Madonna can't just do the stage personality and drop it. She's got a long track-record of being a rip-off artist, a thief and a snot... (Google Madonna Revelations.) Christopher Ciccone has written extensively on what a calculating, immature & self-involved brat she is. To say she has bravado by not giving a hoot about what others think is way-off track. It's all an act; these days a cross between Courtney Love and Iggy Pop. She is one of the most controlling people in show business as she is in real-life. But she seems to miss the fact that many "queens" go to their deaths in quite an ugly and unexpected fashion. "T" wrote on November 10, 2008 07:35 PM: First, she hates Vegas...always did. Why? Like someone else said, "visitors"...which she doesn't need. Nor does she need any of you, or me!! I bet all of you complainers bought Celine Dion tickets....and loved it. what a lovely voice, she sounds great. But i bet you also sat your fat ass down all through the show. Madonna's concerts are an experience through music, dance, thearatrics, and conclusion (draw your own)...she leaves room for the imagination...so either shut up, stand up, enjoy....or be left behind!! Tom, Burbank wrote on November 10, 2008 06:08 PM: Thanks for the unsparing review. I'm a fan of Madonna's music, but not her. She's crude, calculating and wholly unspontaneous. Everything she's ever done, from rolling around in a wedding dress on an early MTV awards show to flipping off David Letterman 13 times in one appearance reeks of pre-planned desperation. She acts like an immature child (flipping the bird to your own audience?) and seems blind to her own offensiveness. I'll stick to the CDs. Regarding the MGM Bland Arena, there is a weird black hole in there which seems to suck the energy out of performers and crowds. It's difficult to pinpoint why. More than one superstar has been perplexed by the inattentive indifference of Las Vegas audiences. It may be because, especially in a space as large as that, the true fans are watered down by opportunistic visitors who buy tickets to a show that they wouldn't normally see. It's an interesting phenomenon in an interesting town. Free Nevada Meat Tokens wrote on November 10, 2008 04:08 PM: 'exposing the goods like a little girl who keeps pulling her dress up over her head.' roflmao. Dood. JASON. Jail. Go there. Now. /wishing you into the corn field dianna wrote on November 10, 2008 02:01 PM: I flew from chgo. to vegas to see this show and I went from fan to HATE HER in one nite. Those of us were not "laid back" were punished with dangerous decilbe levels. she sucks and I will never waste a dime on anything that has to with her again. how about you "wake the f--k up"and get over your self you hag!!! Steve wrote on November 10, 2008 01:47 PM: I and my sister were there Sat. (Nov. 8). I have one correction for this article, the reviewer got a song name wrong... the song she sang on top of the piano while still in the robe with the hood on was "Devil Wouldn't Recognize You". I believe "Miles Away" came after that or at another point. To those responding here so far, clearly none of you are fans as you're ripping her. Madonna and this concert is/was awesome! I've seen her on the last 3 tours previous to this one as well, this was my sister's first Madonna concert however and she loved it too (seeing it made her gain interest in Madonna's newest CD "Hard Candy). We flew in from Utah to see this concert. My sister's ticket was a combo Christmas/Birthday present from me. My only complaint about the concert was the sound was often too loud, becoming overpowering to the vocals somewhat (but not always). This is something that happens at concerts by various people and you'd think the artists would tone it down so the music and vocals are evenly matched. I'll definately be back for a 5th time the next time Madonna goes on tour! I can't wait for this to come out on DVD (I suspect she taped her Los Angeles concert this month as both Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake sang with her on stage that night). Oh and Madonna had good reason to be irked with the crowd not showing enough excitement... other places seem to get livelyer. Maybe it's a Vegas thing. It could also be the due to whom all bought the tickets (mostly richer or snootier fans who just don't get roudy). Cheaper tickets, rowdier fans maybe. Read All Comments