Dangerous curves ahead: Beyonce and company and "Crazy in Love." All photos by Charles Russo.
By Kimberly Chun
I’m bedazzled by Beyonce - bewitched, bemused, checked in and down for the night at the Knowles family’s B&B. ‘Nuff said.
I resort to the Stan Lee comicbook equivalent of “end of discussion” because I’m just too tempted to toss in the towel after taking in Ms. Knowles’ Thierry Mugler-imbued show (she tellingly selected him as her tour's costume designer and “creative advisor” after discovering his handiwork at the “Superheroes” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute last year). Have mercy, my robotic leopard woman. Because despite it’s tough, sleek surfaces, Beyonce’s “I Am... Tour” is an organic, ever-morphing, slippery organism, judging from the timely Michael Jackson/“Halo” tribute and seemingly impromptu birthday singalong that closed July 10 performance at the Oracle Arena.
Genius avant camp. Heaven-bound goddess-gown diva perfection. Down-on-the-floor earthy air-humping along to a guitar solo. Warm moments of communion with the fans. Obama love juxtaposing the Civil Rights marches, **Cadillac Records,** the ‘09 inauguration celebration, and “At Last.” Aerial flips and hood-ornament poses on a trapeze eliciting shrieks of delight from the audience. All were welcome, all were included. And the curvaceous, rump-shaking, and robust Beyonce held up throughout, looking like an ace super-trooper while dancing, kicking, and singing in her minis, hot pants, and sparkly heels ala a young Tina Turner, and whipping around Shakira-esque curls with the fury of go-go dancer scorned.
From the photo pit: Tamia Pitts, 7, was front and center.
The genuinely sensational and sexy initial number, “Crazy in Love,” set the bar high from the onset, opening in darkness, a cracked-open stage, Beyonce entering backlit from the center, then an explosion of high-glam, disco-conscious moves and backing dancers in spandex body suits. The screen alternating between video strobes and images of a Beyonce and crew, writ large and ‘80s-ish with Night Flight-style reverberating rainbow effects, as confetti ejaculated from either side of the stage. It was a major-impact opener that most performers would be content to close the show with.
Instead, you were served up the many sides of Beyonce: in robotic “Kitty Kat” leopard guise and motorcycle parts-animal print bustier, an “Ava Maria” delivered as a white bathing suit turns into a surreally airborne wedding-frock crinoline, and snippets if not full songs from the Beyonce catalog -- “Say My Name,” “If I Were a Boy” (greeted with girly screams), “Baby Boy,” a sing-along “Irreplaceable,” “Ego,” “Deja Vu,” and “Single Ladies,” the latter prefaced with fans’ homemade video tributes as well as recorded proof that this country’s commander in chief really does know how to put a ring on it.
Hers is a tightly choreographed show, but also one open to drastic tweaks like the Jackson fare-thee-well and a close that revealed an “I Am... Yours” on the giant screen behind the stage. Ferocity and sweetness were the order of the day -- with a goodly dose of girl power (and many spotlights on her all-female band, which included two drummers, a percussionist, two keyboardists, and brass players) and rock-tinged aggression and grit. And an absolutely adorable, wide-eyed, and hard-working Beyonce managed to wipe away memories of her long-ago too-pristine turn at Oakland arena, which begged comparisons to a bluesier Alicia Keyes and a more streetwise Missy Elliott, and, damn it, made us love her.
Blame it on the King of Pop tribute, but Beyonce’s show also brought back recollections of another Jackson: Janet and her early ‘00s stop at the same arena. Perhaps Knowles is simply a better actress, aware of how carefully the camera picks up every expression that flits across her face. But where Miz Jackson perfunctorily went through the song and dance motions amid at times cumbersome, multiple sets, Beyonce delivered big-eyed “I love you!”’s to her fans -- her face a tapestry of happy, intense, and, OK, fearsome emotions. In a consumer-driven pop universe, it made sense to worked the viewers further into the mix by way of, for instance, the now-common strategy of depositing pockets of select audience members close to the stage, where Beyonce could easily connect with the viewers and feed off their energy.
A wealth of tributes: Opening act Richgirl raised their fists to Michael Jackson.
Eager to entertain? Yes. The hardest-working woman in show business today? Very likely. Perfection? Not really. But I like this latest incarnation, Beyonce 3.0, pushing against the doll-like ideal, foregrounding the fact that it’s very easy -- and satisfying -- to make those robot moves, but growing comfortable enough in her own skin to break from form and let a little of the fan’s love light in.
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Comments (1)
Beyonce Knowles - dazzling beauty, sexy and stylish, well-danced and had a magnificent voice. I think that Beyons has become the most popular young singer in the contemporary pop scene. I often listen to her songs. Usually I downloading them from this site mp3 music .
Posted by firstmp3 | July 19, 2009 01:38 PM