Britney Spears came to town last Wednesday at the Jobing Arena and brought NERVO, Jessie and the Toy Boys and Nicki Minaj.
NERVO are an Australian DJ group comprised of two sisters. I wasn't that impressed by them because all they did was remix songs to get the crowd going. I suppose that's what a DJ does but it didn't seem appropriate for an arena tour. It was just boring.
Jessie and the Toy Boys came out right after NERVO left the stage which is impressive considering most shows need a down time of at least 15 mins to get the next band ready. It's a solo effort fronted by Jessie Malakouti who is a singer/songwriter/dancer from California. She dances a lot during her set which is refreshing but it seems like her talents are wasted on generic pop songs. I had a hard time telling whether she was lip syncing or not because I was too far away from the stage. Her songs are catchy but fizzle over time.
Nicki Minaj was the big opener that everyone was excited for. Her stage setup was elaborate. Her entire set evolved around her alternate personality "Roman Zolanski" who had to fight "Nemesis" in order to restore balance in the universe. Flanked by a set of dancers, Nicki went through a few dress changes and fought "Nemesis" and won restoring balance to the universe. Nicki was my favorite of the night. I thought her set was a lot more entertaining and energetic than Britney's.
About 30-40 mins after Nicki finished her set, Britney came on to everyone's excitement. From the get go, I didn't know what to expect. I still can't get the taste of her mental breakdown four years ago out of my mouth. I read an article from Perez Hilton that estimated her live singing at the concert to be about 40% but I don't know if it was even that much. She played a lot of songs off of her new album which I'm not familiar with. I figured she would be playing more of her singles so as not to alienate new fans. She had several costume changes and elaborate set pieces that included a car and a giant guitar. Her set was peppered with video clips of her running from a stalker, being a "femme fatale" and eventually catching up to him. As I'm typically used to live band concerts versus pop arena tours, it was odd that she hardly ever addressed the audience. She gyrated throughout the entire set, barely doing any of the elaborate dance moves of the past.
Overall, I was disappointed in Britney because she used to be a great performer and it seems as if she's resided to a shell of her former self.
Below is the set list from the night
"Hold It Against Me"
"Up N' Down"
"3"
"Piece of Me"
"Big Fat Bass"
"How I Roll"
"Lace and Leather"
"If U Seek Amy"
"Gimme More"
"(Drop Dead) Beautiful"
"He About to Lose Me"
"Boys"
"Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know"
" . . . Baby One More Time"/Rihanna's "S&M"
"Trouble For Me"
"I'm a Slave 4 U"
"Burning Up"
"I Wanna Go"
"Womanizer"
Encore
"Toxic"
"Till the World Ends"
Comments