Shades Brooklyn Concert reviews
Madonna WORKED It!
Tuesday night's show at the Forum blew me away!
The concert started an hour late and there was NO opening act except for a DJ who was playing nonsense from the mid-90s and seemed to be the only one enjoying it. The bars at the Forum were tended to by one person (at each station) who had to do everything from taking the order, fixing the drinks, ringing up the sale and breaking the ice, so the lines for the bars were super long.
The show switched it up with different themes from religion to roaring 20's jazz-age to Flamenco, so one was never bored with the material or the Material Girl herself. If you're one that gets easily offended by the blasphemous mingling of religion and sex you might be uncomfortable during some scenes, but I LOVED it all!
Even though she's in her 50s, Madonna was doing everything from dancing, running, jumping around, swinging and spinning on a pole, everything she expected from her dancers she did herself. It was like I was watching her in the 1980s. She did take a few breaks for costume changes, but you never miss her or the action because something is continuously going on on the stage to keep your attention.
But once the show got started it exploded into a roller-coaster ride that takes you through many of the new cuts off of REBEL HEART, but also plenty of stuff from Madonna's bigger hits from back in the day and all was forgiven.
I really didn't have any expectations going in to see Madonna live for the first time. The only other performances I have seen have been from the documentary "Truth Or Dare" and her performances on MTV when she did "Vogue" (as Marie Antoinette) and her Oscar performance of "Sooner Or Later," so I've never seen her live. I enjoyed those performances, but this is now, and so I guess I was just hoping for so-so.
The choreography, dancers, band, sets, lighting and camera work, and the digital projections were exciting to watch, and Madonna would talk to the audience in what appeared to be off-the-cuff and spontaneous comments (of course it could've been scripted but M made it seem extemporaneous).
A friend told me that some other reviews had complained about her changing the style of some of her big hit songs, but that's to be expected. I was pleased with the arrangements and I love her older stuff (Bedtime Stories was the last album that I enjoyed fully -- Confessions On A Dance Floor was the last CD I bought before REBEL HEART, but there were only a handful of cuts I like -- so I understand that fans want the earlier stuff) and the songs were fine with me. I didn't feel like something was missing or that I got cheated.
My only let down was my iPhone because I took video of the show but when I got home my phone only recorded the video and the audio was just loud static (iOS update at fault no doubt). I hope this concert was filmed and will be available later on. I would love to see it again!
Anyway, we got one of the VIP tickets and I still haven't received the special commemorative book, which is supposed to be sent to your billing address. I was confused a few weeks before the concert because that info was in an email, but it made it sound like the tickets were going to be sent as well. If you bought VIP you pick up your tickets at the VIP booth.
The REBEL HEART concert was worth the money and the time! I loved it.