Member Since: 11/7/2011
Posts: 10,399
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Critic PRAISES Nicki's Concert in Melbourne
Quote:
I throw a glance at the father nearby holding a tiny daughter when Minaj opens with a burst of hard-edged tracks—the explicit and excellent 'Come On A Cone' and 'Beez In The Trap' amongst them—but everyone’s cool.
This scowling, hypersexual Minaj is the Minaj I know best. It’s this particular alter-ego—known to fans as Roman Zolanski—who delivers that ferocious verse in Kanye’s 'Monster' and who holds another of her characters hostage in the accompanying video.
Minaj airs numerous alter-egos during tonight’s show—each one appearing after awkward breaks for wig and costume changes—and, honestly, it gives the show a musical theatre vibe.
The set-like double story backdrop doesn’t help; nor does the troupe of dancers-***-actors, who at one point mime something that looks like attempted sexual assault (hello, children!).
It’s Minaj’s friendlier characters (Harajuku Barbie? Wiki Minaj can only help so much) that spend most time on stage tonight though, performing the tracks that sit at the pop and dance end of Minaj’s broad genre spectrum; the ones ('Starships', 'Superbass', 'Automatic', 'Va Va Voom') that convinced parents this was a good show for six year olds. The stage background panels morph from graffiti'd ghetto walls into an appropriate bubbly seascape. “C’mon!” cries Nicki.
“We’re gonna miss the submarine!” The affixed stripper poles remain stripper poles.
Minaj is vocally very impressive and a pleasure to hear live, despite the moderate pain of a loud, shrill mix atop pre-teen squeals. The campiness of these mega-pop tunes encourages a heap of on-stage fun, including the backdrop opening to reveal a pink blow-up Bentley (reminiscent of Erwin Wurm’s Fat Car sculptures) housing a fist-pumping Minaj and two ripped, shirtless male dancers. Kitsch = maximum. Show highlight.
Alternately, another highlight arrives in the stage being stripped of props and dancers, leaving Minaj and two extraordinarily talented backing vocalists to perform a trio of power ballads ('Save Me', 'Marilyn Monroe', 'Fire Burns'). Those who insist Minaj’s talent lies solely in her rapping are wrong – this is powerful and affecting. In fact, she doesn’t miss a beat ever, in any mode.
There’s a lot going on in this show, and within the Minaj persona. It must be tough trying to be all things to all people, as she points out in this eloquent rant on rap and femininity: “You have to be dope at what you, do but you have to be super sweet and you have to be sexy...and you have to be nice. It’s like, ‘I can’t be all those things at once. I’m a human being.’” A fascinating, talented one.
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http://www.thevine.com.au/music/live...elbourne-2012/
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