I'm not a critic but this is what I wrote on my blog about my Britney experience!
CONCERT REVIEW – BRITNEY SPEARS -LG ARENA BIRMINGHAM- 30th October 2011
Posted on November 2, 2011
‘Destinee and Paris‘ were first up – they are a female duo who are also sisters – vocally they sounded very good and sound-wise it was very Euro-Pop think a younger and blonder version of Nicole Scherzinger. Their single ‘True Love’ is out now, it’s already at half a million views on YouTube so check it out…
Second support act came in the form of Joe Jonas aka the fit one from the Jonas Brothers. Poor Joe, although he put on a decent show his songs just aren’t catchy enough. It summed up his set when his Chris Brown cover of ‘Beautiful People’ was the only song to get the crowd remotely interested.
After the two support acts we had half an hour to wait for Britney Spears to perform. This was counted down on big screens either side of the main stage. There has been a lot of speculation about tickets sales for this tour – I took a look around the arena with 7 minutes to go – it was full, even at the back. There is evidence of this on our youtube channel (deets at the bottom of this review.)
The show was split up into five sections, each preceded with a video segment which gave a story and structure to the show. I liked it – the premise was that Britney Spears was a femme fatale going around the world in a superhero kind of way with a creepy/scary agent trying to track her down and then kill her. A game of cat and mouse if you will. This allowed for each set and costume change to be themed – so we had the Japanese theme, the Egyptian theme, the police chase, being locked in a cell and err a flying segment.
I thought the crowd were a bit tame for a Britney concert, especially in the first segment, going straight into Hold it Against Me as the first song was a little like going at a full sprint without doing your warm up stretches though. Some songs obviously worked better than others – I would have liked to of seen more of the songs left more in there original state rather than being ‘remixed’ for this tour. Especially classics such as Boys, Toxic and Baby One More Time. It was hard to get into those songs when you didn’t know what beat was coming next. It was especially bizarre to cut ‘Baby..’ down to one verse to then go into S&M.
The songs that really worked for me and which Britney herself seemed to enjoy a little more where How I Roll, If U Seek Amy, I Wanna Go, Womaniser and Till the World Ends. The friend I went with hadn’t heard any of Femme Fatale except the singles and How I Roll was definitely one of her favourites – after the concert she wanted the whole album after getting a taste of the other songs performed such as Up N Down and Drop Dead Beautiful. The songs definitely transfer in concert form as highly catchy and infectious.
Onto crowd participation…well Britney said the word ‘amazing’ a heck of a lot! There wasn’t really any spontaneity in terms of what she said, it was a lot of ‘I can’t hear you’ ‘I love you Birmingham’ and ‘that was amazing’ x 10. It’s a pity because the crowd is really willing her on and if she gave 10% more it would turn into a good show to a very good show. At one point she came towards us at the right hand side of the main stage and waved and looked at the people in the first tier seats parallel to the edge of the stage and everyone went nuts…this is all she literally needs to do, a few more looks and words in the right places and it would up the show a lot.
Singing wise at some points you could hear her voice over the backing mix – definitely during HIAM, and on her one old balled Don’t Let Me Be the Last to Know she sounded good. The rest of it though was mimed – to me though I don’t care much about that at a Britney concert, she made an effort to sing some of it live just like she did 10 years ago…fine.
The dancing…hmmm, to me it’s the lack of energy or drive/motivation what ever you want to term it really. She hit all her marks, she did her job ‘professionally’ but not passionately. Again there was a few moments when she seemed to be getting into it more but then some when if you watched her face on the big screen she looks kind of worried which was a bit sad to see. But she has natural rhythm and that is still apparent.
I cannot fault the concept of the show, her dancers were amazing and did a great job bringing energy to the show, the lasers and the smoke/fireworks all added to the excitement as well. The set was also good allowing for lots of movement, the Egyptian boat and the car were also amazing props and the finale with all the ticker tape was brilliant if you were at the front!
So in conclusion I really enjoyed it, this was the first time I’ve seen Britney live. I will admit that I have a huge soft spot for her – she is about 4 years older than me so I do feel like I’ve grown up with her in a way. Her back-catalogue is amazing and I think Blackout and Femme Fatale are her best albums yet. If you like her and you like her songs then go – just suspend your ‘live music’ snobbery and enjoy a good pop show. I did not hear one grumble or negative comment the whole night as my friend concluded the show was like ‘Britney on acid’ – high energy, lots of colour and brain stimulation…enough to keep her fans entertained.
PopLedge Points: 8/10
Our photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/popledg...7628021005766/
Our videos from the concert:
http://www.youtube.com/popledge
My photo:
I stopped reading when they said TTWE is a ballad. 
We defiantly know these reviewers lose, especially DG1's fail attempted with this thread. 