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Member Since: 5/15/2010
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Quote:
Britney Spears hits fans with energy, elegance at UC
In what would’ve been an epic crosstown tussle, Britney Spears and Katy Perry were to have vied for Chicago’s affections on Friday night. Perry fell sick and canceled, and so the golden-locked Louisianan — now a mother of two and pushing 30 — served up an electric 90-minute reminder about who’s queen.
Everyone loves a survivor and at 29, Britney seems to have made a fashionable comeback. At a sold-out United Center she looked fit and fantastic, bearing no trace of the tabloid baggage of recent years. You could even see her maturing into a classic Hitchcockian blonde: elegantly seductive, headstrong and possibly dangerous. Her current “Femme Fatale” tour, now after her seventh studio album, plays this up as video shows a scruffy stalker pursuing her throughout the show. This corny cat-and-mouse narrative might have provided commentary on fame’s oppressive grip, but no one was really paying attention.
Even with rumors that Brit was cracking under tour stress, she lurched energetically into two cuts off the new album, the anthem-laden “Hold it Against Me” and the jail-cell orgy of “Up and Down.” The crowd erupted loudest as Will.i.am joined her via video for “Big Fat Bass,” all while Britney lap-danced an enormous vibrating 5-foot speaker. The production in general was ambitious, packing in a stream of cinematic scenes: Britney partying on a pink Mini-Cooper; Britney hounded by press in a noirish Marilyn Monroe getup; Britney as a bikini-clad princess in Hollywoodized Egyptian and Oriental locales.
Even with her vocals sounding more processed than a box of Twinkies, it’s difficult to say what was sung and lip-synched. The general rule is she’ll sing her ballads (“Don’t Let me Be the Last to Know”) and let technology handle the rest: After a small dose of acoustic Britney, this was probably for the best.
It was as a denim-clad biker chick where Spears seemed most assured and comfortable, parceling out favorites like “Hit me Baby One More Time” and the Madonna cover “Burning Up.” “Toxic” was a morsel of perfection, as interesting as any dance-pop song from the past decade.
For those itching for a more urban sensibility, the opener featuring New York-based rapper Nicki Minaj proved a curiously eclectic experience. Surrounded by a sextet of dancers, Minaj alternated between Enya-fueled folklore to violin-synth hip hop. Yet lackluster sound design soon became a distraction and would yield pedestrian production values.
For sheer force of energy and inventive choreography, Spears was untouchable. The mantra at the beginning of 2007’s “Gimme More” crassly said it best: “It’s Britney, bitch.”
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http://www.suntimes.com/6420595-417/...nce-at-uc.html
Would Chicago Sun Times lie?
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its combined total is in the top 20. 
