all about Madonna

The giant disco ball descended into the middle of HP Pavilion and out popped Madonna, wearing a dominatrix’s version of equestrian gear while dancers nuzzled around her. The techno throb of “Future Lovers” boomed around the arena, and the capacity crowd flipped out for the Material Girl’s grand entrance.
But leave it to Madonna to throw a dance party that also included a crucifixion scene and video images of sad-eyed African orphans and gunshot victims. Everybody dance now!
Tuesday night marked the first of Madonna’s two Northern California shows. She performed again at the home of the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night. These were stops on her “Confessions” tour, and no, the title doesn’t mean, “Forgive me Father, for I danced the ‘Running Man.’ ” This is a two-hour concert filled with guilty pleasures (all right, the roller disco spinoff in “Music” was pretty fun) and some heavy-handed imagery that’s designed to tweak Catholic guilt.
Madonna, 47, loves to make Middle America feel a little uncomfortable. Back in the 1980s, she was writhing around in a wedding dress while cooing through “Like a Virgin.” A few years later, she was getting snuggly with a Jesus-like character and singing in front of burning crosses in the “Like a Prayer” video And on the “Confessions” tour, she wears a crown of thorns and is strapped to a crucifix while singing “Live To Tell.” Can you hear the collective groaning from the Catholic Church?
Through all the controversy, Madonna still wants us to get our groove on. So her music is filled with cutting-edge beats and the kind of bass that goes boom-boom-boom around your head.
And the robe Madonna wore that said “Dancing Queen” on the back did not lie. She did a pole dance during “Like a Virgin” that might even make a dancer at Gold Club Centerfolds blush. Madonna donned a white disco suit, a la “Saturday Night Fever,” and boogied like Tony Manero down a runway that cut through the arena’s main floor. “Erotica” was more like a Jazzercise routine than a sensual slow dance.
The two-hour concert also had moments that felt like a slick DJ mix. “Lucky Star” morphed into “Hung Up,” the thumping hit from Madonna’s “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album, and “Music” was remixed with the 1970s tune “Disco Inferno.”
The one-two punch of “I Love New York” and “Ray of Light,” which both featured Madonna looking like a downtown punkette on electric guitar, made the HP Pavilion crowd seem like it was playing a massive game of “Dance Dance Revolution.”
So how does a crown of thorns and a crucifixion fit into all this? Good question.
The show jumped one minute from a party-down atmosphere to themes of suffering. Madonna’s crucifixion was paired with bleak Third World images and a message that “In Africa, 12 million children are orphaned.” That’s indeed sobering, but by hanging on a crucifix, is Madonna saying that she’s carrying that weight and worry on her yoga-honed shoulders? Whatever the case, the message felt muddled.
The overall theme of “Confessions” is more like an exploration of the power trip. The show toyed with themes of bondage, with an ever-dominant Madonna leading dancers around on leashes and stomping her spiked heel on a chair. She kicked butt in a choreographed fight scene during “Sorry” and declared, “That’s what happens when you (tick) me off!”
On the submissive end, well, there was the crucifixion. But the show also featured some of Madonna’s tales of vulnerability, through such songs as “Let It Will Be” and “Paradise (Not for Me).” In “Drowned World/Substitute for Love,” she sang, “I traveled ’round the world/looking for a home/I found myself in crowded rooms/feeling so alone.” (That’s in tune with the “Confessions” theme of the show).
But to really confess, this show had some of the best energy and razzle- dazzle seen on a concert stage this year. When Madonna, her dozen backup dancers and band were grooving hard, it felt like Studio 54 on steroids. Too bad the crown of thorns and all that buzz kill had to get in the way.

source : Sacramento Bee

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