 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Madison Square Garden, New York August 23, 2001 By Steffie Nelson From the bootylicious getups adorning the crowd of well-maintained young urbanites to the champagne and strawberries for sale across from the Nathan's concession stand, the final night of the All for You tour's NYC stop was an upscale, upbeat affair. The event was, after all, sponsored by Jaguar, whose advertisements flashed at "the new Jag generation" as they waited for Miss Jackson to make her entrance. The audience was so pumped they were singing along to prerecorded James Brown and Lionel Richie; when images of Janet started flashing on the video screen, the screams would lead one to believe that the show had already begun. And in a sense, it had. Like most of today's pop stars, including Madonna, Janet is about the package. Sure, she sings, but she also dances, acts, makes videos, and does some modeling. All of those activities were accounted for during this blowout show, and it was hard to tell which element mattered most: Synchronized shimmies were met with the same enthusiasm as a flash of Janet's sunny smile. To call the event a concert defies my definition of the term. It was more like a Las Vegas stage spectacular, which I guess it should have been considering the minimum ticket price was $65. The 35-year-old Jackson appeared onstage by standing on a pedestal that had to be 40 feet high. She was dressed in an off-white fringe getup, and when she finally touched down she was joined by a slew of dancers wearing variations on the same outfit. They proceeded to thrust and skip and leap their way through three songs, including the groovin' title track "All for You." The dancers acted as surrogate Janets, keeping the audience involved when the star of the show was across the stage; they jumped on platforms, waved to fans in the cheap seats, and generally kept the entertainment level at maximum output. And it worked: Much of the crowd was on its feet for the entire two hours, singing and dancing along to what turned out to be an assortment of greatest-hits medleys. Like Madonna's equally spectacular concert, the costumes and stage sets had little relation to the music. During a tough, techno opera sequence with strong overtones of brother Michael and the song "Scream," ghostly figures with exposed veins cavorted while masked characters straight out of Amadeus swirled their robes with menace. My date raised an eyebrow: "Evil bunnies?" After such a bizarre interlude Janet and her guitar player came out alone for the "intimate" sequence. "I just wanna reminisce," she purred, patting at her sweaty face and cleavage with a black towel that was thrown to the pack of wolves down front when finally soaked. Perched on a stool, she launched into a ballad medley that included "Come Back to Me" and "Again." It made me wonder if any of her songs explored subjects other than love lost and found. (With the exception of "Rhythm Nation," they don't.) Next, in a feat of truly amazing design and creativity, the stage was transformed within minutes into a surreal, inflatable playpen. The dancers were dressed as bugs and various Bosch-like critters, while Janet appeared in a hot pink Teletubbies-meets-I Dream of Jeannie sprite costume. She and the band launched into an exuberant medley of playful signature hits like "Escapade," punctuated by that winning smile and shout-outs to the crowd. And it just went on and on. There was a "Japantown" segment with Janet as go-go geisha girl; a Little Rascals slapstick routine with Janet as gangster; a robot/stormtrooper rendition of "Rhythm Nation" that concluded with actual heart-stopping fireworks. Carly Simon made a virtual appearance during the new tune "Son of a Gun" - which, with its "You're So Vain" sample, is All for You's equivalent of "Got 'Til It's Gone." One audience member became the lucky hand-picked recipient of a nasty lap dance from Miss Jackson: laced up tight in vinyl, she sang "Would You Mind" as she rubbed various body parts over the guy's face. On the video screen, we could clearly see his eyes rolling back in his head as he lapped at her PVC like a dog who didn't mind at all. Closing the evening with "When I Think of You," a camouflage-clad Janet graciously accepted a bouquet of red roses and then clumsily tossed them to a stagehand. It's deceptive, this "live in concert" concept. I was moved and awed several times by the sheer wattage of her star power in the flesh, and it generated a rush that feels like emotion. But although she's all smiles and "hi!"s, introducing us to the various dancers and choreographers she calls her best friends, Janet is only slightly more real on that stage than she is in a video. The "velvet rope" never comes down, and maybe her fans don't want it any other way. > Get tour dates. > Read our Janet Jackson interview feature. > Read our review of All For You. > Connect with other fans on the Janet Jackson message board. |
|
|
|||
|
> BACK TO THE REVIEWS |
|
||||||
|
||||||||
