Where's the Party?

On Thursday October 30, Vancouver had its first concert from the Material Girl, Madonna, at BC Place Stadium. Personally, I have been waiting my whole life for this show to happen, so I was up at the ass-crack of dawn the day tickets were on sale to ensure I had a seat for the show. To my surprise, not only did I get two seats, they were floor seats in Section B!

As I patiently awaited for the day of the show to arrive, thoughts ran through my head, including what I was going to wear. Madonna is not only a musical and gay icon, she is also a fashionista, who has graced us with her different styles and looks over the years which we have all adopted into our own wardrobes. Needless to say the concert was filled with girls in crinoline skirts and lace gloves, boy toy belts, pink Marilyn Monroe dresses, and men in blonde wigs with cone bras. I think my favourite outfit of the night, by a fellow concert-goer was a replica of the white and black polka dot “Holiday” outfit. This girl had it down to a T, dingle-balls and the “I Dream Of Genie” ponytail. I think at that moment I peed a little.

The stage was decorated with two giant 8-story tall M’s on each side, which looked as though they were made of pink rhinestones, and there was a cube box on center stage. There were also two giant live TV screens on either side of the stage for those less fortunate than I, who were too far away from the stage or didn’t have a clear view of it. As the show started however, and the shorter people jumped on the chairs to see, I found myself watching the screens during part of the performance as well.

The box on center stage opened into smaller pieces and Madge appeared donning her white top hat, like a glamorous Willy Wonka, surrounded by visuals of candies and sweets, which only made sense since this was the “Sticky & Sweet World Tour.” She wasted no time in raising her energy levels to sing her hottest dance tunes; she came on the stage and belted out to “Candy Shop” followed by “Beat Goes On” where she had a Rolls Royce car on stage with her that she was dancing around. I can only hope that I am in as great shape as the former Mrs. Ritchie, when I hit fifty, because I doubt anyone else in the world at that age, could have as much stage presence and energy as she did on that night.

The hits continued with “Human Nature", "Vogue", and "Die Another Day”, which I was a bit surprised to hear, since so many people thought it was the worst James Bond song in history. Madge followed that up with “Get Into The Groove” which had her in little red Richard Simmons shorts and heart-shaped sunglasses, and her dancers in 80’s garb, bouncing around with jump ropes doing the double dutch. They used the movable TV screens on stage to make it look like they had just stepped off the subway which was all covered in graffiti and had a DJ mashing up the song with “Jump” from her “Confessions On A Dancefloor” album. I have to admit I usually don’t like when DJ’s mash songs up together, but this DJ had a really good flow to his transitions between the songs and the way he mixed them together.

“Heartbeat” was the next song Madonna roared out on stage, and after that came “Borderline” which had the older lady in front of me dancing along as though she was Madonna, throwing her auburn curls into my face and gyrating her body. Luckily for me, most of the other people who had floor seats had moved forward as soon as the show started and security had moved aside, so I was able to grab my partner’s hand and make our way closer to the front so I didn’t have to stare at the giant TV screens anymore, and have hair in my drink. Now I could stare at five Madonnas on stage! “She’s Not Me”, had Madonna bring four other girls on stage dressed to impersonate her, one as her during her “Like a Virgin” stage in a wedding dress with teased hair and crinoline, one from her “Open Your Heart” era, another from her “Material Girl” days in a slinky pink dress with a big pink bow on it, and the other in her “Like A Prayer” ensemble. As the song progressed she tore the wigs off the impersonators and threw them to the ground.

Madonna continued with “Music” and even though I was hoping for “Don’t Tell Me To Stop” I didn’t get it, instead she did a medley of the Eurythmics “Here Comes The Rain Again” which everyone thought would ease into “Rain” as we heard the first few notes from the song echoing through the stadium, but instead she greeted us a top a piano center stage for “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You”. This was no lounge singer performance - this was a gothic rendition of a song that reminded me of her “Frozen” video where she danced in the desert and mysteriously changed into a panther.



After the dramatic song ended, Madge ripped off her black cloak to reveal her next costume change and set the stage for a fiesta with “Spanish Lesson” followed by “Miles Away”, and “La Isla Bonita” which gave you the sense that Madonna has recently been inspired by Gogol Bordello, as her Spanish songs took on even more of a European flow of winding up and down and starting over again midway through them.

I was surprised to hear “You Must Love Me” from Evita, but I guess Madonna wanted to cover all her bases, career-wise and politically, as she continued into a reprise of “Beat Goes On” but used it as a message to us that we have the power of choice, and that we should do something, and we are in control of our futures. During this message, she showed pictures of everything from famine, beautiful landscapes, and figureheads. It was a pretty simple statement which was not backed by any sort of beliefs or theories, only that she encouraged us to do something now. In my opinion it seemed a little more watered-down than the usual rise Madonna likes to give her fans with her political statements. This continued into “4 Minutes” with four small screens about 6 feet tall displaying a dancing Justin Timberlake, who virtually sang along to the song with Madonna.

The rest of her set featured “Like a Prayer” and “Ray of Light” before she asked us what we wanted to hear. Some jerk in the front yelled “Like a Virgin” probably because it was her biggest hit single, but I wanted to hear a B side of “Keep People Together” or something really old that would knock everyone’s socks off like “Where’s The Party?” Needless to say Madge obliged and sang one verse and let us sing the other verse of “Like a Virgin” before giving us what she called an “oldie but goody” and gave us “Hung Up”. I wasn’t really sure how that was an oldie, but I am not about to scrap with a lady that is worth over $500 million. Madonna ended the show with “Give It To Me” in a huge dance party of all her performers, but sadly there was no encore. The show lasted about two hours, and was action packed for all of it, and I imagine it was quite the workout for everyone involved, but since Madonna has had so many hits over the last thirty years it was hard to not expect more. The song I had been waiting for all night finally came on with the houselights, as the box at centre stage folded back up displaying the words “game over”. The show was so great that we headed over to Celebrities, our local Vancouver gay bar, to watch a drag queen perform it all over again. I can now die happily.