It’s turning out to be a very busy summer for me. Last night, I went to the Rihanna concert at GM Place in Vancouver. This kicks off her North American tour; it’s great that she picked Vancouver as her launching point. Dubbed the Last Girl on Earth Tour, Rihanna will be traveling across Canada and the United States with special guest Ke$ha.
I’ve barely had time to recover from my trips to Taiwan for Computex and E3 for Los Angeles, so it was almost a good thing that I had the chance to take a break to catch Rihanna’s concert. That’s because I’m hopping on a bus tomorrow morning as part of the Nokia N97 mini tour. Ironically, after her stop in Penticton tonight, Rihanna will be doing her thing in Calgary… which is the destination of my Nokia trip.
In terms of the concert itself, the show opened up with Travie McCoy. You might know him from his “Billionaire” single. After about a half hour of that and a ten-minute set change, we were “treated” to the song stylings of Ke$ha. Not surprisingly, she was her usual trashy, drunk party girl self. I think most people would agree that she’s a bit of a mess, but her songs happen to be kind of catchy. After all, she’s talking about blah blah blah. She also sings about how old men are dinosaurs.
After a half hour set change, Rihanna took the stage and put on quite the show for about 90 minutes. There were plenty of backup dancers, moving stage elements, a series of “dream” sequences displayed on the projector screen, and lots of thump from the bass. I appreciate that the bottom end was cranked up to 11, but the top end sounded like it was jacked to 12. It was distorting a little.
I’m not sure if I would say that Rihanna put on the same kind of spectacle as the Coldplay concert, but she did have German soldiers with pink rifles and a pink tank for her “Hard” performance. She even used a movator on the stage. The show was undeniably of much higher budget than the intimate Boyz II Men affair three years back.
Here are a few of the shots I took during the Rihanna concert. You can see a few more in my Flickr photostream by clicking on the Rihanna tag.
UPDATE #1: I’ve uploaded a short video to YouTube of Ke$ha singing “Your Love Is My Drug.”
UPDATE #2: And here is a video of Rihanna’s opening sequence, including “Russian Roulette” and her light-up dress.
Travie McCoy is also known from Gym Class Heroes.
I find the outfits these pop stars wear and their perfomances disturbing at times.
Does anyone else agree?
Michael Kwan,
Just thought I would drop a line to commend you on your excellent review of this show.
I want to say “Best Review Ever.” Best Review Ever. There, I said it, and I feel much better. After reading your review, I feel as if I know everything about you, and the music and live performance you just saw. Bill Gates, watch out, because Michael is hot on your trail.
You make me proud to have you as a fellow Irishman, Michael. Kwan and Chow, two of the finest Irish writers living. That’s what I tell my friends. I’ve already bought eleven or twelve of your books. One each for my Mom and Dad, and they are both dead, but I’m thinking they too could make money on the internet. They could not cover live shows with the insight you have revealed. But maybe they could review Dead Kennedys or Grateful Dead, or something.
Joy to you Michael, from all your Irish brothers and sisters, on a job well done.
Joy to you, Rose.
Irish? They are Chinese…or Tainwanese…
Wat time did the vancouver concert end @??