I want a crown of thorns too, the one she wore looks cool.

i wanna go

ehuffnsd said:

So aren't you?

DavidEye said:

Didn't know that.

jayaredee said:

Last night i was busy with the LA boys at LB Pride... tonite i have to work. Wednsday i'm flying to DC and the last show in LA i'm at a Konclave for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

jayaredee said:

I'm surprised they don't give out communion during the show.

"Body of Madge"
"Amen"

jayaredee said:

I saw that and wet myself a little.

GangstaFam said:

Looks like a Madonna Store.

RipHer2Shreds said:

There was a set list that was floating around that was way better than the one she is doing. But I think that was a "Wish list" more than anything. I am surprised she is doing ALL of the songs off of the album and the ballads are a bit perplexing too.

superspaceboy said:

How High and Push were left off.

Inside the Confessional
The pop icon launches her "Confessions" tour Sunday night at the Forum

By Ann Powers, Times Staff Writer

Yes, she played Jesus in his crown of thorns. And James Brown in his cape. And John Travolta in his white suit. Did I mention the glam sequence in which she donned nearly the exact costume the legendary that Bryan Ferry wore in his early Roxy Music publicity shots and played electric guitar, effectively turning herself into a rock god? Opening her Confessions tour Sunday at the Forum, Madonna, still as hot for the Big Gesture as she was when she sullied a wedding gown on MTV in 1984, struck one indelibly male pose after another, as if to absorb the power of them all.

In the nearly two-hour show's most obviously controversial sequence, the 47-year-old was positioned on a giant steel mesh cross, singing her poignant ballad "Live To Tell" while pictures of suffering children swirled about her. What was so fascinating wasn't the message of compassion this outspoken children's advocate attached to her heretical stance; it was the way she held it, arms outstretched and face serious, for the entire song, until the shock wore off and it seemed less like blasphemy than an ardent attempt to understand what makes such an image so compelling.

If the dizzyingly elaborate Confessions revue said anything in particular, it was that images -- Madonna's stock in trade -- have a way of veering out of control and gaining new meanings. The script was well-organized, its tightly produced segments fleshing out a set list favoring songs from her recent "Confessions On A Dance Floor" album. But with 22 dancers, a set so full of screens that some were embedded in the floor, costumes that fell off to become other costumes, and video images of kaleidoscopes, mutating cells, and demonically possessed talking heads (including George W. Bush, at whom the avowed liberal hurled a choice obscenity during "I Love New York"), no single story line could possibly have held.

From Madonna's entrance within a giant exploding disco ball to her last hurrah in a satin cape adorned with flashing lights, every element of this spectacle achieved a state of astonishing mutation. The governing idea was the remix, the DJ's way of making songs new, which also defines the disco-kissed "Confessions"album. Actual remixes and reworkings provided musical highlights, as recent songs (such as "Let It Will Be," here turned almost bluesy) and old favorites (a hard rock "Ray of Light,") expanded within novel settings. But as usual with Madonna, music was only a vehicle: to get bodies dancing, and perhaps more importantly, to communicate her vision of a world in which only dreams can be trusted.

Madonna's dreams, this time, involve trying to connect with those unlike her, from animals to male guitar gods. The show's first section eroticized her love of horses in "Like A Virgin" (and, with MRI images of her injuries, poked fun at her well-publicized 2005 riding accident); its high point had the still-agile singer acrobatically mounting a combo saddle/stripper's pole.

The second and most serious section reflected Madonna's spiritually motivated fascination with the Middle East, with soulful singing from her Yemeni collaborator, Yitzhak Sinwani, beautifying the song "Isaac," and images of bubbling oil adding a political tinge to the raucous "Sorry." The third segment, which featured Madonna's raw guitar riffing, paid homage to rock.

Throughout the night, Madonna worked hard, not just to stay on pitch and dance well, but also to connect emotionally to her material. These subversive roles were a stretch, and she didn't always seem happy. Her still-sharp eye for trends sometimes heightened the entertainment value; the dance sequence for the inspirational "Jump," for example, involved "parkor," a form of street acrobatics whose practitioners leap unpredictably across roofs and up doorways. But even such moments felt oddly serious; a sense of dislocation was inseparable from the fun.

In the end, Madonna turned the party into a disco; a Bob Fosse-esque orgy sequence and a shower of gold balloons capped the night. This is her standard utopia, the dream that never turns into a nightmare, and she took refuge in it. Not surprisingly, the finale was the least gripping part of the show. Safety has never been a position that Madonna's taken to very well.

USA TODAY reviews "The Confessions Tour"

Madonna kicked off her Confessions Tour Sunday night at The Forum in Los Angeles. USA TODAY's Edna Gundersen was there to give you the inside scoop.
The music: The beat-crazy energy seldom flags in a highly polished two-hour show subdivided into Equestrian, Bedouin, Never Mind the Bullocks and Disco sections, though it's the heady pulse of dance music, fortified by a sharp band, that dominates throughout. The rhythm-driven bonanza plucks nine of its 22 songs from Madonna's sweaty Confessions on a Dance Floor album, and the new tunes hold up well live, especially Sorry, Jump and I Love New York. Latter-day hits eclipse classics, with the shimmery Ray of Light and boisterous Music easily outshining a tinny Lucky Star. Madonna is as fit vocally as physically, effortlessly nailing tender passages or a demanding upper register after strenuous bump-and-grind workouts.

The set: The visual orgy includes a giant disco ball that peels open like a lotus, hidden trapdoors, a saddle bobbing on a pole (yes, she rides it), a flashing catwalk that leads to a lighted dance floor at the center of the arena, sweeping tilted ramps for dance escapades and huge screens flashing cutting-edge videos of, well, mostly more Madonna. The visuals dramatically enhance the sonics, except in two cases of gratuitous excess — when horrific horse accidents crop up during Like a Virgin and when Madonna strikes a mock crucifixion pose on a geometric cross while singing Live to Tell, spoiling one of her most intimate and haunting ballads.

Fashion and choreography: Madonna looks fab in Jean-Paul Gaultier get-ups, from bondage riding duds to glam-punk black, all designed to flaunt a designer physique. The dance troupe dazzles with krumping, acrobatics, roller skate rumbles and goosestep rhumbas.

The merch: For fans who pay up to $350 for tickets, the $85 long-sleeve black shirt is a bargain. Pink Ts with a glittery 'M' go for $80, and baseball caps fetch $35. Kids on a tight allowance can opt for the $10 sticker sheet. The hot seller on opening night: $30 photo-packed programs.

The crowd: Mostly boomers, teens, gays, Hispanics. Opening night devotees sported tiaras, go-go boots, rubber dresses, black corsets and bejeweled belts. And those were the guys. Madonna wanna-bods squeezed size 14 forms into size 4 hip-hugger minis.

The inside scoop: Salma Hayek, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rosie O'Donnell and Nicole Richie were spotted at Sunday's launch. Only friends and family were admitted to Saturday night's secret run-through, staged for a cozy gathering of 3,000. Every crewmember was allowed to invite 15 pals. On Sunday, Madonna's rehearsal left several people steamed at the curb. They were upset not about being left outside but because Madonna was inside after crossing picket lines. The stagehands are in a dispute with the venue's management. Actually, it's a wonder the scandalized singer got in at all. The Forum is owned by The Faithful Central Bible Church.

ehuffnsd said:

Oh that's right...I love those songs too...esp How High

Madonna crucifying herself? What a putz.

namepeace said:

its very lame.

Not lame at all, just watched the link ehuffnsd provided. Absolutely lovely.

jayaredee said:

i haven't seen it. i won't watch it until i'm at the show. and even with that said i can tell you it would be better if she sang the song without being on a cross.

Madonna in a league by herself
Review: Sunday's sold-out Forum performance proves the singer is in a league by herself.

By BEN WENER
The Orange County Register
Madonna in skin-tight body suit.

It very likely will be the pop spectacle of the year – a politically charged combination of Cirque du Soleil, performance-art commentary and dance-party explosion that more or less sums up everything she has been striving to say and show this decade.

But that much we expected, even without knowing what tricks were hid under her skin-tight leotard. No one – but no one– stages elaborate eye-candy productions like Madonna, whose highly impressive Confessions Tour opened Sunday night at a packed Forum so sweltering it seemed as though it were being prepped for the world’s largest Bikram yoga session.

Every other diva cut from roughly similar cloth, whether equally iconic (Cher, Janet Jackson) or simply a progeny trifle (Britney Spears), ranks so far behind the not-so-notorious chameleon that they belong in a lesser league. They merely present dazzle; Madonna effortlessly builds mounting anticipation for hers, trumps theirs within the first 10 minutes, then adds depth for most of the remaining 100.

Of course, at $350 a ticket (and that’s just face value), she had better deliver a bonanza far beyond her contemporaries’ abilities. There are those who find that price obscene, and it’s worth noting that by demanding so much for entry into her momentary wonderlands Madonna continues to largely lock out middle-class and poorer fans, who just might revere her more than wealthier devotees.

It’s one of the downsides of mounting such expensive tours and insisting on an enormous paycheck: What is intended as an over-the-top yet populist celebration of all races, nationalities and religions often winds up a rather elitist experience.

But, then, the same charge could be hurled at the Rolling Stones, and they charged $100 more for choice seats when they played the Forum two months ago. And though this is definitely a case of comparing apples and oranges, Mick Jagger and his graying mates certainly didn’t offer a sight half as ridiculously delicious as a remarkably fit middle-age woman in equestrian-dominatrix gear gyrating and grinding atop a rodeo saddle spinning in equestrian-dominatrix gear gyrating and grinding atop a rodeo saddle spinning in circles via a carousel pole.

That’s how the 47-year-old Madonna performs "Like a Virgin" this time out, after being lowered to the tip of her stage’s catwalk via a mirror ball that opens like flower petals, then launching into the most darkly lascivious number she’s presented this decade.

Set to a blending of the new song "Future Lovers" with Donna Summer’s classic "I Feel Love" – and preceded (and interrupted) by footage on a giant, wrap-around screen of the lithe sexpot sliding a riding crop between her teeth and writhing half-naked with a gagging harness strapped to her head and her hands tied behind her back – Madonna slowly parades around her bare-chested, abs-flexing dancers in a top hat and tails (and not much else), occasionally whipping and riding one like a horse. It’s enough to make you think this production will be as racy as her Blonde Ambition Tour, or perhaps finally provide the climax that the tour-free "Erotica" never quite achieved (unless you reallyenjoyed her "Sex" book).

Yet that’s only a tease; indeed, by the time she actually revives the song "Erotica" late in the disco finale of her two-hour show, any remaining lust has been stripped away. Even amid the raciness of the opening section, she hints at where she’s headed, singing in "Get Together": "Do you believe that we can change the future?"

The next line is "Do you believe that I can make you feel better?" – but it might better have been amended to "make you think." After concluding her coming-out with a bounding gymnastics display attached to the track "Jump," she suddenly shifts into bleaker, more challenging terrain, quickly emerging with a centerpiece that is sure to stir resentful feelings with the same people who didn’t like her controversial "Like a Prayer" Pepsi ad many years ago.

Hanging mock-crucified on a huge mirrored cross, a crown of thorns atop her wavy blond locks, Madonna sings an inspired rethinking of the heretofore sappy ballad "Live to Tell," its usual bed of tinny synths replaced by churchy organs, its lyrics – "A man can tell a thousand lies / I’ve learned my lesson well" – seemingly directed at powers-that-be she deems dogmatic and hypocritical. The bridge, during which almost all background music faded out, was especially captivating. "How will they hear?" she asks. "When will they learn? How will they know?"

The meaning of that and the equally outspoken moments that followed is wide open to interpretation, considering that it took in all manner of subjects, from burka-shrouded women breaking away from servitude and the plight of AIDS-ravaged African children to a visual attack on world leaders past (Hitler, Mussolini, Hussein, a number of popes) and present (Bush, Blair, bin Laden).

"Forbidden Love," for instance, instantly changed from just another gay anthem to a moving plea for spiritual harmony, with an array of religious symbols (formed out of thousands of blood cells) intersecting and colliding. A turbaned vocalist introduced as Isaac blew shofar to introduce Madonna’s new song of the same name, while a woman draped in gray danced as if a caged bird. "Like It or Not" was transformed from merely a self-satisfied statement of defiance into that aforementioned skewering of political figures, with the star hollering, "I can’t take it / Don’t speak / I’ve heard it all before."

It was multimedia, cross-cultural preaching to the choir on a scale only U2 has reached lately. But unlike that band’s recent performances, the momentum here isn’t maintained; it’s just one portion, followed by a rocked-up section (in which she straps on a Gibson for thicker takes on "I Love New York" and "Ray of Light") and a house-heavy finale, kicked off by a mash-up of "Music" with the classic "Disco Inferno" and Madonna making moves in a white Travolta three-piece suit. Only the tender acoustic pairing of "Drowned World / Substitute for Love" and "Paradise Not for Me" reminds of the thought-provoking sentiments she puts forth earlier in the performance.

Is that a flaw? Depends on how you view it, I suppose. I sensed a little life go out of the show in the last fourth, when the choreography grew routine and the hits came too few and too radicalized ("La Isla Bonita" was far too rapid for her too keep pace verbally). Surely some will be dismayed to learn the show features all but two songs from her latest album but relatively few staples. They should have attended the last tour, which was largely about reinventing such material.

This show is about summation and reconfiguration – the same formula presented unpredictably. Since the decade began – and Madonna returned to regular touring – she has been leaning toward something like this, something that encapsulates all of the various theatrical strains she incorporated just before 9/11 and the sociopolitical invective she added after that fateful day.

This one isn’t perfect – yet. By the time it’s on HBO, it may be fine-tuned for more power. For now, however, it’s quite possibly the best production she’s ever concocted.

sallysassalot said:

Well i predict you'll like this concert from what i've seen, cross or no cross.
You loved her last tour and love her new album, so this is your big ticket.

jayaredee said:

i have no doubts i'll have a great time! one pointless stunt among many campy stunts won't ruin my fun!

I thought she swore she wasn't doing any old songs.
[Edited 5/22/06 22:53pm]

i've read a few reviews and they all seem generally positive. one of the most striking comments i came across, however, was a blunt, honest, and accurate observation from the catholic league's president, bill donohue.

from msnbc.com:

Though Donohue said that Madonna "has been spicing up her act with misappropriated Christian imagery for a long time," he thought that her faith in Kabbalah might inspire new respect for religion.

"I guess you really can't teach an old pop star new tricks," he said. "Poor Madonna keeps trying to shock. But all she succeeds in doing is coming across as a boring bigot."

as a whole, i'm sure the show is not boring. how could it be? but this type of "stunt" is boring now, not to mention cheap and easy. hey, imagine that...for the first time ever i'm not appreciating something cheap and easy!

sallysassalot said:

I thought this sounded really strange and awkward until I saw that it's a DISCO crucifix!!! It's actually quite beautiful.


whoa can't spell edit
[Edited 5/23/06 0:21am]

did you get your tickets yet?

DavidEye said:

Oh, man, I'm glued to craigslist but haven't bitten. I'm a total cheapskate who wants decent seats. Whatever happens, I'll be at the May 31 show by hook or crook.

heartbeatocean said:

I'll see you there

My friend and his wife are gonna be in front of the arena,trying to find good seats at a good price from a scalper.He's a cheapskate too

I've read pretty much nothing but positive reviews so far for this show, so im not going to let my doubts take over too much. The set list has never quite grabbed me. I've always felt it was 2-3 songs short of being a brilliant, and i still feel that way even having seen some clips andheard some audios.

I do believe it was the right thing to do to make it a set list devoted to the Confessions album (even if she is performing the naff like it or not, and leaving Push out). However, i still think she could have found more room for some of her more classic material, just a couple of songs. I know she hates to repeat herself but im sure she could have found something more exciting than La Isla Bonita & Lucky Star?

sallysassalot said:

for better or worse,the site of Madonna on a cross is gonna be the defining image from this tour I just saw a clip of this performance and I don't see what all the fuss is about.I'm not a religious person,so maybe that's why I wasn't offended.

"Forbidden Love"