CinisterCee said:

It's a shame,really.She has sooooo many great songs to choose from.Imagine if,after "Hung Up",she left the stage then came back a few minutes later and played a kickass 3-song encore of...

"Everybody"
"Dress You Up"
"Like A Prayer"

this would be an electrifying ending

Rolling Stone

Madonna Launches Tour With Disco Crucifixion
In her first trek in two years, Material Girl plays Jesus, pole dancer, jockey and dominatrix

Though Madonna's latest world tour has been dubbed the Confessions tour in honor of the singer's latest album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, the trek, which began Sunday night before a sold-out audience at L.A.'s hallowed Forum, was much more Cirque du Soleil than a night of intimate revelation.

Descending from the heavens at a quarter to nine in a ton-and-a-half disco ball -- covered in 2 million dollars? worth in crystals -- Madonna began the "Equestrian" portion of the show (the nearly two-hour show was broken down into four sections) with Confessions' "Future Lover." Clad in horseback-riding attire, complete with top hat and riding crop, she moved around the stage's center inlet, which stretched halfway through the floor, before making her way to center to pay homage to another disco queen, with Donna Summer's "I Feel Love." She returned to the new album for "Get Together," performing the song without much assistance from her cadre of backup dancers -- and proving why the disco-tinged track is one of the album's high points.

But since the majority of the frenzied throng paid as much as $350 a ticket for some high-powered spectacle, Madonna would not let the faithful down. And she didn't: The pop diva rode a mechanical saddle/stripper pole during "Like a Virgin" and displayed her gymnastics skills in "Jump." Madonna re-emerged for the "Bedouin" portion of the evening on a mammoth disco crucifix wearing a crown of thorns to perform "Live to Tell." She returned to religious imagery for Confession's "Isaac," which featured a woman dancing in a cage. The singer showed some of that who-gives-a-f**k attitude that first made her a star with "Like It or Not," a rendition spiked by her burlesque-style dancing with a chair. And that was only in the first half of the evening.

Changing costumes again for the "Never Mind the Bollocks" section, Madonna came out rocking an electric guitar for "I Love New York," which featured projections of the city skyline on a large video screen. She held the guitar while exhorting the crowd to dance for a hard-rocking version of the title track of Ray of Light. In keeping with the theme of this portion, the background dancers reemerged, New Wave'd out in black-and-white ties.

Madonna's career has been marked by her chameleon-like ability to reinvent herself, and indeed, in the annals of pop music, her talent in that category may be second only to David Bowie's. Throughout the night, she continually assumed new roles -- even playing the balladeer remarkably well, in renditions of "Drowned World" and "Paradise (Not for Me)," the latter of which was a duet with Yitzhak Sinwani, whom she introduced as her friend.

The singer's most recent role in the pop world has been dance diva, and she assumed that mantle proudly for the evening's final "Disco" theme. Emerging to the beat of the Tramps' "Disco Inferno" in a John Travolta-style white suit (circa Saturday Night Fever, of course), Madonna became the dancing queen for high-energy versions of "Music," "La Isla Bonita" (complete with a cavalcade of dancers and tropical-island images), a techno-fied "Lucky Star" and the closer, "Hung Up." With the climax of that runaway single, gold balloons descended from the rooftops.

Madonna had played many roles in the first night of her Confessions tour -- but confessor was not one of them. Apparently, in all the pomp and circumstance, there was no room for warmth, or even the attitude that made her recent Coachella festival performance so memorable.

Performing at Coachella before a largely foreign audience, she appeared as the Madonna of old: defiant, hungry, ready to fight. A determined Madonna, one who might spar with the crowd, seemed largely absent this weekend at the Forum. She limited her interaction to platitudes like, "Are you ready for a ride, L.A.?," "The show is just beginning!" and "Put on your dancing shoes."

Then again, she didn't have anything to prove to these fans. They got exactly what they wanted on this night: a celebration of all things Madonna, for better or worse.

STEVE BALTIN

E! Online

Madonna: Like a Veteran
by Natalie Finn
May 22, 2006, 7:40 PM PT

What do you get when you mix a mock crucifixion, Kabbalah, political diatribes and a plea for AIDS relief with a giant crystal-covered disco ball?

Why, the first night of Madonna's Confessions tour, of course.

The 47-year-old pop icon jumpstarted the North American leg of her tour with a bada-bang Sunday night at the Forum in Los Angeles, dazzling the sold-out crowd with million-dollar set pieces, seven costume changes and her yoga-buffed bod.

To gild the lily, Salma Hayek, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rosie O'Donnell and Nicole Richie were also spotted getting into the groove during the show.

About 50 minutes after the concert's designated starting time, a mirrored disco ball encrusted with $2 million-worth of Swarovski crystals was lowered onto the stage and out popped Madge, wearing S&M-themed equestrian gear like a second skin. Carrying a jeweled riding crop and surrounded by male dancers with leather straps and bits in their mouths reminiscent of Pulp Fiction, Madonna straddled one of her "horses" and opened the show with "Future Lovers," from her latest chart-topper, Confessions on a Dance Floor.

Nine of the evening's 22 songs came from Confessions, including "Sorry," "Jump" and "I Love New York," while the rest were a combination of classics like "La Isla Bonita" and "Lucky Star" (loved by people old enough to actually be able to afford the $350 ticket prices) and newer old hits like "Music" and "Ray of Light."

Maintaining a laudable amount of energy, Madonna danced her way through the night, stopping only to change Jean Paul Gaultier-designed clothes, pick at a Les Paul guitar, make a crude joke in reference to President George W. Bush, and, finally, head off into the night, sans encore.

During the lady of the hour's brief forays offstage to change, video montages depicting members of the Bush administration and British Prime Minister Tony Blair interspersed with shots of Hitler, Osama bin Laden and Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe kept the adoring crowd entertained, er, enraged, er… uncomfortable.

Gone are Madonna's days of suiting up in cone-shaped lingerie for a taboo-busting boudoir romp during the crowd favorite "Like a Virgin." Looking back, the Truth or Dare days when she scandalized the local police for simulating masturbation onstage seem almost quaint.

Nowadays we've got the married mother of two perched atop a kinked-up carousel horse--minus the horse--on a saddle that looked more like a Hell's Angel's idea of black leather heaven. The non-animal bobbed up and down while the diva gyrated in time with "Like a Virgin." In the background, images of the broken bones Madonna suffered in a horse-riding accident last year flashed on huge video screens.

Hidden trapdoors, ramps and a flashing catwalk crisscrossed the stage to accommodate the band and 22 backup dancers and singers employed by Madonna's latest extravaganza.

Of course, the Material Girl did more than confess on the dance floor last night. Reaching out to her Kabbalah crew, she welcomed vocalist Isaac Sinwahy to harmonize with her on "Drowned" and play the shofar, a horn traditionally blown during the Jewish high holy days.

She also managed to antagonize anyone not already busy boycotting The Da Vinci Code with the crown of thorns she donned and the 20-foot-high mirrored cross she perched on during her '80s-era ballad "Live to Tell."

With silver cuffs holding her arms in place, Madonna sang while images of third-world poverty and numbers representing the 12 million children orphaned by AIDS in Africa ticked by on a screen.

The Church of England has already denounced Madonna's "offending" performance, asking Monday whether the songstress was "prepared to take on everything else that goes with wearing a crown of thorns?"

"And why would someone with so much talent seem to feel the need to promote herself by offending so many people?" a church spokesman said.

"Knock off the Christ-bashing," Catholic League President Bill Donohue said in a statement Monday. "It's just pathetic."

This isn't the first time Madonna has crossed the church, so to speak. In 1990 the Pope called for a boycott of the pop star's Blond Ambition tour because of her saucy "Like a Virgin" performances. A few years prior to that, the Vatican had condemned the video for "Like a Prayer," which features burning crosses and images of a black Jesus figure.

Madonna's latest blasphemy doesn't reach Britain until July.

Billboard has predicted that the 51-date Confessions tour could gross in the $200 million range. Cher, queen of the "farewell tour," currently holds the record with $192.5 million, but that was earned in the course of 273 shows.

To remember the night of 1,000 images, concert-goers can pop for a variety of souvenir goods, from $10 sheets of stickers to $85 long-sleeve tees.

We're holding out for the $2 million disco ball.

San Bernardino County Sun

Madonna does't miss a beat in tour kickoff
By Fred Shuster, Music Writer
Rating: **** (out of 4)
When: 8 p.m. today, Wednesday, and June 3 at Staples Center.
Tickets: Sold out, try brokers. (213) 480-3232; ticketmaster.com.
In a nutshell: Madonna's first tour in years is a Vegas-style disco celebration filled with eye-popping imagery, lots of costumes and high-energy dance music

Madonna's new world tour kicked off Sunday at the Forum and the Church of England immediately weighed in with a bad review — something about the singer wearing a crown of thorns while being crucified on a mirrored cross.

It was a spectacularly exciting two-hour show, packed with sinewy, skin-baring dancers, fine singing, some of the best dance music of the decade and one of the most memorable stage entrances in memory. And it included a scene where Madonna — age 47 and the mother of two — sang the ballad "Live To Tell" suspended from a giant cross.

Of course, Maddy has always used Christian imagery to provoke. These days, though, she's no longer the polarizing figure she once was — that honor now belongs to Tom Cruise — and the 18,000-strong Inglewood crowd didn't raise an eyebrow.

Ironically, the Forum is now owned by the Faithful Central Bible Church, which normally holds its services there on Sundays. The ushers, though, seemed more interested in the writhing dancers.

Madonna's elaborately staged "Confessions" road show, which occupied up a gigantic high-tech T-shaped stage, took in 22 songs from all aspects of her career, thematically broken into four sections.

The tightly choreographed concert began 50 minutes late when a giant crystal disco ball was lowered from the ceiling to the end of a long catwalk stretching deep into the audience floor. Out popped Madonna, a dominatrix in jodhpurs, top hat and snapping a jeweled riding crop, delivering the recent "Future Lovers," surrounded by topless male dancers.

Madonna was in thrilling, non-stop-action mode, strutting up and down the catwalk, crawling on all fours, offering some expert pelvic thrusts and holding attention all around. The singing was strong, the material well chosen and accompaniment by a top-notch seven-member ensemble was solid.

The dozen or so dancers had as many costume changes as the headliner herself and Cirque du Soleil-style gymnasts worked out on platforms while massive video screens showed images of war, world leaders, horses, and Madonna.

But while it was a perfect, flashy Hollywood production, there seemed to be little room for ad libs, although Madonna did throw in some expletives to urge a sing-along during the roof-raising finale of her current disco anthem, "Hung Up," as mylar balloons fell onto the crowd.

While she played almost every song from her current "Confessions on a Dance Floor" release, the crowd went especially crazy for old favorites including "Like a Virgin," where Madonna climbed onto a carousel horse which raised and lowered while the singer gyrated.

Madonna's "Confessions" tour continues tonight and Wednesday at the Forum before moving to Staples Center on June 3.

POP QUEEN STILL RULES AT 47
Gavin Martin At Great Western Forum

AT 47, it's fair to assume Madonna's days as Queen of Pop are numbered.

But the opening show of her 2006 world tour proved she was as far away as ever from giving up the crown.

From her entrance - bursting out of a glitter ball on a walkway stretching into a 20,000-strong Los Angeles crowd - she proved to be a singular entity.

And always ready to go that extra step to give her show depth and dazzle. The message was clear, whatever Britney, Christina, Goldfrapp and Kylie can do, Madonna can do it better.

Her kinky riding gear was the first of several costumes. The celebration of sexual variety was exuberant.

During Let It Will Be, Madge did a dance routine that left little to the imagination. She made some heavy-handed political points, tied to a giant crucifix with Africa's Aids epidemic on screen as she sang Live To Tell.

But no one combines sex, humour and spirituality in such an eye-smacking and ear-pleasing display.

A middle-aged woman doing lap-dance routines may sound unappetising, but the reality is the opposite.

KINKY RIDER
Madonna back in the saddle as up crowd
By Amber Morales
WHAT would they think of this down at the Pony Club?

Gyrating on a chunky dancer wearing a saddle, Madonna clearly can't get her love of riding out of her head.

The 47-year-old paraded around in jodhpurs and leather boots with a whip on the first night of her Confessions tour in Los Angeles.

Madonna, poking fun at her new-found Britishness, kept a tight rein on the dancer, via a head harness.

But she upset religious groups by hanging from a cross with a crown of thorns on her head. A Church of England spokesman said: "It could offend Christians."

Madonna's riding outfit was designed by Jean Paul Gaultier. If it catches on in the horse world, show-jumping audiences may well treble.

Your Madgesty!
Natural look ... singer steers away from heavy make-up

YOU’D think MADONNA’s shock tactics would have worn thin after 20 years.

But a show featuring a glittering crucifixion, a crown of thorns and equestrian bondage suggests she is still at her controversial best.

She’s gone from Queen Of Shock to Queen Of Pop.

But on Sunday night Madonna was Queen Of Crops.

Dressed in riding gear, she whipped her dancers — and fans — into a frenzy.

She descended to the stage from a giant glitter ball and writhed around on the back of a dancer, striking horse-riding poses.

Dressed in black jodhpurs, hat and riding boots, she looked stunning as she opened the Confessions show with Future Lovers, before blending in to Donna Summer’s I Feel Love.

The crowd gasped as Madge pole-danced while sitting in a glittering saddle suspended from the ceiling during a reworked Like A Virgin.

Behind her on giant screens were images of her broken bones — a reference to injuries she suffered during a riding accident last year.

Madonna also showed off a more natural look during the show, wearing very little make-up, with longer blonde, curly hair.

Without doubt the best moment of the two-hour, four-section show was when she copied the famous John Travolta Saturday Night Fever dance during a breathtaking rendition of Disco Inferno, mixed with her own smash hit Music.

She emerged in a white flared suit like Travolta wore in the Seventies’ disco movie and copied his dance moves perfectly.

As she strutted about like she was the Queen of Disco, girl dancers zoomed around the stage on roller-skates.

Unlike Reinvention, where she played many of her greatest hits, this tour is very much a celebration of her last album, Confessions On A Dance Floor.

She performed a few older tracks — a really rocky version of Ray Of Light was a particular standout moment, with Madonna on guitar.

And she had her usual rant against George Bush.

But despite the controversial material, including men in fetish gear and Madge being “nailed” to a crucifix, she obviously thought the show was fit for a family audience.

The night before, during a warm-up gig, her nine-year-old daughter Lourdes was allowed to watch.

A highlight for me was during Sorry when she and her dancers jumped around showing off their krumping skills — a hip-hop dance based on body-popping and breakdancing.

The finale section with its disco theme was without doubt the best part of the show.

Music, followed by La Isla Bonita, a reworked Erotica, Lucky Star and Hung Up had the crowd on their feet throughout.

In a huge white cloak with the words “Dancing Queen” emblazoned on the back, Madonna paid homage to ABBA, who inspired her No1 Hung Up.

There was no encore but everyone went home having had the best night out of their lives.

There’s no doubt that, even at the ripe old age of 47, Madonna is still Top Of The Crops.

Most of the reviews have been very enthusiastic and positive.I like the L.A. Times review the best.

jayaredee said:

wow very Virgin Tour

I got ticketes for tomorrow night...

Floor Seat section C row 12 seat 8

ehuffnsd said:

I knew you wouldn't bow out

Give a full review the next day please.

jayaredee said:

if i have time... i do have extra mp3s now i'll send later.

ehuffnsd said:

12th row from the stage? good score! have fun at the show!

sallysassalot said:

right at the end of the catwalk before the stage in the audience

ehuffnsd said:

bring a camera into that bitch! we'll want some photos!!

sallysassalot said:

i'll have to see how close i am.

at RIT she stood above me, we were fifty feet away at Cocachella... this should be interesting.

ehuffnsd said:

i'm greedy. even with my seats in 110 i'm still going to walk around and look for someone to move me into the pit like last time. it really made the experience!

you're in a primo location...whenever she's on the catwalk or ministage you'll be right there and when she's on the mainstage you'll still be close enough to see everything!

sallysassalot said:

now i wish i didn't know the spoliers.

ehuffnsd said:

everytime i click on this thread i put my hand up over the left half of the screen so i don't see the setlist. i'm not too worried about pics from the show because i know it will look amazing in person. i just like to be surprised when it comes to the songs being performed.

sallysassalot said:

i didn't think i was going to go until an hour ago.

DavidEye said:

It looks like i got some tickets if paypal goes through and I don't get swindled. Section 110 Row 18 for $135 each Looks like I'll be sitting next to Sassy!

DavidEye said:

Thanks for posting this subliminal bullshit

heartbeatocean said:

ooooh, you better wear a raincoat. else you gon' get squirted on!

best show ever. i'm stunned exhausted delighted. and that was from the cheap seats!

MADONNA 4 PRESIDENT!

madartista said:

what were the highlights?

DavidEye said:

yeah, right. the beginning and then everything in between up until it ended. i wish i could quit my job and follow it!

madartista said:

how would you compare it to the last two tours? Is it better than 'Re-Invention' and 'Drowned World'?

After reading all these positive reviews,I'm seriously considering "upgrading" my seat,maybe spending a little more money for a floor seat

DavidEye said:

i'd say better. for me, drowned world was too compartmentalized and didn't have an overarching flow. Re-Invention was a step in the right direction, with some superfluous moments, and a tad too much of the, "look at me, i can play guitar." this,with a central theme of dance, was more cohesive, yet still gave her a platform to play the different roles that she loves to play, speak her Madonnaisms, celebrate the new album, and use new arrangements to the classics that really fit. the lights, video displays, and dancers were all top notch.