Just thinking back on all the great shows I saw this year...

Janet (3x)
Erykah (4x)
Tina (2x)
EWF
Maxwell
Raphael Saadiq
Beck
Sarah Silverman
Margaret Cho
Bobby Brown (!)

...and I seriously can't place Madonna as even comparable or memorable compared to these! Usually she puts on the best show of the year. Confessions was amazing. RIT, though not great, was still the best tour on the road that year. But...I'm sorry to say this S&S tour, from a production standpoint, from a MUSICAL standpoint...just SUCKED! And I don't hate Hard Candy...I liked several cuts actually...I don't know, was it the super hero (tampon) costume? The bad rainbow / Middle Eastern outfit? You Must Love Me? Doli Doli? That horrid version of Hung Up? That terrible arrangement of La Isla Bonita (DO WE HAVE TO HEAR THAT MFing SONG ON EVERY TOUR?) Thank god she did Dress You Up as the request in LA...

I enjoyed the "Sticky and Sweet" show much more than "Confessions." I just had a better time with this show.

I would never go to another Madonna show . Two years ago at Madison Square Garden, we paid a small fortune for horrible seats just to be cursed at and given the finger by this overrated bitch.
[Edited 12/22/08 17:56pm]

I liked the madonna show and it was nice to see my childhood hero at last. I'm usually very hyper and active at concerts and dance and scream away, but I was not like that at all at the madonna show and when I tried to, it felt forced. The show was well done and she has great energy and charisma, but Janet's show was wayyyyy better and energetic, and she sounded better too, live or not.

TheResistor said:

i agree

When will she stop touring though? every two years she does these huge concerts all over the world making billions..how much money does this woman want, she is a greedy old munter
I find her very overrated.

Confessions was JUST OK!
Its not my favorite at all.

My Top 5 Madonna Concerts are:

Blonde Ambition
Sticky and Sweet
Madonna Live @ Cobo Hall (Detroit)
Madonna Live In Italy
The Girlie Show

PinkOrchid said:

Haha, i love that expression. She's got the old D.I.V.O.R.C.E to pay for.

I personally love the S&S show, thought it was great. It was a relief for me that she just went out and looked like she was enjoying herself, none of the faux theatrics. I would say categorically that there is no room anywhere, ever for a rock rendition of Hung Up.

Her band was marginally improved on the last one, but it still falls short for me. I loved some of the reworkings.....Vogue, Into The Groove & Like A Prayer in particular, but i still see no stand alone bass player in her band and thats unacceptable for me. At least we got a decent drummer this time round though.

My one disappointment was the opening number - candy shop just dont cut it. She should have opened with a classic like Express yoursef or Open Your heart then gone into Candy Shop.

funkteer said:

I´ve never seen her live. She was here one or two years ago and the tickets cost so much, she was just not worth it for me.

I feel fulfilled having seen her at last after being a fan for 22 years, but I'm not going to see her again for a really long time.

I think candy shop was the perfect opening though I wasn't crazy about that song before. It worked really well with the graphics and the intro reminded me a little bit of Janet's Velvet Rope intro.

what was it, specifically, about this tour that people seemed to love so much? the setlist was decent but i thought the actual show was pretty tame and lame. not much to get excited about other than the first segment and the last. I mean, there were portions of the sets in between that were fun (into the groove, for instance) but overall i was almost bored sometimes.

girlie show, blonde ambition, confessions, reinvention...they were exciting, fun, non-stop shows. i would have never left for a beer or bathroom break during those shows.

for those who loved this tour, what did it for you?

alphastreet said:

I agree the whole entire opening / video / first number was totally ripped off of Janet.

You know Madge goes through old Janet, Cher, Kylie and Tina DVDs for ideas everytime she goes out to put a tour together.
[Edited 12/23/08 11:17am]

sassybritches said:

Exactly! I went to the San Diego show and the LA show. The LA show I spent almost the entire 2nd section at the bar! And the 3rd section making out! I couldn't care less until I heard Like A Prayer!

badujunkie said:

if I didn't believe it now, I totally do now!

Mmmh... I was not there so I hve no right to speak. But I have the impressions that this used to be the most hated Madonna tour ever... but after 3 months many learned to like it.
I liked it from the beginning. I like the whole era. I also liked the two videos. There was no video of Miles Away, so what. I can't pretend sitting all day and watching Madonna videos...
The only thing I dislike about HC is that she didn't release Beat Goes On and Heartbeat, which many people would have loved, and not enough b-sides.

she was crazy for not releasing beat goes on, that's all she needed and the project would have been a thousand times more successful and not only based on the tour

I like her music better than her tours and performing and always have.

alphastreet said:

I like both her music and performing, the same degree. Sometimes I like a song more after a performance. I went crazy for Keep It Together after I show the BAT. This is still my favoriite performance of that song.
Also it featured my favorite Madonna dancer, Gaybriel Trubin.

Whether it's Warner Bros A&R, Guy Oseary, or Madge herself (I suspect it's the latter) who chooses singles, her choices in single selections and order sucks the fat one since 2003. Before that, with few exceptions, they were on their game. She would have so many more big hits and platinum singles in the US this decade had they done this:

American Life

1. Hollywood
2. Intervention
3. Love Profusion
4. Nothing Fails

Confesstions

1. Hung Up
2. Push
3. Get Together
4. Jump

HC

1. 4 Minutes
2. Beat Goes On
3. Incredible
4. Heartbeat
5. Miles Away

Give it To me - should have been her 2nd single but ONLY released internationally! Simultaneously with Beat Goes on in US - she coulda done one more video with Kanye to support the US release and been done with it.

Come to think of it, instead of having her peeps rip off Janet's VR opening, she should have had her staff get on point and find out Janet's setlist - a Madonna style packaging of 35++ songs, in the form of non stop dance medleys and ballad sections would have been KILLER! Everything else about this tour suggested going the more traditional 'pop concert' route - the costumes, stadium shows, a live drummer - she could have applied this to the setlist this time as well instead of devoting half the show to full length versions of her latest album which still has sold about the same number as American Life!

1. Lucky Star / Dress you Up / Holiday
2. 4 Minutes
3. Deeper and Deeper (snip)
-Get Stupid Video-
4. Like A Prayer
5. Express Yourself
-Rain/Here Comes the Rain Again Video
6. Devil Wouldn't Recognize You
7. Live To Tell / Crazy For You / Take A Bow
-Die Another Day Video-
8. Sorry (Keith Haring / jumprope routine) / Jump
9. She's Not Me
10. Material Girl
11. Hollywood / Give it 2 Me
12. Ray of Light
13. Oldies medley: Everybody / Burning Up / Physical Attraction (a throw back to her 3 track club dates)
-Candy Factory Video-
14. Beautiful Stranger
15. Open Your Heart / Papa Don't Preach / Into the Groove
16. Music
-Don't Cry For Me Argentina Viedo Clip-
17. Frozen
18. Hung Up
19. Erotica (You Thrill Me)
20. Drowned World
-Dancer Interlude-
21. Love Don't Live Here Anymore / Rain
22. Voices (full dominatrix gear)
-Band Interlude-
23. Borderline
24. Secret
(request section - ( switch it up btwn Like A Virgin / Where's the Party / La Isla Bonita / Who's That Girl / Angel )
25. Vogue
--Encore--
26. Beat Goes On
27. Justify My Love (Hip Hop Mix)

I never got the hype about this show. The sets looked lame, the costumes were pretty damn awful and her vocals were just HORRENDOUS. I've seen a lot of clips and nothing made me think that this was even remotely one of her best tours.

i loved it! the energy, set list, videos, all brilliant! best show of the year.

I think it might be her best show ever. The setlist and the flow is closest to perfect here, a lot of great reinventions and energetic performances. Her voice might be bad on some songs, but she definitely balances that out in the Evita ballad, which is gorgeously sung.

Here's "You Must Love Me" from Santiago:



And the grand "She's Not Me" from Sao Paulo, featuring a lesbian kiss:

I'm glad I saved my money and passed on this. I agonized over it for several months, and never worked up the enthusiasm, based on the costumes, setlist, choreography, the demos, etc. to buy the tickets and get my ass there.


Really enjoyed most of the shows I saw this year instead. Janet, Tina, George Michael, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan (both at the Taste of Chicago), Backstreet Boys (i was with my bff and drunk as hell), etc. I wouldn't have wanted Madonna to be a big disappointment and ruin a good concert year.

She nasty, i just say no.

Sung live for the first time for the most part, "Vogue" with fantastic new beats:

(Denver)



The new version of "Into The Groove" walks over any previous incarnation:

(East Rutherford)



The energetic Gypsy rendition of "La Isla Bonita":

(Atlanta)



The house mash-up of "Like A Prayer" quickly became a fan favourite:

(Atlantic City)



I think these versions really breathe new life into the old tracks, which didn't exactly happen on the Re-Invention Tour. Of course the other reinventions like the rock versions of "Human Nature", "Borderline" & "Hung Up" and the latest "Music" mash-up are not as strong, but with the Hard Candy performances, "You Must Love Me" & "Ray Of Light" that stay close to the originals, it's still an excellent show.

Bitch has nerve for charging what she does and then pulling out drek like "You Must Love Me" and that terrible aerobics video version of "Isla Bonita." At least on Confessions we got Paradise and Drowned World as the random album tracks.

LiveToTell86 said:

I'm not going to sit through all of these videos, but I remember that LAP, ITG and Vogue being some of the most irritating "reinventions" when I listened to the studio demos for this tour. I'm glad I passed if this was the best the show had to offer.

badujunkie said:

lol, when the setlist for the show was leaked, I felt the same about "You Must Love Me" but after I heard it live, I've got a newfound appreciation for it, it really showcased her amazing vocals and it had the "thank you for sticking by me even when I'm 50" message. I think the song is underrated and it should appear on her upcoming compilation over "Don't Cry For Me Argentina".

"Paradise" was a great surprise on CT and while "Drowned World" is one of her best songs, it was a very simple performance after the DWT and in fact it was a single outside the US. Madonna almost NEVER performs album tracks from previous albums, I think "I'm Going Bananas" on Girlie Show, "Lament" on RIT and "Paradise" on CT are the only exceptions.

errant said:

The studio versions were leaked in mono and bad quality, they absolutely do no justice to the actual performances. "Into The Groove" without the shout-outs and the audience singalong sounds much weaker. And of course they sound light years better than the studio versions when you hear the huge bass in the venue.

I'm interested in what you expected from Madonna instead of these? More original versions? Come on, that would be so boring!

LiveToTell86 said:

These are horrid.
The confessions artwork, design and music direction seemed so much more cohesive and purposeful.

rushing07 said:

How exactly? We're talking about tours here, right? CT was all about paying homage to disco with her usual acoustic and rock stuff thrown in, there was no "cohesive" thing going on, all of her tours are colorful and varied. Plus the CT version of "La Isla Bonita" is definitely worse than the Sticky & Sweet One. Of course "Music" was better but both of them are just mash-ups...