Sypha Nadon on 30/10/2008 at 02:32

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This is a recap of a Madonna concert that I witnessed two weeks ago, while on my vacation, in Boston, on October 15, the first of two shows she did there recently as part of her "Sticky & Sweet" tour. I haven't taken the trains to Boston alone since I went to that TTLG Boston Meet all those years ago (2002, I believe) so it was quite an experience.

I arrived at the train station at 5:10, hoping to catch the 5:30 train. I parked in the parking lot outside the station, paid my two dollars, then went off to the nearby supermarket, where the train tickets were sold. Only I couldn’t find any sort of sidewalk that would take me to the supermarket safely. I ended up having to drive out of the parking lot, drive to the supermarket, buy my roundtrip tickets, then drive back to the parking lot and pay two dollars to park there again. By this point it was around 5:35 so I had missed the 5:30 train. I decided to stick around for the next one, which was due at 6:18. So I waited at the platform for awhile. It showed up at the right time and I got on. It was a fairly clean train, and the ride up to Boston took about 40 minutes or so (probably less, as the train reached my stop around 6:55). The only problem was that I hadn't brought anything with me to pass the time, and by this time night was falling so it wasn't as if I could see much out the window, so it was kind of boring. After I got off at the train station in Boston I switched over to the subway, which took me to the TD Banknorth Garden (where the show was playing). The subway ride was very quick (on the subway platform I gave 2 bucks to some guy playing keyboard, a street musician, but he didn't even acknowledge me). By the time I got to the Garden, it was about 7:20 or so. I began wandering around, trying to find my seat (which took forever, as the place was PACKED). I eventually found it by 7:40. It was a balcony seat, VERY high up (I think I was only seven rows from the back), with the stage being to my lower right hand side… having said that, I did have a pretty good view of the stage at least. Besides the fact I was so high up, I also was feeling a lot of anxiety because not only was it VERY hot inside the arena, but it was also very crowded (as there were about 20,000 fans present), and the seats were so small that I had very little personal space. Being something of a quiet introvert, this was like a living hell for me. I wanted to buy a t-shirt or something before the show started, but the vendors were so swamped it was like, forget it. The only thing I ended up buying before the show started was some bottled water, and even that seemingly simple task felt like a Herculean effort. I sat between a middle-aged straight couple (who seemed wildly out of place), and a middle-aged lesbian couple. I should add here that there were a LOT of lesbians in attendance at the event, along with the expected gay man flock (the cutest of which that I saw at least was a black guy my age who was seated a few rows down: he was wearing a shirt from Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ tour and a skirt). Actually, some people had very elaborate get-ups, from S&M outfits to Madonna clone drag queens and so on. I myself wore a black Madonna t-shirt from her Confessions tour (of course, I never saw any live shows from that tour, sadly), and black jeans.

The show was supposed to start at 8, but it didn’t begin till 8:15. There was a support act of sort, some DJ who did a half hour set that was totally generic and bored me to tears. Madonna herself didn’t start her set until around 9:15, which caused me a great deal of anxiety as the last train back to the train station was a little after midnight. Therefore, during the show I had to keep checking the clock on my cell phone to see what time it was. In any event, Madonna’s set was split into 4 acts of sort, with a video interlude at the end of each one (presumably to let Madonna change costume for the next act). The name of these acts were pimp, old school, gypsy, and rave. The stage itself resembled a fashion runway/disco floor. There were also gigantic video monitors towards the back of the stage that were used all night.

Here are my comments for the 4 acts:

Pimp: the show began with a brief animated segment. The large video monitors revolved around, letting Madonna make her grand entrance. And, seated atop a throne and wielding some sort of scepter/baton, she certainly still looked like the Queen of Pop. The first song she did was “Candy Shop”, which fittingly enough is the first track off her newest album, “Hard Candy” (she actually ended up doing 9 out of 12 songs from that album, which made sense… I just wish she had done “Incredible” because that was one of my favorites off of it). One of my only problems was that the acoustics in the place were not that great and the sound was so LOUD that everything sounded very distorted. But I don’t think most people went there for sound quality. They probably just wanted to see Madonna put on her show, which she did very professionally. If she was fazed by her divorce, it didn’t show. Frankly, I’m glad she’s done with Guy Ritchie, but I digress. After “Candy Shop” she did “Beat Goes On” (which is also off the new album), and this song had a pimped-out white car drive on the stage at one point. Then there was “Human Nature”, one of the many songs which found Madonna playing guitar. Whether she actually was playing or not is anyone’s guess but she could at least fake it well, if not. This was followed by “Vogue”, which probably had some of the best dancing of the night (yeah, like I know shit about what constitutes good dancing). Act I ended with a video interlude of “Die Another Day”. While images from the video for that song played on the monitors, the end of the runway was converted into a boxing ring and two boxers pretended to enact a boxing match: well, a boxing match involving dancing, that is.

Old School: Act II got off to a great start with “Into the Groove”, one of my favorite Madonna songs. The song was accompanied by Keith Haring animation on the display screens, which was very cool, and Madonna spent long portions of this song either skipping across the stage while jump roping or gyrating on some kind of a stripper pole. Actually, all of the dancers were also jumping rope for this song, so visually it was very interesting to watch. One of the real highlights of the show. This was followed by “Heartbeat” (one of the better songs off “Hard Candy”) and for this song the runway on the stage was converted into a conveyer belt (I should add here that the stage went through a lot of transformations throughout the course of the show). Then she did “Borderline” (which pleased a lot of the old school fans), followed by another song off the new album, “She’s Not Me”. This song, merely enjoyable on the album, was MUCH better live. For this song Madonna was accompanied by 4 other women, each dressed up like Madonna from one of the earlier stages of her career, and Madonna got kind of Sapphic with each one, fondling them and kissing them (which, needless to say, got a huge reaction from the lesbians there). Then it was “Music”, which was pretty cool, and “Rain” (which was a very odd-looking video to end the second act).

Gypsy: Act III was bizarre. It began with Madonna lying atop a piano at the end of the runway, dressed in a black hooded robe (or maybe it was a raincoat). A transparent display monitor surrounded her with raindrops that swarmed around her like astral larvae. She sang “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You” (a song off the new album), followed by another song off the new album, “Spanish Lesson” (a track that’s started to grow on me). The dancers for this song wore black hooded robes also, making them look either like Satanists or monks or something. Then there was another song off the new album, “Miles Away”, which is actually one of my favorite tracks off “Hard Candy” (it was also one of the few tracks that I sang along to last night). This song also found Madonna playing guitar again (she played guitar on “Borderline” also, now that I think back). Then they did “La Isla Bonita”, only they did it the way she played it at Live 8 last summer, with gypsies and so on. A few of these gypsies were playing violins, and it created a kind of delirious atmosphere. Another highlight. This was followed by a dance interlude called “Doli Doli” and then Madonna performed “You Must Love Me”.

Rave: Act IV actually began with a video interlude, “Get Stupid”, in which on the video screens images were displayed such as starving children, war-torn countries, rampant consumerism, images of Hitler, dictators, John McCain., etc. Followed by images of hope, Gandhi, Oprah, Lennon, Obama (which got a HUGE ovation from the crowd). Then she did “4 Minutes” which, besides being the first single off “Hard Candy”, is also one of the best songs off that album, with a great beat and insanely catchy melodies. So it was great to hear that one live. For this song Madonna was wearing shoulder pads and a chest plate, like football equipment, but it looked vaguely crustacean in origin, like something you’d expect to see a lobster stormtrooper wearing. This was followed by an epic version of “Like a Prayer”, then “Ray of Light.” I know it’s cliché, but “Ray of Light” is one of my favorite Madonna songs, and the video in particular never fails to draw an emotional reaction out of me. So to see her playing it live almost made me choke up a little. She played guitar on this one also, and the video screens displayed seizure-inducing images of stars, galaxies, and so on, while intense beams of light splayed out over the crowd. This was followed by a sort of segue in which Madonna clapped her hands, trashed Sarah Palin, urged people to register to vote, vote for Obama, etc. This drew a lot of applause but also some boos. By now it was 11 in the evening so sadly I decided to leave, if only to miss the rush after the show (as it is, her set ended about 10 minutes after I left, with the songs “Hung Up” and “Give it 2 Me”, so I didn’t miss all that much… I’ll just have to catch those last two on DVD I guess). In any event, it took me so long to figure out how to get out of the stadium that I was at the very least able to hear them as I made my exit. On my way out I stopped at one of the vendors (which were now less crowded) and purchased a Madonna t-shirt for $45 (how’s that for rampant consumerism, eh?). There was a new book that also looked pretty cool, but it was $50, so I decided to just order it through B&N so I could at least get my employee discount. I took the subway, then the train, back home, got back home around 1:45 AM, feeling utterly exhausted. Waiting for the subway was kind of creepy that late at night, all I could think of was "Cloverfield"... I don't ride on subways all that often. Or trains for that matter! It was fun though.

Sorry for that long recap, it’s just very rare that I go to see a concert (this was actually only the fifth concert I’ve ever been to). It wasn’t the easiest thing for me to endure, but it was worth it just to see Madonna in the flesh, in action as it were, and it was quite a spectacle (on the subway platform on the ride back some of the gay men were complaining about her hair, saying they found it too frizzy). The show was a good mixture of both old and new songs, though I would have really loved “Material Girl” or “Angel” to have been played. But at least I got to see her do “Into the Groove”, “4 Minutes” and “Ray of Light”, so it was all worth it. Even better, I managed to somehow not only take the train and the subway into Boston, but also make it back home without any screw-ups. Giving the fact that I lack both common sense and independence, this itself was nothing short of a miracle! Oh yeah, a lesbian wearing a "I Love my Pussy" t-shirt complimented my Madonna t-shirt, which was pretty cool.

Scots Taffer on 30/10/2008 at 03:25

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Your description of the train ride captures my exact feelings while reading this thread, except I knew it wasn't going to end up anywhere half as interesting as Boston and it would be a lot more boring than staring out of a dark window.

Turtle on 30/10/2008 at 03:38

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This thread taught me to love again.

So, what was up with her 'playing' guitar on songs that are largely guitarless?

Also, I'm surprised she played Borderline. She supposedly hates that song.

Turtle on 30/10/2008 at 04:00

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Sypha's gay.
He needed to make this thread to prove it.
He succeeded.