Miley Cyrus concluded her Gypsy Heart Tour in Perth on Saturday night in front of an almost packed house, with it no doubt being the first concert experience for most there.
The deafening screams and chants of "Miley" began long before the Hannah Montana actress-turned-sexed-up teen pop star hit the stage.
Through a wall of sound that would make Phil Spector green with envy and strobe lighting that should have come with a health warning, the 18-year-old Tennessee native hit the stage in a provocative get-up that channelled Madonna's much maligned Erotica era.
Featuring minimal set design and basic staging, the show was made up of half originals and half covers.
The bizarre covers - which consisted of Poison (Every Rose Has Its Thorn), Joan Jett (Bad Reputation) and Fleetwood Mac (Landslide) - turned the Burswood Dome into a giant karaoke party, with Cyrus' shrill voice managing to pierce through the bombastic music that supported her.
The weirdest moment of the night, and perhaps in this reviewer's concert-going experience, was when Cyrus decided to cover Nirvana's 1991 grunge anthem Smells Like Teen Spirit.
It was truly an odd sight to see a six-year-old dressed as a ballerina dancing in the aisles while Cyrus rather embarrassingly tore into the iconic rock song which was released before she was born.
Cyrus' original music was by-the-numbers US bubblegum rock pop, which the audience lapped up, despite each song sounding more or less the same, with the singer strutting across the stage in similar fashion during each song, mixing things up with moments of hairography.
The only moment of spontaneity came when Cyrus, the daughter of Achy Breaky Heart's Billy Ray, dedicated another odd cover, Gorillaz' On Melancholy Hill, to two of her dancers because this was the last night of the tour and she had worked with them long before she was Hannah Montana.
After finishing her main set with the tween coming-of-age anthem The Climb, Cyrus re-appeared onstage in another risque outfit which looked something like a disco devil leotard before belting out her biggest Australian hit, See You Again.
Unfortunately for the fans, the number was butchered into a hard rock mess.
In the end, it wasn't really a music concert to be reviewed seriously or enjoyed, but something more like a celebrity religious experience, with youngsters in the crowd excited by just being in the same space as their idol for 90 minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment