By Ann Driscoll
Associate Editor
Madonna’s performance at the TD Northbank last Wednesday, October 15th, embodied the contradictions and transformations that have come to characterize her career, which has spanned nearly thirty years. The fifty-year old diva sang live (with backing track accompaniment) for the entire two hour-plus duration of the concert all whilst dancing, gyrating, and enduring incessant costume changes.
Photo by Erica Nowak
Madonna’s stop in Boston as part of her The Sticky and Sweet Tour, promotes her most recent album, Hard Candy, which has a heavy club music vibe. The show fittingly began with a DJ, and much of the music consisted of pre-recorded beats with live band accompaniment consisting of electronic drum-kit, lead guitar, keyboard, and occasionally backup singers. The overall sound was an amalgam of pre-recorded and live sounds, orchestrated by the most elaborate of sound consoles: a closed off box with over five different computers and mixing boards.
The entire show was scored to an array of visuals projected on at least three enormous screens. At times, these screens would move and interact, like when Madonna performed her latest hit, “Four Minutes.” A life-size video of Justin Timberlake singing his vocals during the song glided across the stage, giving the illusion that JT himself was onstage. Each song had thoughtful visuals, and at times the visuals were provocative.
The most provocative moment came during the new club song “Get Stupid,” when the screens projected numerous scenes of historical injustice, violence, and tyrannical leaders, juxtaposing Hitler with John McCain. The second half of the video showed leaders of historical benevolence, and juxtaposed an image of Obama with that of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and many others. The image of Obama which ended the video received thunderous applause, and Madonna made it clear afterwards, with aggressive language, that she is a serious Obama supporter. She joked about the controversy she has ignited with her show, “Speaking of ridiculous, I promised I wouldn’t talk about Sarah Palin tonight.”
While her most recent albums, Hard Candy and Confessions on a Dance Floor, have prioritized production over songwriting, Madonna tapped into her vast catalogue of outstanding, tuneful pop music. Songs like “Into the Groove,” “Like a Prayer,” “Borderline,” “Human Nature,” and “Vogue” boast their writer(s)’ mastery of melody, harmony, and structure.
Perhaps the most thrilling moment of the show was when Madonna brought to the stage a violinist, accordion, and several classical guitar players to perform her song “You Must Love Me” from Evita, as well as several other Klezmer and Latin-influenced songs. The incorporation of raw musicality in her instrumentation enhanced the show, providing a welcome reprieve from the throbbing beats and fuzzy keyboards that dominated so much of the evening.
The ingredients to the show were much like the ingredients to Madonna as a relevant figure in culture: seemingly mindless pop fun, co-optation of trends, thoughtful and provocative visual content, weak singing, glimmers of strong musicality, and sheer spectacle. All of it contradictory. All of it fascinating.
