britney's circus in melbourne

A few reviews have appeared of last night's performance,Britney's first ever gig in Melbourne-and like this one from local paper the Age,most predictably thrash her lip-syncing and the fact that she wasn't even doing that well.

To me,that wasn't much of an issue.It was a full-house stadium and as long as Britney threw us some easy dancing,lip-synced through her 27-song setlist without falling on her ass or accidentally exposing herself and yelled out some "Hello,Melbourne!" shit once in a while, the crowd would keep screaming.

I think the whole idea of her Circus tour was to make things over the top and freaky,we had trampolines and fire and all kinds of showy S&M/goth crap but there's something so unambitious and lacklustre in the entire presentation.Britney ushered in the Teen Pop genre and for a long time,was the amazing It girl,but today even as she sings about threesomes on '3' and tries to be sexy/cheeky with the obvious 'If You Seek Amy',and especially after having experienced her 'Circus' last night,I have to admit there is something distinctly 1998 and lazy about her.

Seeing Circus,its like Britney or any of her concert producers never saw a single So You Think you Can Dance? episode or Cirque the Soleil show,or even know Lady Gaga exist-to make today,you need to vamp the risqueness/vogue and I think there's a large part of Britney that thinks she can sell sold-out shows,lip-sync the whole way and still get a away with it because she's Britney Spears.

So yes,the most hardworking popstars today strive to be inventors,always ahead the average,but Britney's got her name and she no doubt realizes that alone suffices as a valuable asset.

Two last things.I think Britney used the massive 3-part stage well to her advantage yesterday,managing to connect to each part of the audience for the whole 150 minutes she performed.And secondly,yes she lip-synced despite people having paid good money to see her-to this I say who in their mind expects Britney to sing live-and,I've been to concerts where I paid more for and the performers sang live the whole way,but those gigs turned out considerably much worse-The Cure went through song by song singing monotonously and ignored the audience the whole time,and Jack Johnson sung live with the kind of heart and enthusiasm a twice-killed zombie would have.

So yes,I enjoyed myself a lot last night-and while I was there,wasn't bothered by her lip-syncing.I was surrounded by a bunch of fat girls who moved very little and only bothered to do anything when Britney came to our part of the stage,when they jumped a bit and whipped out their cameras (crowds can be SO lame-you pay this much,and you hardly even dance?).

As an entertainer,she's already being superseded by a growing number of singers,but she doesn't seem to mind much-as long as she keeps doing things the same way,its inevitable that the haters and journalists pick apart her concerts and public persona mercilessly.Keep playing to just your fans,and they'll be the only ones you win over.

...