Madonna in Concert

 

Madonna is a LEGEND, and I wanted to see her in concert before she got too old to stop touring (although the Rolling Stones are still doing it...). I originally was going to see her over Labor Day weekend (I did see Sting that weekend), but she got sick, so the show was rescheduled for yesterday. That blew my plan of wearing a sexy snakeskin mini-dress; instead I wore a velvet jacket with shoulder pads as a nod to the 80's (but Capital One Arena was so hot I barely even wore it!). At least the show did get rescheduled: I'll never see Celine Dion, whose March 2020 shows never came to pass.

My old boss and I (I've known her for, what, 10 years?) went together to this show, which made the evening even more fun. She had heard that while the concert was supposed to start around 8:00pm, Madonna never goes on stage before 10:00pm. So we spent a good two hours just wandering the halls, getting a drink, and catching up; we weren't interested in her opener, Bob the Drag Queen, either (although in the end he was more like a glorified Emcee). I think because so many people knew Madonna wouldn't start singing until later, the venue was so dead in the beginning: there were no lines, the halls weren't crowded, it was like the apocalypse had happened. We were almost wondering if Madonna was actually going to perform at all!

But perform she did. And she put on quite the show: a very weird one. But, we would expect no less of Madonna. Weird is her thing! But I think we, and many others in the crowd, were disappointed that it wasn't just a glam 80's dance party. Barely anyone was dancing! I think we were all just taking in weirdness: the gender-bending, nudity, bondage, fire... we were mesmerized (but was it in a good way?). Here are some photos to help me explain:

There was a lot of crawling/writhing from the back-up dancers (although they must have been living their best lives!).

This was during "Like a Prayer." At one point the men were hanging in their little spaces like crucifixes...

Some sort of luau ritual...?

And there was boxing. Not sure how that relates.

FIRE!

At one point she was dressed up like Willie Nelson. Hmm...

"I want to perform, but I want to lay down." She is laying on top of this big box, but the camera overhead projected her image onto the sides with a funky background, so she looked like an ameba swimming around.

Madonna wishing she were Lady Gaga (which is very strange, because I'm sure Gaga has always wished she were Madonna).

I normally don't check the set list ahead of time, but my friend did, and we were both bummed that she wasn't going to sing hits like Material Girl or Papa Don't Preach. But she did sing some of my other favorites:

Vogue

Like a Prayer

Like a Virgin

Ray of Light (I had not heard this song in forever!)

Die Another Day (great Bond theme song!)

Hung Up (This song came out when I was in high school, and I don't think I had heard it since!)

Essentially the whole show was set up in "acts," and there were seven of them. Since everything started so late, we already decided ahead of time to leave before the last act so we could get home somewhat earlier (1:00am!). But luckily those were all songs we weren't really into, so no big loss. 

I'm so glad I went to see this concert because who knows if I'll ever get another chance to see Madonna. Now I can put a check next to that name on my concert bucket list! I don't have any concert tickets lined up for the new year, but I'm sure I'll see some great shows in 2024. I can feel it!