Let me start by saying that I put my love of Britney Spears in the same closet as my love for the British Monarchy.  I don’t know why I love them so, but I can’t help it.  It’s fundamental to my existence.  Therefore it made perfect sense to go and see Britney when she toured Australia.

HUBBY and I attended the show on Wednesday 11 November at Rod Laver Arena.   A few days prior to the concert the papers were going nuts with opinions about her miming her show.  My personal belief, you charge for people to see you ‘live’ you sing live.  If you’re dance routines are going to be so hectic that you need to use backing tracks than I expect to see a damn good show and it would be expected that this information be put in the ticket details.

It’s hard to be objective about the show as I’d been fortunate enough to see Pink in concert a few months before hand.  For starters the ticket to Pink was a quarter of the price to see Britney and the seats were three times better.  Now, Pink and Britney are two completely different performing animals, but you can’t help but draw parallels between the shows.

Pink was engaging, full of energy, animated and physically dominate.  Britney seemed to be going through the motions.  She address the audience twice, both times the audio was hard to understand and it was short lived.  As a member of the audience I left the Pink concert feeling like I’d gotten a glimpse of Pink the person and the artist.  I left Britney’s show feeling like I’d just paid to see the Dolphin Show at Seaworld.

There were claims leaking from the Perth show that she spent a lot of time with her back to the audience.  Well, it’s true she did, but lets be fair the stage was large and they were trying to perform to every seat in the house.  The choreographers definitely tried to give all people a view of the show.  However this meant that there was a lot of time spent moving from one stage mark to another.

There were also claims that you didn’t see much of her on the big screen.  I don’t think this claim is founded in reality.  The use of the big screens was great.  A real mix of the live performance and pre-recorded videos.  It’s a shame that Britney’s performance on stage flagged in comparison between the pre-recorded moves and the live show.  The inclusion of Perez Hilton made me chuckle, and the use of the big countdown clock worked really well to get the audience excited.

The dance routines had moments of brilliance which were rewarded with much love from the audience.  I really enjoyed the routine for “Piece of Me” (which is included below).  However at times it felt like Britney was dancing around her handbag in a nightclub; just marking time before she moved on to the next set piece.  She seemed lost somehow. When you see some of the footage of the show from other concerts it may be easier to speculate that she was just having a bad night.  Obviously dealing with jet lag, her boys turning up, the bad press from Perth and life in general; and you can forgive someone a little for that.

There were sparks of Britney.  Sparks of the performer that you saw early on in her career and in the entertainment media.  When she’d smile her face was like  a beacon.  It was easy to understand why people feel so drawn to her.  But those moments were few and far between. I think I would have been more forgiving if she’d interacted with the audience more.  Showed some of the southern belle sweetness she’s known for.

The costuming at times left something to be desired.  If I was Britney I’d be asking questions of the designers – do they hate her?  They were not flattering to a body that’s had two children in quick succession and enjoyed it’s far share of Starbucks and Drive-Thru meals.  She’s skinny, but she’s not toned.  Pink was ripped.  When she did the belly moves nothing moved, it was tight.  Unfortunately there were times when Britney could have been mistaken for doing the truffle shuffle.  Costuming that made advantage of nude lycra and supportive construction would have made a world of difference.  Even something that was flattering to her body shape would have made a world of difference.  She’s not Beyonce so she’s not going to be able to pull off the current one piece fashion trend like Beyonce can.  Sometimes less really is more.

It’s hard to separate Britney the paparazzi version and the entertainment version.  I don’t know how she manages to get out of bed everyday in a world that is constantly hounding her.  How can she step back and prepare for her tours when she can’t get a moments peace.  As much as I love hearing about Britney, I think there should be legislation passed globally that puts restraints around what the paparazzi can and cannot do while stalking a star.  It’s mental and it’s a vicious circle.  Everyone’s looking to say how she’s failing at life, and I’ll admit that the perception of her show suffers for this.  However, I think for me it boils down to ticket price.  I don’t feel like I got value for money. (Especially when there was no encore… who doesn’t do an encore?  People expect an encore.  People don’t expect to have the house lights turned on and everything come to a holt!)

I can’t stress enough – I really wanted this show to rock.  I wanted to be Dazzled just like Edward did to Bella.  But I wasn’t.  I did find that I wanted to rush the stage and give her a big hug and tell her that everything will work out and not to listen to the critics.  I’ve got the pound puppy rescue mentality something shocking when it comes to Britney.  In my head she’s this sweet person that’s just trying to make it in a crazy world.  Even if a fifth of what you read or hear about her is true, no one should have to deal with that sort of scrutiny or invasion.  But no amount of personal wishing and hoping for her to have a better time of it makes up for the fact that I traveled interstate to  see an average show.

Britney would benefit from seeing Bette Middler in show.  I paid marginally more per ticket to see the Divine Miss M in concert a few years ago and I left that show feeling like I’d been dazzled.  She interacted with the audience.  She could belt out a tune.  The costuming and choreography was amazing.   The stage wasn’t massive for an arena show, but they made such good use of it.  Even the cheap seats (which weren’t that cheap!) felt like they got a diamond class performance.  That’s what my ticket price for Britney had me expecting and it fell short of that.

Don’t get me wrong, overall the show was good.  I always enjoy hearing her music and it was great to see her in the flesh.  The support performers were amazing and breath taking.  The sets had some interesting concepts for moving around, making the transition between themes and utilizing the space.  Would I rank it in my top ten concerts of all time?  Unfortunately not.  I can’t help but feel like I paid just to be able to say I saw Britney Spears, when I really wanted to be able to say I saw Britney Spears kick ass, take names and prove her critics wrong!