HARD
CANDY PROMO at Roseland Ballroom, NYC - 4.30.2008
Madonna
mini-concert rocks Roseland Ballroom
NEW YORK
-- During her mini-concert last night at the Roseland Ballroom, Madonna
dedicated one of the six numbers, "Hung Up," to the people
she had seen "sleeping on the sidewalk" the night before.
She
was talking about her fans -- the ones who had waited on the street,
in some cases for days, to obtain tickets and secure a spot near
the stage.
It was
a free, 33-minute show, seen throughout the world via a live webcast.
The idea was to promote her new album "Hard Candy" (released
on Tuesday) and preview her anticipated '08 tour (no dates announced
yet). Some of the 2,200 tickets were distributed to contest winners
and VIPs, but others went to fans on a first-come, first-served basis.
They started lining up Monday morning.
The stage
was relatively small, but this was a big show, with six backing musicians,
seven dancers, and complex visual effects -- spinning and sliding
video screens on "4 Minutes," and a laser show during "Give
It 2 Me." Four of the songs were from "Hard Candy."
The others were fairly recent, too -- 2000's "Music" and
2005's "Hung Up."
Justin
Timberlake, a key "Hard Candy" collaborator, showed up to
sing and dance on "4 Minutes," after making a dramatic entrance,
emerging from behind one of the spinning video screens.
Though
short, the show didn't feel like a rehearsal or a promotional gimmick.
Throughout, Madonna and her backing troupe were in end-of-tour form.
"Hard Candy" is not one of Madonna's most artistically ambitious
albums, but its songs are upbeat and catchy, and make a bigger impression
in a live setting.
Madonna,
49, took the stage a little after 10 p.m., after a set of DJ music
that climaxed, appropriately enough, with Bow Wow Wow's '80s hit,
"I Want Candy." She opened with "Candy Shop,"
sitting, at first, on a throne, with projections of peppermint swirls
behind her. Soon, she was up and dancing.
She strapped
on an acoustic guitar for the moody "Miles Away," with videos
of airplanes, airports and a spinning globe underscoring the song's
lyrics, which are about the problems posed by a long-distance romance.
Perhaps
inspired by her recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
she played electric guitar on "Hung Up," turning it into
garage/grunge-rock. At the end, she turned to face one of the speakers,
and played a grinding, heavily distorted guitar solo, exulting in
the feedback.
It is
her last album for her longtime label, Warner Brothers; in October
she announced a new deal with the touring giant Live Nation that will
encompass recordings, tours, merchandising and various other projects,
and is valued at $120 million.
"Give
It 2 Me" was the show's most energetic dance number. And in a
nod to the R&B/hip-hop sound of much of "Hard Candy,"
she presented the show's closer, "Music," as old-school
electrofunk, with her dancers dressed as B-boys, and graffiti projected
on the video screens.
Four of
the six songs -- "4 Minutes," "Hung Up," "Give
It 2 Me" and "Music" -- are potential show-stoppers
for the upcoming tour. "Miles Away" is more like a low-key
change of pace. And "Candy Shop" will probably be the opener,
with welcoming, tone-setting lines like "I've got something so
sweet" and "I'll be your one-stop candy shop."
There
were many sexually suggestive dance moves on this song, and "4
Minutes." And there were some petulant theatrics at other times.
Before "Hung Up," Madonna played the main riff from the
Rolling Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" on her guitar,
then said, derisively, "Did you guys think you came to a Rolling
Stones concert?" After "Hung Up," she flashed the crowd
her middle finger -- not, presumably, because she was upset, but because
the gesture fit the song's angry feel. At another point, she complained
that people weren't jumping up and down enough.
The show
boded well for the tour, which is still only in the possibility stage
(though it's hard to imagine she won't follow through on it, since
she has at least six numbers staged already, and she usually tours
after releasing an album). She seemed feisty, and focused, and willing
to reinvent herself, and her songs, one more time.
Source:
Star-Ledger by Jay Lustig / Photo:
Tony Kurdzuk / Posted:
Thursday May 01, 2008, 1:34 PM