Venue:
Accor Stadium, Olympic Park, Sydney
Date: 16/03/2024
Not exactly a featured artist on this forum, and not someone I particularly listen to. “I’d rather see P!nk” was my comment when my daughter, who doesn’t really listen to Taylor Swift, said she was tagging along to see her with a Swifty friend of hers. A few weeks later, my wife and I are driving near the venue where she’s playing that night, she gets on the phone and finds there’s tickets available. Half an our later we’d booked a couple of the cheapest tickets, and although they said ‘restricted view’, anywhere past half way in an 80,000 seat stadium where the performers are largely moving dots on a stage is restricted, so a small portion of the stage not being visible wasn’t really a problem.
I knew two of her songs pretty well, and the rest I either didn’t know or only had heard in passing. She started the show with Get the Party Started (I knew that one) and finished with So What (and that one!). In between I heard a bunch of well written songs, none of which I disliked, and sung by someone who had clearly written them for reasons beyond making a large quantity of cash.
P!nk is a good entertainer. She knows what the crowd wants, knows how to pace the show, connects with the audience, and despite it being a show with dancers, props, acrobatics and various other visuals, the focus is still on the songs and band performing them. The band, who I believe have been with her for some time, know their chops, and she makes a point of them have their moments in the spotlight at various times. I like seeing artists who give a bit of space to those whose names aren’t on the billboard.
She’s known for her aerial acrobatics. The show opens with her sitting on a trapeze bar at the top of the stage, next second she plummets towards the stage and spends the rest of the song bouncing around on a couple of bungee cords. At various times throughout the show she ascends on various acrobatic equipment, but not to the point where it becomes a gimmick, for most of the show she’s on the stage with the band and dancers. The encore of So What has her zipping around the stadium a disturbing number of metres above the ground performing various flips and spins, and landing on two tiny platforms near the back of the stadium. This was genuinely impressive and it felt like they’d come up with it just to include those in the cheap(ish) seats more.
Will this make me a P!nk fan? Well I already admired her as an artist, so I might sneak an album or two into the collection. Would I see her again? Quite possibly.
The audience:
Young, old and all points in between.
It made me think..
Sometimes you just need to ditch the chin-stroking gigs and take in a good old fashioned show.
Entertainment – that is what it is all about.
Agree. I think I know one Pink song but I bet she puts on a great show.
It’s a long time ago now, but, as I recall, what first attracted me to vulgar popular music was that it looked like the most tremendous fun.
I must admit though, I do get a bit of a rash when I see punctuation in names (P!nk, will.i.am, ?uestlove etc)
What a great review – love that you went, loved reading your reflections on it all.
There’s something really gratifying about trying something outside your immediate wheelhouse and discovering you quite enjoy it.
Thanks Bingo, much obliged.
There is nothing wrong with entertainment. popular music came from music halls and vaudeville as much as bars and stomps. The dreariest stuff is from acts who fancy themselves as above giving people a fun night out. This is why lights, props, and performance are often part of it – and in bigger venues are essential.