Kylie Aphrodite

I've been listening to the music of Kylie Minogue on and off for more than 20 years.  Ever since hearing her first single The Loco-Motion as a Freshman in college, to Especially For You - the duet with Jason Donovan... and the dark but intriguing duet Where the Wild Roses Grow with Nick Cave.  So after years of being somewhat of a fan, I finally got to see her in concert tonight.

Kylie's a pretty big gay icon, so it was no surprise that the gay community was out in force tonight.  She knows her audience, too, so it was pretty clear the show was orchestrated to appeal to that particular segment.  Lots of buff male dancers around, who were practically naked at times, dangling on harnesses.  I don't go to concerts all that often, so hearing mostly guys scream at the sight of muscle men is kinda new to me...

The show went on for about 2 hours, with I think 8 different costumes.  I was happy to finally be able to listen to some of my favorite Kylie songs live.  Things got interesting towards the last quarter of the show, when Kylie started taking requests from the audience.   That's something I've never seen at a live show.

In terms of music, Slow started out as a jazzy tune, only to turn up to tempo and finish as a fast tune.  The intro to Confide In Me was fast and clubby, and there was a nice rendition of the Eurythmics' There Must Be An Angel.

But I left the concert disappointed.  Kylie started singing a few songs from her latest album Aphrodite, and while I must admit that I'm not familiar with most songs from this particular album, they honestly weren't very catchy.  It wasn't until the 5th or 6th song that I finally got in the mood.  I also felt the female dancers kinda sucked... both in terms of their abilities as well as visual appeal - all of them looked very masculine and honestly kinda scary.  The stage design also left me wanting...  There was no extension into the crowd, and the silhouette of the Greek "temple" was nothing but cloth draped in front of the screen.  A quick check on YouTube showed that even her show in Tallinn - that's in Estonia, boys and girls - featured a staged that was a lot more kick-ass than what we got.

But nevermind.  I still love Kylie, and put on about 3 hours of her music after I got home.  I had Kylie songs streaming through my head as I went to bed way, way past my scheduled bed time...