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M-Infinity Reviews: The Rebel Heart Tour


groovyguy
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MSG, NY Sept 17th, 2015 [ my first Rebel Heart show]
The Rebel Heart Tour proves that the stage is truly a canvas for M to ‘paint’ her art! The closing backdrop of Madonna holding a heart is fitting as her heart is clearly put into every aspect of the show. She not only perfectly encapsulates her musical journey into a cohesive performance, but also provides the most heart I've ever seen an artist deliver into a show.
 
So I’ll start my review by saying, What an AMAZING show it is! The show MUST be seen live, in person. It's incredible, breathtaking, intimate and magical. My only disappointment? That it ended. The 2 hours felt way too short. 
 
Wanna Be Starting Something by MJ started at 9:24! And you know she’s coming after that.
 
Note: My only complaint for the first ACT is the occasional spotlight 'blinding' from the main stage [if I remember correctly] for the 1st 2 songs!
 
Iconic The "Iconic" opening sequence is just plain insane, from the pulsing video screens, to samurai costumed dancers that addressed the stage. Every dancer is on point, moving in sequence and Madonna effortlessly grabs your attention. The entire arena went crazy throughout the whole Iconic performance and responded with thunderous applauses. My take on Madonna being dressed like a samurai is that she’s a warrior and a person of independence and strength. She’s a freedom fighter that will not be caged. She breaks loose out of a cage fighting the enemies, the social injustices.  
 
Bitch I’m Madonna After the fight, she then strips off the robe, and sings "Bitch I'm Madonna."  Beautifully executed fan dance choreo. This is probably about her going hard or going home but her 30 decades of success proves she’s tough and she’s still standing strong in the limelight.
 
Burning Up She grabs a guitar and rips into "Burning Up". She reminds us of the beginning when she was on fire and burning up for our love.
 
Holy Water / Vogue Next, large poles line the runway for Holy water. Nuns emerge, and it's time to remind us of the religious and sexual commentaries in her art. She pushed those buttons hard from the pole segment to the last supper where her pussy seems to be the only item on the menu. As a dancer opened her legs and went down on his knees in between her, she moaned a final “Yeezus loves my pussy bestâ€â€” remember that’s where life begins. :)
 
Devil Pray After the last supper, she sang about seeking spirituality in place of drugs with a performance where she was genuflecting before a priest and grinding her hips against him. :)
 
Interlude: Messiah Some complain about using Ghosttown video as the backdrop but it works with the performance and blended artistically well with the images on the slanted screen. The flying cloth dancer and sliding/gliding dancer on the slanted platform did an awesome job.
 
Body Shop This was performed with a Fifties-style dance routine. She re-emerges on the hood of a vintage Chevy and looks RIDICULOUSLY gorgeous as she frolicked with hot mechanics. The video screens seem to glide effortlessly into stages that vanish as quickly as they appear. About the sound, either the backing track was too loud or too much reverb was used at the beginning but she sounded fine after that.
 
True Blue Next, She settles down with her ukelele and sings an acoustic version of "True Blue" that  is so amazing and magical. Her vocal was strong, yet tinged with sadness. The crowd sang along with her. 
 
Deeper and Deeper The whole arena went absolutely nuts when the thunderous "Deeper and Deeper" takes over the room. People were dancing wildly to this.
 
HeartBreakCity/Love Don’t Live Here Anymore She gives one of the best vocal performances of the night when she sings Heartbreak City/Love Don't Live Here Anymore on the stairs. Her vocals on this are insane! Anyone who says she can't sing doesn't know what they're talking about!! The audience erupted when Madonna sang that first line "You abandoned me..."
 
Like A Virgin  This was one of the night's peak moments and really got the crowd going.  Luv the electro-beats from "Music and her revamped cowgirl line-dance moves from the "Don't Tell Me" video.
 
Interlude: S.E.X. (with elements from Justify My Love) With Dita reappearing on the backdrop, what’s there not to love?
 
Living for Love Despite having seen this being performed on the live TV the most, I actually enjoyed the devils-and-bullfighters-and-Minotaurs pageant tremendously.
 
La Isla Bonita Another absolute crowd pleaser. The crowd went crazy at the first note of the song. Spanish themed,  it’s  very festive and crazy happy.
 
Dress You Up (medley with elements from Into The Groove, Lucky Star) This is a fun segment and kind of remind me of the Medley segment in the Who’s That Girl Tour. She dropped Everybody :( For Into the Groove, she either missed a word or two or they were sung too low.  
 
Who’s That Girl Another awesome treat for the crowd. She sounds good but for me, it’s not as amazing as she did for True Blue.
 
Rebel Heart When she sang the verses, some parts seemed to be drowned out by the music. Or maybe something was wrong with my hearing. But the chorus was beautifully sung. And the Rebel Heart fan art backdrop was MUCH better than I ever imagined. And she dedicated this to a big Rebel heart in her life, Rocco! :)
 
Interlude: Illuminati The ‘Cirque du Soleil’ style performance was both captivating and exhilarating with the dancers up on the crosses, swinging back into the audience and then coming inches from the floor.
 
For me, the whole finale with the 20's flapper section seems almost like a Busby Berkeley musical.  Her new versions of Music and Material Girl had everyone going. On paper Candy Shop looks like a sore thumb but Music actually segued into Candy Shop really well. My take on the 2 songs is that ultimately it’s all about the music and no matter what kind of music you like, you can find it in her Candy [Music] Shop. :)
Music The electro-sleaze heights after the jazzy start of ‘Hey Mr DJ , Put a record… “ had the crowd going mad.
 
Candy Shop Gorgeous choreo. Luv the performance.
 
Material Girl Reminiscent to the Material Girl video choreo. The crowd seems to eat it up.
 
La Vie En Rose Beautifully sung. And her singing in French sounds cute!
 
Unapologetic Bitch For me, this sounded so good LIVE. The lucky unapologetic bitch is David who told M: "Bitch, I'm in UR GANG!" And yes, never forget: she’s an unapologetic bitch with no regrets. 
 
Encore: Holiday Whoever say that Holiday here is a poor finale is out of their mind. The pulsating beat had everyone on their feet dancing and looking happy. This definitely ended the show on a HIGH note!!!
 
All in all, I have to say that I absolutely LOVED this show. The show is a joyous and colorful celebration of her legacy as a performance artist. Her vocals, dancing and theatrics are on point. She’s on FIRE! Also she dances a lot on this show and certainly a lot more than what some are reporting. And she looks INCREDIBLE. She sounds AMAZING. She is so incredibly warm and radiant. She is enjoying herself, having a lot of fun and having a BLAST with this show. And it’s INFECTIOUS. And oh before I forget, the dancers deserve an insane amount of credit, because the choreography is pretty insane.
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I'm so glad you had a great time! Wow! What a great review! This sounds amazing!! I can't wait to see her!!! :heart::worship::hyper:

Too many highlights!!! 
And I forgot to mention a few other things. 
Her voice was a little shaky when she started singing Devil Pray but then she was laying on her back on the last supper table. Once she got up, she sounded awesome.
She was also pretty chatty. No long speeches. She was feeling nostalgic. She first performed in MSG 30 years ago. She talked about being lonely at the top. But thirty years later, she's still standing. She's the luckiest girl in the world. And she thanked her fans for their 3 decades of support and she doesn't take their support & love for granted. 
Can't wait for the Brooklyn show tonight!
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