Sorry its a little late, Here's my fan review of Madonna's Madame X tour.,
Sorry its a little late, but here's my fan review! Sept 21st in Brooklyn. FROZEN. FUCKIN FROZEN. DEAD. BURY ME. (more on that later) What an insane 48 hours. Friday night we were home having dinner, I randomly checked my email to find that I won the Icon selfie X contest!, So in a hurried insane rush, we made arrangements & packed our bags! Saturday afternoon we drove up to New York, (5 hours) had time to change clothes, and then uber'd to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where we made our way to the "Madonna's Friends & Family' guest check in. Apparently, I'm Madonna's friend now! HAHA, They handed us our tickets & I nearly fell over, I thought for sure we'd be in the nosebleed seats up in the rafters, but no. I won 2 orchestra seats in row K, kinda centered, but a little bit off to the side. It’s considered limited view by the venue, but my view was not at all limited and I had a great view of the stage. However had we been 2 rows closer, or 2 seats to the right, we would not have seen anything, we would have been under the lowest balcony box which blocks everything, we were very lucky. Every time she came to the edge of the stage we could actually smell her. She smells like the most amazing roses you've ever smelled. i'm guessing it was MDNASkin rose mist spray, but IDK
Overall the show was really fun, I just kept thinking how very weird it was. I've seen every Madonna show (except the Girlie Show) since the Blond Ambition tour. I really didnt know what to expect, I thought maybe a big Madonna production, just in a smaller space. but no. It was definitely NOT anything like shes ever done, it was small. very small. everything was scaled down for the theater, the songs, the sets, the production, all small. Which felt weird to me, a Madonna show is always a huge spectacle, with shogun warriors, flying ninjas, 50 person drum lines being lowered from the ceiling as they playing, Madonna being raised up on a massive alter under a 100 foot crucifix, troupes of dancers doing huge choreographed numbers, massive stages with countless moving parts, you get the picture. This show is wonderful, but just weird. The stage was basically a few moving staircases, and some other props that were repurposed for each segment of the show. It worked, and was visually stunning. just super small. Think of it as Madame X The Musical. Not a Madonna concert. Which also made for some grey area with fans, Is this a Madonna concert, or is this a theater show? do you sit or do you stand? She's tried to mash her usual concert with performance art and theater and it's confusing. The show needs to decide if it’s a concert, or if it’s a theater show, it’s kind of stuck in between, half the crowd was annoyed at the people sitting and the other half was annoyed at the people standing. Our audience looked like a whack a mole game. Not to mention, it wasn't a flat floor like at a regular concert, the floor is sloped at a deep angle facing down the stage, so standing for 5+ hours on an incline killed our feet! if you're going to the show, seriously, wear comfy shoes!
Naturally Madonna went on over 2 hours late, which if you've been to see her, you know this is normal. "Greatness requires lateness" she says, " Sorry I was late, it wont happen again, *wink Wink* The nice part about this & being a phone free zone, we had a chance to have a few cocktails (albeit insanely small & overpriced) and mingle with the crowd. we ran into some friends we haven seen for years, so the late start gave us a chance to catch up, People I hadn't seen since the confessions tour in Los Angeles, Some friends I made during rebel heart tour, and a few members of my extended 'Madonna faMily' So great seeing all of them! Seeing the faM is one of the best parts of a M show!
Also saw some familiar faces that made no effort to say hello or engage with us, which I thought was strange but that always seems to happen among fans at any M event. Regardless of how many times you've met or how much time you've spent together during past tours. Unfortunately there are a handful of crazy fans who don’t go to the shows to see Madonna, they go to the shows so Madonna can see THEM. They're loud, they're rude, the heckling doesn't get them anywhere but made to look stupid and it annoys the rest of the audience. There were also fans who shoved their way to the front into seats they had no business being in. At a normal concert venue, its kind of expected, but this is a theater with assigned seats & no wiggle room. You are crowding the people that paid good money for their spot up front. If I had bought tickets, I'd been pissed , Its insanely easy to get floor passes to this show, we were given blank tickets just by asking. BLANK TICKETS lol, we literally just asked the usher & without even batting an eye he just gave them to us, so we had our paper tickets for our actual seats, and blank ones that we could have wrote in any seat we wanted, regardless if someone else was already in that seat. We could have used it to pass the guards & squish our way into the front. So very very easy. PSA : Don't be one of those fans. Its not cool, you're an ahole.
so now the show, when I first saw the setlist online, honestly I was disappointed. but when I actually saw the show, I understood what she was going for. On paper, the setlist looked really underwhelming but after seeing it & experiencing it live, it really elevates the Madame X album. One of the best parts about the show was her singing voice, leaps & bounds better than shes ever sounded. sometimes, live, she goes off key, sometimes she even screeches & caterwauls, (Humane Nature, S&S tour...) but this was not that. every single note she sang was on point & amazing. she blew the roof off that theater, shes never sounded so good, like ever. I was amazed at her singing. I'm really looking forward to a live album release of the show after its over. She was also hilarious. She's always had a sharp sense of humor, but she went balls out and was legit FUNNY! She had me cracking TF up every time she spoke. "What do you call a man with a small penis?... You fucking don't! I would never call a man with a small penis!" Then she told us without our phones, she can see our faces and look into our eyes, and our eyes after all, are the window to the soul. But, she said, theres also another important window, then she opened her legs & Mozart started playing from her pussy, because shes "a classy bitch" She was firing off hysterical one liners throughout the entire show, She came down into the audience and I cant remember the guys name but she sat on his lap & after asking if his beer had any backwash in it or if he had herpes, she stole it & started swigging it. She asked him his name, I dont remember what it was, but it was very uncommon like Ezekiel or something, and Madonna asked his name and after he said it, she sighed loudly and goes "Ezekiel, god, you're like the 10th Ezekiel I've met this month!" LOL and then she addressed my friend Marci, M asked what she did for a living, Marci gave her a long winded answer, and Madonna said, "I dont know what that is, Get a job Marci" HAHAHAHAHAHA She was throwin out brilliant wise cracks all night, I wish I could remember them all.
The show started out with a James Balwin quote typed out on a huge screen, "Art is here to prove that all safety is an illusion…Artists are here to disturb the peace.” which I am considering adding to my madonna tattoo, Then kicked off with what I thought was the biggest production of the night, God Control. the set, the dancers, the the visuals were all amazing, Vogue had simple staging, but got everyone up and dancing, she had male & female dancers all in the same simple 'secret agent' costume she was wearing, side note, it may also be our Halloween costume this year... I Dont Search, was when things started getting weird for me, LOVED the performance, but it was such a minimal production that it was just weird for me to see her like that. She just disappears into a little box that spun around and then she popped out the back like a jack in the box. 'HA! you found me!' It seemed amateurish or maybe low budget, not sure how to describe it. Papa Don't Preach was way too short, she should have sang the full song, When she changed the lyric to "I'm NOT gonna keep my baby" everyone screamed & applauded, it was followed by an impassioned speech about women rights, the 9 states where RvW is being overturned, and the importance of voting. Then she screamed 'fuck the Patriarchy' to end the song, it was great. Human Nature had her daughters promoting #TimesUp & #MeToo, great way to revamp the songs meaning.
Batuka was cool, its one of my least favorite album tracks, but live was really powerful, i was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Then the show changed for the next segment, new set dressings & costumes for the Portuguese themed section, my favorite set design by far, I even mentioned to my boyfriend that I wanted a courtyard like that in our next house, it was stunning, blue & white tiled walls, wrought iron railings with beautiful stone alcoves hidden underneath, she very much created what you'd think a cozy little corner of Lisbon would look like. I'm not a fan of the Fado style of music, the Portuguese song kind lost my interest, I see why she loves it & I love the influence on the album, but it was kinda boring live. Killers is another album track that is one of my least favorites, but the live version was insane, she nailed every note, and the music was so much more meaningful, I absolutely loved it. Then came Crazy, which has been stuck in my head ever since the show, if she puts out a radio single from the album, it should be Crazy, *Sidenote * After the lyric, I bend my knees for you Like A Prayer, she pauses for audience applause, just know its coming & oblige her with thunderous ovation lol, Also my boyfriend made a great point, she should have changed the lyric to “ I bend my knees for you, like a prayer. My god you can take me there” better, right??? Anyway then we had more 'Welcome to My Fado Club' which kinda lost my interest again, until La Isla Bonita popped up, and should have been sang in full, not just the little snip she threw in. Then she did a random Portuguese song called Sodade. She sang the shit out of it, really really beautifully done, however it was a lull in the show, I could have done without it, actually this entire section kinda had issues with it's pacing and length. It was boring & needs a little tweaking. I would have cut it back significantly. For a 'Madonna concert' it didn't really work, but as a sit down theater show, it would have worked better, what I said at the beginning, if you go to the show, go expecting Madame X : The Musical. Not a Madonna concert. Luckily she amped things way way up with Medellin, it was a surprise highlight for me, I've always liked the song, but never loved it until seeing this, the performance was so much fun, she had a conga line of cha cha dancers all over the stage & thru the crowd, and even just a video projection, seeing Maluma really made this a showstopper. #SlowDownPapi! LOVED IT. It brought the sleepy crowd back to its feet. Then we got Extreme Occident, which on the album I always thought it was kind of a turd, but live, it was just spectacular. the set list that I thought would be a total snooze, really delivered. Trust our mother queen! until the next interlude... LOL dangling the spoken word parts of Rescue Me in from of us like a carrot we know we'll never get was just cruel & unusual punishment. It kinda made me mad & I wasn't able to focus on the OA style performance that was going on. Do Rescue Me properly, or don't do it at all. Maybe at some point during the tour, Rescue Me will be given a full performance, time will tell....
I quickly got over my Rescue Me funk when FROZEN started. Hands down one of the best performances of any song of Madonna's entire career. For long time fans who have been on this ride since the beginning of her career it was a full circle moment. A video of Lourdes plays though a semi translucent screen where Madonna dances and sings with the video projection. It has to be seen in person, no description could ever do it justice. It's absolutely brilliantly phenomenal. I got chills, and it brought me to tears. I honestly cannot say it enough or describe how moving & powerful it was. Not only through the obvious meaning of the songs lyrics & Lola's powerful performance, but it also brought back memories of when Madonna announced to the world she was pregnant, when MTV had a news ticker on the bottom of the screen for days following every minute, celeb videos of well wishes and an outpouring of love & support for her, which in the 90's we didn't see much of. The entire journey of her birth, and seeing her grow up with Madonna as a mom was brilliantly expressed in this mother/daughter performance, it was perfection.
Then we got Come Alive which I hate the song on the album and hated it live, lol sorry. NEXT...Future & Crave, 2 of my favorites on the album, We got to see Madonna play the piano, which I've never seen before, had no idea she could even play the piano, so that was an awesome surprise, and then Crave was remixed into a disco track, it was so so fun, the costumes & choreography seemed thrown together and were kinda lame, feather boas & party city disco costumes, ugh. but the remix made up for it, could not stop smiling & dancing, the show peaked with Like A Prayer backed by the entire choir perched up high on a giant X made out of the stairs all stacked up on top of each other, it was gold, that song never gets old, I didnt get to see her sing it during the Rebel heart tour, so I was super excited about this, and she delivered. big time, she sang her face off, I was in awe, and I LOVED her robe, definitely my favorite costume in the show, really the show could have ended right there, but she treated us to an encore of 'I rise' which I wouldn't think a slow song would be a good show closer, but live it was so powerful, the emma gonzales speech was just as moving as the 1st time we heard it, the gun violence message and the LGBTQ/equality message really hit hard, everyone was pretty emotional, you could feel it in the air throughout the theater. She changed the final chorus with some new uplifting 'I Will Rise' verses and then marched with the dancers through the crowd under an enormous rainbow flag as she made her way to the back of the theater & disappeared.
Overall the show was amazing, I love how different the Madame X songs are now that I've seen them presented like this. Seeing the show once isn't enough though, I can't wait to see it again next spring in Paris. To be able to see a bonified living legend this up close in a tiny theater is such a thrill. And as an added bonus as we were leaving, we passed the venues artist entrance and got a great spot for a quick photo op just a few feet away from her. She looked AMAZING and even blew us a kiss. Perfect way to end our unexpected New York adventure !
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Hung up is one of those hits that after the great CT rendition got the worst treatments. She should have given it another try.
Maybe a ukulele version on RHT or TOAC?
Sorry, I am trying to kill time...
If you are in the VIP area, try to find people with Medellin tickets to find out hiw the backstage tour works!! Would really love to know if it's just a rushed photo on stage or a proper tour.
I'd also like to know if anyone won tbe Icon contest and when/how they were notified.
As for the concert, M should be anxious, not you! It's a theatre, not a stadium, so there is much less to be stressed about, and you will enjoy it more than you expect!! You are our INFINITY representative!!!
MXM reacted to wonderboy in Madame X Tour | New York City
