Pink takes flight in rockin’ Garden show
Pink opened Monday night’s TD Garden show 40 feet in the air. She sang “Get the Party Started” in a sparkling silver bodysuit and swung from a glittery, glowing jungle gym. As a metaphor, the aerial stunt worked: Pink towers over her peers.
The Philly singer seems to exist outside the world of pop. While she’s scored plenty of
Top 40 hits — an astounding 23
— her punk sass and fearlessness continually set her apart. She’s turned down judge’s chairs on TV talent shows and refused to engage in public feuds. Maybe that’s why she’s outlasted the crowd she came up with (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Backstreet Boys) and the next generation (Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Adam Lambert).
Or maybe she just loves it more. In concert, her commitment to craft can’t be equaled. She spent nearly half the show airborne. She performed acrobatic Cirque du Soleil acts 20 feet up with no harness. She flew out above the crowd on a four-poster bed. She encored by getting strapped in and yoyoed hundreds of feet around the arena. She did most of it while singing — you could hear her voice drop out as she spun upside down doing things Britney and JT would quiver over.
Or maybe her songs have an authenticity others fake. Beyond the aerials, Pink pulled hits and deep cuts from her catalog that aimed at joy and catharsis, which she doesn’t consider mutually exclusive. After the party started, she crashed into “Beautiful Trauma,” a frank exploration of bad relationships and good sex. She reworked the same theme of defiance-born-of-heartbreak on “Just Like a Pill” and “Revenge,” which had her airborne again and punching a 30-foot inflatable of Eminem, who duets with her on the recorded version.
Or maybe success comes because she’s not a pop star at all but a rock star. I don’t mean that in the general way, like, “She’s so awesome, she’s a rock star!” No, live she channels Joan Jett and Billy Idol over any of the former Mouseketeers.
Dressed in animal masks, her eight dancers threw her a dark, dreamy bacchanalia for the goth-rock of “Try.” Her six-piece band helped her find a sound between Soundgarden and Pat Benatar on “I’m Not Dead.” “Just like Fire” featured the pyro of a KISS show and a hook heavier than “I Was Made for Lovin’ You.” To top it off, she delivered an unironic, thundering cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Critics have often labeled Pink a freak for being overly masculine, too tough or rejecting the baby doll mold. But the best pop has always celebrated artists true to their freakishness, from David Bowie to Cyndi Lauper to Lady Gaga. Pink can see that from her vantage point way above her peers.