The Rockwitchu After Show...

Ok let me first offer this disclaimer: I am not a professional photographer or videographer so sorry about the shaky hands and blurryish pictures, I did my best while trying to recreate the "If" music video dance moves and you're only allowed to bring in pocket sized cameras so it's not a great format.

Now that we have that out of the way I can move onto describing our spectacular night with Miss Jackson. As you all know Lisa and I have been anxiously awaiting last night's show, even getting together a couple nights a week to perfect our synchronized stomps and shoulder pops to Rhythm Nation. Our faithful readers will remember the devastation we felt several weeks ago when we heard the show was cancelled but fortunately she rescheduled; unfortunately the show was rescheduled on a Tuesday instead of a Saturday so our plans for a big night out full of Cristal and caviar were forced to go down a notch.

So finally last night arrived and we were a little leery after hearing that LL Cool J dropped out of the concert at the last minute due to scheduling conflicts...you know, totally understandable since LL is super busy selling all those work-out videos, I double book concerts and exercise classes all the time and obviously Total Conditioning always wins over playing a concert scheduled 9 months ago! Anyway, forget LL, he hasn't even been relevant since the 90's.


We pulled up to the Palace 45 minutes after the opener was scheduled to start and were shocked to see the parking lot only half full, but no big deal we were there for Janet, not the other people! At 8:50pm the lights went down and out popped Janet in a bright yellow and metallic futuristic jumpsuit and a Mohawk about a foot high! Super Awesome!! She opened with Pleasure Principle and went right into a medley of Control and What Have You Done for Me Lately?

Janet has always been a great dancer but one thing was immediately clear...she had a lot more bounce in her booty! No longer does Janet run around the stage in midriff baring tops and booty shorts, she was completely covered up the entire time and for good reason, she's 41 and kind of chunky! Now she's still totally gorgeous and performs all the same great moves but she's definitely a different picture then any of her albums or public appearances portray and it really limited her wardrobe, (although she did manage about 7 costume changes!) most outfits were loose and billowy or designed to disguise her figure. Her WORST outfit by far was this "Sailor on Crack" number with a red corset, striped tank top and mini captain's hat sticking out of her mohawk...totally bizarre especially since it didn't relate to any of the songs during that set. She played 38 songs, mostly shortened versions or medleys and they were ALL hits which just goes

to show you what a powerhouse she's been over the last 30 years!! She's still got the singing chops and sounded great when she was actually singing, which we estimated to be between 50-60% of the time but seriously...have you ever seen the Miss You Much video? You try all those Pharaoh Pharaoh moves while singing, it's tough! My favorites were Escapade, Miss you Much, and obviously Rhythm Nation. My biggest critique of the whole concert is that she had to go and add a weird Jackson-ism to the show where she should probably just have trusted her producers. The place was rockin when she ended the regular show with Rhythm Nation and then she had this awkward skit where two of her dancers were trying to rip her in two directions and she was screaming for help and yelling, "no, no, leave me alone!" Then she disappeared through a hole in the floor and reappeared for her encore after a loooonnng pause and played two slower songs. She should have just gone out on Rhythm Nation!! Overall it was a great night and a great show, we shook our money makers all night long and there's no doubt that Janet is still a fantastic performer that anyone would enjoy seeing!