Kylie Minogue Show Is More Fun Than Madonna Show

Air Canada Centre

Toronto, ON

on Oct 9 2009

Erik Missio (CHARTattack)

10/13/2009 3:53pm

Invariably, any North American review of Ms. Kylie Ann Minogue's work — album, concert, video, haute couture — has to include some sort of definitive speculation on why the Australian pop princess has yet to become a cultural force on U.S. or Canadian shores. She's super-huge in the places pop matters (i.e. across the Atlantic), but semi-anonymous amongst most radio-listeners here. So what gives?

Here's this reviewer's theory: we're all stupid. It's the only real possibility.

Look — any continent failing to fully embrace an ageless woman who descends from the heavens astride a giant, silver skull looking like a cross between a sci-fi flight attendant and an Alberto Vargas showgirl does not deserve its pop music to be good, anyway, dammit.

Some people have charged Ms. Minogue is depth-less, that she's more style than substance and is little more than Lady Gaga with tenure. Of course, these same people are also no fun at parties. It should be noted Kylie's one night stand with the good people of Toronto was most certainly a party.

As the music for concert opener, "Light Years" played, and lasers criss-crossed the descending Skull Of Awesomeness, our hostess introduced herself. "Fasten your seatbelts," she said with a beaming smile, making air stewardess motions. "My name is Kylie. The exits are located to the back."

No one needed them.

The crowd, mostly male and pretty gay, had no intention of leaving the premises — they were too busy waving, jumping, dancing, clapping and shaking. After all, despite a career of more than 20 years and 10 albums, this was Minogue's first and only Canadian appearance. And she was going all out.

This meant dancers, a live band, and a greatest hits setlist that included tracks new ("Better Than Today"), relatively recent ("Come Into My World," the wickedly building "Slow" and "2 Hearts") and more vintage — "The Loco-Motion" was reborn as a burlesque jazz piece, far surpassing the original pedestrian cover job.

"Can't Get You Out of My Head" came across largely intact, remaining more state-of-consciousness than mere club track. She also did her half to the Robbie Williams duet "Kids," inexplicably segueing into the doo-de-doos of Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side." Speaking of covers, there was also a full verse of Madonna's "Vogue" — whether this was submission or subversion to her stateside counterpart was not immediately clear.

Copious costume changes allowed us to see a wide range of uniforms, many of which were designed by Jean Paul Gaultier. From celestial haloes to Guillermo Del Toro-esque feathered head-dresses. From shockingly pink fur coats to post-apocalyptic cheerleading costumes. From wigs sprouting out of shoulder blades to American flag patchwork. And, obviously, dancers looking like a Daft Punk re-envisioning of G.I. Joe ninja master, Snake Eyes.

The dancers, male and female (the former tended to get louder howls of desire from the crowd), were omnipresent until the encore. They did follow-the-leader routines for "Speaker Phone," donned baseball catcher-inspired S&M gear, and showed off calisthenics halfway between the kama sutra and Cirque De Soleil. But mostly, they covered up Minogue's non-dancing and kept her the star of the show. In fact, she literally walked all over them several times. In heels.

It wasn't all full-on throttle. Things may have lagged a bit too much during a short set come-down with some not-quite-fully-burning torch songs, although "I Believe In You" fared better than "White Diamond."

All in all, the Kylie Show wasn't much for subtlety, whether it was the kick-off fanfare of the 20th Century Fox theme, the exploding red-confetti cannons, the art deco lioness statues, the shower scenes of hard-bodied male dancers flinging Aussie-flagged briefs to the adoring masses, or the arty B&W videos of Kylie dressed up, oddly, as a human doily.

While it may not have been quite as epic as a Madonna gig, Minogue's campy sense of humour and honest happiness at her reception elevated it into something far more relaxed, far more friendly.

"I can tell this is going to be a loud one," she remarked, after an early ovation.

These sorts of large-scale dance-pop productions rarely stray from the schedule — there are simply too many lasers and dancers and video screens and lights to co-ordinate. That's why it was particularly refreshing when, as requested by the crowd, Kylie went off-script, pulling out the gloriously Pet Shop Boys-derived "Your Disco Needs You," complete with spoken word aside en français, before heading home with the encore-closing "Love At First Sight."

Better singer than Madonna? Probably not. Better dancer? Nah. Better production values? Doubtful. But more fun? Good God, yes.