By: Adam Harrison (@AdamRHarrison) –
Pink. (Photo: Adam Harrison/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto)
Toronto’s Air Canada Centre glowed in pink last night as pop rocker Pink brought back her “Truth About Love” tour for the second of three concerts, scratch that, productions this year to the arena.
Opening the evening were the charismatic, Swedish garage punk band, The Hives. A band deserving of a crowd, were able to rally up about two-thirds of the 15,000 capacity audience early enough to see their always enthusiastic performance. Their 40-minute set consisted of a handful of hits along with new songs from their 2012 album Lex Hives. They started the set with “Come On!” which seems to be a new tradition of theirs. A song so extremely simple but catchy, the lyrics only consist of the phrase “come on” repeated several times over. They went on to play Hive classics such as “Main Offender”, “Walk Idiot Walk”, and “Hate to Say I Told You So”. They rounded out the set with “Tick Tick Boom”, where singer and captivating front man, Howlin’ Pete Almqvist had everyone in the pit sit down during the bridge to the song, then jump into a frenzy on the build up, the same way they would at one of their club shows.
The Hives are much more used to and suited for small venues. Their sound certainly filled the arena, but they are a band that likes to be close to their audience. At one point Almqvist paid a visit to the fans in their seats, and wild guitarist Nicholaus Arson even jumped off the stage into an empty spot on the floor. But the antics that a club full of Hives fans routinely embrace was lost on the stadium full of teenage girls and soccer moms waiting to see Pink.
During the intermission, a strange and humorous, Michael-Keaton-in-Beetlejuice-looking host, roamed the audience in a red and white sequined outfit looking for baldheads to lick and middle-aged women to spank him. He later introduced the show and teased the crowd with an invite to come on stage. The lucky person picked to join him turned out to be Pink herself, settled in one of the seats.
A few moments later she ascended from under the stage to 30-feet above the stage, performing wild acrobatics while singing “Raise Your Glass” to open the show. The term “show” this time is not used loosely to describe the concert, this really was a full on production, with a dozen musicians, dancers and acrobats on stage at a time, a drum set that Neil Peart would be proud of, enough lights to illuminate a skyscraper and so many costume changes that would be fit for a Cher concert. Pink, who is also a trained dancer and acrobat, rose above the stage several times during the evening. One time just clinging to a big spherical cage along with five or six others, with no ropes attached, which raised the question of how no one been seriously injured on this tour.
Pink also played a variety of her greatest hits along with new songs from her 2012 album The Truth About Love. Song highlights during the 100-minute set were “Just Like a Pill”, “Sober”, “Just Give Me a Reason” (with Nate Ruess of Fun. singing his part on screen), and “F*cking Perfect”, now just called “Perfect” as Pink no longer drops the F-bomb out of respect for her two-year old daughter, Willow. But she still felt free to wave the middle finger around during the end of the tune. These songs created the biggest sing a long affects around the stadium and gave guitarist, Justin Derrico, the chance to rip a mean solo during “Perfect”.
Pink, who seems to be one of the most level-headed pop stars to come out of the early 2000’s, clearly has a very passionate fan base. Obvious by the amount of shows she has been able to sell out. But these fanatics love her so much they came bearing gifts. Dozens of fans near to the stage reached out and handed her bouquets of flowers, stuffed animals and even Rice Krispy snacks.
The set closed with the first single from The Truth About Love, “Blow Me (One Last Kiss),” and used every last performer, light and pyrotechnic they had left. However Pink wasn’t quite finished wowing everyone yet, after a brief speech about love from our increasingly creep (but still funny) host, she returned to the stage, with a big metal ring around her waist, which was used to attach her to four wires which pulled and spun her around the entire stadium while performing her final number “So What”.
A Pink show is definitely something worth experiencing. But unlike seeing Pearl Jam or Bon Jovi play completely different shows across multiple nights in Toronto, you’ll see the same show whether you went in March, last night or tomorrow night because Pink’s show involves so much production. Sometimes large presentations can become a bit distracting, often a tactic used to hide diminishing talent, something Pink is definitely not guilty of. At times it was hard to tell whether you were watching a concert or Cirque-du-Soleil. But most importantly, at the core of Pink’s show is her magical vocals which always reminded you exactly what you came to see.
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Pink
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The Hives
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