|
An
unmistakeable pair of eyes flicker from the screen onstage in huge close-up.
The audience stare back adoringly, but it's hard to tell what they're seeing
- the come-to-bed smoulder of a sex object; the teasing of the kitsch
princess; the defiance of the super trouper; the gaze of the divine diva.
Yet it's easy to guess what's in Kylie's line of vision: a grid of faces,
flashing red computer data and a heat-seeking radar target. This woman is
the pop Terminator: drop her in the liquid nitrogen of a cool critical
response and she reassembles as the sultry disco goddess. Plunge her into a
vat of media opprobrium and she springs back up as the perfect postmodern
gay icon. The only force that can destroy her is her fans' lack of interest,
and given the A-bomb hysteria mushrooming over the audience tonight, that
isn't going to happen.
It's as much her problem as her strength. Ask all those shameful,
should-know-better svengalis aiming to be her Phil Spector and ending up
like Jonathan King - Bobby Gillespie, the Manics, Nick Cave, a whole flux of
stylists, producers and musicians who salivated over the idea of a dopily
vacant cipher who'd shape-shift at their will. Actually, just ask Kylie,
appearing from behind a silk screen in tight black satin and a pair of heels
so sharp she could shave her legs with them, strutting down the staircase -
yes, of course there's a staircase - for a dreary triumvirate of T'Pau-alike
songs. It's not her improbable shoes hobbling her, but the awful muso
backing from men who seem normal but mask psychic mullets, slithering away
in a sink of rock clichi.
Include James Dean Bradfield's 'Some Kind Of Bliss' here. Just when
it's ringing so hollow it would be no surprise if Kevin Costner was the
backstage security, Kylie vanishes for a costume change. Reappearing in a
spangled circus-pony leotard she leans on a giant K at the top of the
stairs, and as a lounge piano blows smoke-rings across the stage, she opens
her mouth and sighs, "In my imagination... there is no hesitation..." This
is 'I Should Be So Lucky' in the style of Peggy Lee, and its casual control
and insouciant self-awareness would scare Stock Aitken and Waterman more
than a whole flock of Godzillas. The audience howls, two beautiful boy
dancers appear in pink tail-feathers and sequinned shorts to pump and thrust
while Kylie sings 'Dancing Queen'; the stage becomes a fondant fancy and
Shepherd's Bush mutates into San Francisco.
Sure, it's obvious, but she knows exactly what she's doing. There's
a rhinestone cowgirl routine for 'Step Back In Time' (dancers in a furry
chaps and satin thong combination never endorsed by Jack Palance), a drum
majorette twirl for the storming 'Shocked' (dancers in what might
inappropriately be described as straightjackets) and a saloon girl shimmy
for a delirious 'Better The Devil You Know', an arch eyebrow in the
direction of Natalie, Shaznay and companions (dancers in white fringed
trousers and pneumatic frenzy). There are moments of boredom -
indistinguishable balladry that's not so much torch-song drama as
fluorescent-tube flash; the stupendously ill-judged cover of 'Should I Stay
Or Should I Go' - yet Kylie loves this, she lives for it, and she damns all
those svengalis with one twist of her knife-edge heels. With foolish
sentiment, the famous are often lauded just for surviving the myth of the
tragic trouper - the streaked mascara, the dressing-room pills, the
bouquet-throwing tantrums. Yet as the glitter-clouds explode around her,
Kylie is not only surviving but flourishing. Sneer all you want. She'll be
back.
Review by
New Musical Express - 'Kylie Minogue: Shepherd's Bush Empire' |
SETLIST
TOO FAR
WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO
SOME KIND OF BLISS
PUT YOURSELF IN MY PLACE
BREATHE*
TAKE ME WITH YOU
I SHOULD BE SO LUCKY
DANCING QUEEN
DANGEROUS GAME
COWBOY STYLE
STEP BACK IN TIME
SAY HEY
FREE
DRUNK
DID IT AGAIN
LIMBO
SHOCKED
CONFIDE IN ME
THE LOCO-MOTION*
SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO
BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
*Selected dates only |
TOUR DATES
JUN 1998
2 Palais Theatre, Melbourne
3 Palais Theatre, Melbourne
4 Palais Theatre, Melbourne
6 Brisbane Entertainment Centre
8 Sydney Capitol Theatre
9 Sydney Capitol Theatre
10 Sydney Capitol Theatre
11 Sydney Capitol Theatre
15 Barton Theatre, Adelaide
17 Palais Theatre, Melbourne
18 Palais Theatre, Melbourne
20 Sydney State Theatre
21 Sydney State Theatre
22 Sydney State Theatre
29 Royal Canberra Theatre
JUL 1998
1 Sydney Capitol Theatre
3 Palais Theatre, Melbourne
4 Palais Theatre, Melbourne
29 Shepherds Bush Empire, London
30 Shepherds Bush Empire, London
31 Shepherds Bush Empire
|
