She's not a girl, not yet a woman. But as she proved Wednesday night
at The Palace of Auburn Hills, Britney Spears could easily pass herself
off as a soft porn star.
In a racy, risque performance that pushed the very levels of decency
that tour- sponsor Clear Channel is waging war on, Spears, as she coyly
sang during the show, found herself "flirting with the verge of
obscene.”
Clad in a set of matching pink undergarments, Spears engaged in a
number of simulated sex acts with a similarly scantily clad male dancer
during "Breathe on Me,” and writhed in a clear bathtub wearing only a
sheer, diamond- covered bodysuit during her breathy ode to self-love,
"Touch of My Hand.”
It was enough to make Madonna's "Blonde Ambition” set pieces -- which
got her famously in trouble with the Canadian government -- look
downright tame in comparison. So goes the supposed envelope-pushing (and
sure-fire lip- syncing) that makes up Spears' "Onyx Hotel” tour, which
marked her first visit to Metro Detroit since June 2002. The show's
"Onyx Hotel” theme -- it's a place where "your body is privy to many a
titillation,” explained the show's emcee, a flamboyant cross between Boy
George and Danny DeVito's Penguin character from "Batman Returns” -- was
as ill- thought out as Spears' graduation to psuedo-smut queen.
Outside of a few on-stage luggage racks on which Spears danced, there
wasn't much of anything that resembled a hotel, onyx or otherwise,
during the 90-minute show, which saw Spears performing material mostly
from her latest, the all-grown-up "In the Zone.”
Spears stuck to the script all night; her between-song banter was so
scripted she didn't bother mentioning the show was rescheduled from a
late- March performance, cancelled due to a knee malfunction Spears
suffered March 18 in Moline, Ill., or that Wednesday was the last night
of the current leg of the tour.
Instead, she offered well-rehearsed speeches about her life being a
roller coaster, but that life's ups and downs are what make us who we
are. None of which did much to derail the enjoyment of the audience, a
sell-out crowd of 14,000 -- hey, sex sells -- made up mostly of small
groups of college-aged girls. For them, it was a chance to break out the
miniskirts and boogie down with Britney. Nothing wrong with that.
You can reach Adam Graham at (313) 222-2284, or at mailto:agraham@detnews.com
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