Concert review – The Femme Fatale Tour featuring Britney Spears & Nicki Minaj

Posted at July 11, 2011 by Julie J 1 Comment

On June 29th, I rolled down to Tacoma with my homegirl Ashley who scooped up a couple of tickets to see Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj on the Femme Fatale show courtesy of GroupOn. To be honest, I would have probably been too lazy to otherwise go down to Tacoma.

Despite the fact that I never really grew up listening to Britney, and hated Pink Friday, I was excited to see both Britney and Nicki. I was excited to see Nicki mostly just so I could see what her live show is like, and I tend to like all the features she throws down. I will also note that I was excited to see Britney, because, well, it’s Britney, bitch.

Since I was taking forever to eat my salad, we showed up late to Nicki’s set; I could hear “My Chick Bad” as people ineffectively tried to surge into the Tacoma Dome. God forbid anything or anyone being neat, orderly, or efficient. I guess, ultimiately, it was my bad because I always pull this shit and show up late (see Trey Songz). Everyone was scrambling around, and I regretted wearing heels. As usual.

As someone who was skeptical of Nicki’s stage show, I was completely blown out of the water by her performance. She sounded great and didn’t lip sync, she was adorable with all her backup dancers, particularly for their rendition of “Bed Rock,” she looked completely comfortable up there skipping around, and above all, just put on a great set. She was compelling, and I was entertained for the whole time I was watching her. My first thought was that if Lil Kim could see Nicki performing, she would be weeping. That’s how unexpectedly great I found Nicki’s performance to be.

Nicki’s set was a good mix of tracks from Pink Friday, which I have to admit were far more bearable live, and then her features like “Monster,” “My Chick Bad,” “Where Them Girls At,” and “It’s Raining Men.” I didn’t even hate it that she closed with “Super Bass,” my least favorite track from Pink Friday, because she was just so cute on stage.

And then there was Britney. Homegirl…what can I say about her. That’s rhetorical, of course. Her show was literally like a movie, with scenes from a high budget Femme Fatale movie playing (I didn’t know Britney was in the KGB!) in between the songs.

And her dancing…it’s a good thing that her show was like a movie, because her dancing was worse than mine. In case you didn’t know, I’m a white girl, and we all know how 99.9% of white people (can’t) dance. With that in mind, one day I randomly decided to go to this hiphop class at the 24 Hour Fitness I frequent. I don’t know if it’s because I’m white, so I can’t dance, am uncoordinated, or can’t learn choreography on the fly, or a combination of all those. Likely, it’s a combination. I felt that the way I was moving in that class must have looked identical to how Britney was shaking it around on stage.

Nonetheless, I had a great time watching her lip sync and dance like an overcooked piece of asparagus. The elaborate stage sets, smoke effects to open the show with “Hold Is Against Me,” sweet lazer effects, fireworks, and gaudy glitz were not only visually appealing, but made it seem alright that homegirl is past her prime. Also, I gotta mention all those hot pieces she had dancing backup for her.

It was still a fun show, and neat to hear the T Dome singing along to every word in her older songs like “Baby One More Time” and “I’m A Slave 4 U” (my personal favorite). The only other time I’ve truly experienced that is for the Blueprint 3 Tour. Nicki might be at the top of her game, and Britney might be hovering down below, but it’s kind of what everyone expected, just like everyone I’ve talked to expected, and did, have a memorable time.