I Just Want to Set You on Fire So I Won't Have to Burn Alone

This past weekend I daringly hitch-hiked my way out of San Francisco down to the rough area home to Google and other providers of illicit substances known as Mountainview in …Silicon Valley. Ok, well in reality I took a pretty nice train and a couple of taxis (although the Commuter Rail in Boston at least has wifi, or it did). What was the reason for my escape from the city? A cyber attack? A drought? Fog so dense one might drown in it? Nope. A Good Girl Gone Bad.

I’ve been a fan of Rihanna since high school, and her music has evolved over the years-as have I (but I’d like to think I’ve evolved more, as much as her music may have matured). Her first album I found awful, but her second time around was a whole round of fun, and by her third album I was actually hoping she would leave me alone (I found myself in the gym once with the radio alternating something like Disturbia-other artist-SOS-other artist-Take a Bow-other artist-Please Don’t Stop the Music-other artist…and so on).

Fast forward a year later, and everyone knows that Chris Brown abused her. Her style has changed drastically in both sound and appearance. Both have matured, and gone is the trite pop that once made her bouncy fun-it’s as though she actually has something to say.

Her concert was a dark, violent affair, opening with a montage of 1984-esque “This is a dream. When Rihanna dreams it becomes reality” that would later be followed up with messages flashing across the scream with her face plastered across dollar bills, calling the audience “consumers” and Rihanna our “sole option for consumption.” Her setlist segued between songs of similar themes, from “Rehab” to “Stupid in Love” and “Shut Up and Drive” to “Firebomb.” She included quick samples of some recent songs such as her collaboration with Eminem, and suitably sang a bit of “Airplanes,” giving a nod to the similarity of their sound. And then she did a quick cover of that song from the 80s, something like “She doesn’t need a man’s touch, it ain’t much, it ain’t much.” She did exclude a few of the more meaningful songs on her most recent album, Rated R, such as “Cold Case Love” and “The Last Song,” however. Her audience interaction was minimal-in this day and age of YouTube, facebook, and Twitter, I would expect artists by now to at least have a pre-recorded track for when they disappear off stage that might pretend to be them communicating with the audience while changing (“Guys I’m putting on a new outfit right now just give me one second”) or possibly to describe some of the reasoning behind the set design. Oh well, maybe next time around. I didn’t realize that this was actually Rihanna’s first time headlining a tour on her own.

On that note, too bad she didn’t have a better opening act. Not that Ke$ha’s music is too different in category from Rihanna’s, and I supposed her producers realized she would need a more upbeat opening to prevent the audience from becoming too depressed by all her damaged-heart songs. But Ke$ha is just trashy (but she definitely wasn’t lip-synching and sounded not too bad, but it was probably good auto-tuning) with very few redeeming qualities, not the least of which is just her fun voice (when speaking).

Overall, the concert was very well done. The crowd was clearly into the music, and the show had plenty of energy along with the quieter moments. I probably would have enjoyed the concert regardless of how it went, but it actually was good. On the way down, I met a nice group of people going to the concert from San Francisco as well, and promised them I’d mention them in my blog. We would’ve sat together, but they had lawn seats. Oh well.