Julia Xanthos/New York Daily News
A toned, fit Pink showcased her dance prowess while keeping the lyrics tight and powerful.
Pink spends a good amount of time on her new tour high.
Literally.
The show, which came to The Garden on Friday, kicks off with the agile singer dangling upside-down from the arms of her male dancers, way above the arena floor. Later, she gyrates on an array of precariously placed ropes, and spins on a gyroscope, wildly orbiting far over the stage.
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It’s a spectacle that suggests both recklessness and precision â€" a balance that perfectly reflects Pink’s essential character.
Despite the wild, and often drunken, persona she presents in her lyrics, in concert she’s a woman in complete control. In both the pitch of her vocals, and the discipline of her dance moves, Pink proved herself a consummate performer Friday.
Given the more acrobatic elements of the show, it’s a minor miracle that Pink sang so surely and so emotively â€" without the aid of apparent lipsynching, no less.
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The force of her music pushes her physical abilities to the limit. Pink's songs straddle rock, pop and dance music in a way that’s full of brio, not to mention hooks.
The show’s opening song, “Raise Your Glass,†epitomizes the style. It’s a rousing rock anthem married to a sassy lyric. Here, Pink offers up a toast to those who “are wrong in all the right ways.â€
From there, she slammed through “Walk of Shame,†a song about slinking home after a one night stand, “Just Like A Pill,†which has her ODing on bad love, and “U + Ur Hand,†a kiss-off song laced with a likeably rude instruction to a cad.
However much sleaze and abandon these songs chronicle, there’s a self-aware humor that leavens them. They finely balance anger and vulnerability, power with need.
Pink mined the softer emotions in that equation more directly in an acoustic section during the show, with songs like “Who Knew†and “Family Portrait.†In the same vein, she offered a balletic take on Chris Issac’s “Wicked Game.†It provided a nice break from the busy theatrics of the rest. Yet it’s to Pink's considerable credit that no matter how many bright lights, fast-moving sets or fancy dancers surrounded her, she kept her talent and character front and center.
In the end, that’s what gave the audience its ultimate high.
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