Today officially marks the first day of fall, and what better way to celebrate than with a concert? If you want to know what the critics are saying about acts on the road check out these reviews of performances by Janet Jackson in Tulsa, Okla.; Katy Perry in Montreal; The Killers in Brooklyn, N.Y.; The War on Drugs in Portland, Maine.; and Marc Anthony in Fresno, Calif.
Janet Jackson @ BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., Sept. 17 – “Jackson was joined by eight dancers on stage and she was a participant in dazzling choreographed numbers. But dancing wasn’t limited to the stage. Thousands of attendees stood for almost all of the concert and many got the urge to spontaneously dance in front of their seats.” – Jimmie Tramel / Tulsa World
Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP – Janet Jackson
Accepting the Ultimate Icon: Music Dance Visual Award at the BET Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
Katy Perry @ Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Sept. 19 – “Perhaps the extra production time could have been used to adjust some visuals whose juxtapositions and statements were as confused as they were colourful. When Perry rode a stationary motorcycle in a Tron getup for the glib empowerment anthem ‘Hey Hey Hey’ just before delivering the much more affecting empowerment anthem ‘Part of Me’ in front of a screen packed with Pac-Man motifs, it was difficult to tell if there was something substantial to the gaming graphics.” – Jordan Zivitz / Montreal Gazette
The Killers @ Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, N.Y., Sept. 19 – “Despite the relatively small size of this 1,800-capacity venue, the Killers brought their full festival presence to the stage from the first note. …” – Jem Aswad / Variety
Torey Mundkowsky – The Killers
Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach, Calif.
The War on Drugs @ State Theatre in Portland, Maine, Sept. 18 – “With the sustained keyboard riffs melding together into a grandiose hum, it often felt like the band was generating a canvas that [guitarist Adam] Granduciel could throw swaths of paint against like Jackson Pollock. Against a spare stage setting – more bands should take advantage of the State Theatre’s brick backdrop – he sang lyrics that looked back not in anger or sadness, but with perspective and a degree of resignation. It was altogether fitting for a concert that seemed deliriously tethered not to the present but some hazy, half-forgotten moment.” – Robert Ker /Portland Press Herald
Marc Anthony @ Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif., Sept. 15 – “The guy sitting behind me – who, granted, by 10:30 p.m. was more Modelo than man – yelled ‘enough of this slow (expetive)!’ at one point. Despite perhaps a lack of eloquence, he spoke for a lot of us. … I was right there with Anthony for the first two songs, that wonder ballad and the encore. But he simply lost the audience in between.” – Rory Appleton/ The Fresno Bee