Live Review: Rihanna

There are some important things the interstate reviews of Rihanna's Diamonds tour missed. Even if she did happen to be late, lip-synched and drunk in Brisbane and/or Adelaide, the audience needed to know that 1) the show featured a man wearing a singlet, playing a keytar (that shit is ALWAYS newsworthy), and 2) the show has live fireballs and lady ghetto dancers. Sure, it's also ideal if that business is backed up by a punctual, sober, actually-singing-live lead, but that flamey, keytar, ghetto lady goodness was worth the night out.

Of course, there was more to Rihanna, including a significant cleaning up of the main act (if, indeed, there had been any early tour messiness). Only 20 minutes late (a very reasonable amount of slack to allow someone you love), she bounced, pranced, sang and costume-changed. If she had 'vocal help', it was done really well. The pacing of the show in terms of new and old material was a fair mix, perhaps a bit more on the 'new stuff' side, but it is a current album rather than a 'best of' tour, after all. Starting in slow, relatively solo mode, she was soon joined by a small army with Fresh Off The Runway, Birthday Cake and Pour It Up all getting good traction. In between stage floors rising and falling to let dancers, props and musicians come and go offstage, Rihanna did a lot of 'blue steel' posing, but it was a shtick she totally owned. Following the first of several costume changes there was also a sound change into reggae and rock, letting Rihanna come down front to talk to us a bit more (and absolutely kick it with Rockstar 101 and Jump, featuring that awesome Ginuwine's Pony live sample). Of course she had to, and did, take us under her Umbrella (asking “Sydney, do you remember this shit?”), as well as pausing for some heartbreak with Stay (thankfully without the milky bath from the film clip), and a mass sing/scream-along for What Now and Take A Bow. Even the hardest of dancefloor hearts were melted with We Found Love, and encore Diamonds rounded all off well. While supports GTA had done a good job getting the large room moving with some continuous, well-paced dance, it was Rihanna that really made them move.