Pink
Venue: Air Canada Centre
Rating: ****
When crunching numbers, alternative pop singer Pink (Alecia Beth Moore) is third rung on the tier of best-selling female solo artists behind the likes of Tina Turner and Britney Spears.
However, as we all know, numbers mean squat as this stop on her current Funhouse Tour in support of her fifth album bearing the same name quickly certified. Not only does the 30-year-old — who derived her stage name from a character in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs — have enough talent to outshine her immediate successor Spears with a bold, vivacious voice and actually engaging stage presence, but her songs are just plain better.
Couple that with her mission of creating substantial, enduring music instead of sensational, embarrassing media and she won’t be in that back seat for long.
Kicking in with an abridged version of AC/DC’s Highway To Hell and tearing through tracks from her ephemeral legacy, Pink’s delivery of Bad Influence, Just Like A Pill and more was engaging, spirited, dynamic and even a touch randy, most notably with her sultry version of The Divynyls’ I Touch Myself delivered on a red velvet chaise lounge complete with ghostly hands emerging to fondle.
Overall, given her bold competition, Pink easily proved that with her inherent vocal ability, enthusiasm and impressive array of decidedly rockin’ tunes, her control of the evening was supreme. With coming times, she will only solidify her command as an accomplished singer and performer, mindless radio fluff such as encore Get This Party Started notwithstanding.
