Full marks for Rihanna’s performance and the technical support that made her set an awesome spectacle! Thumbs down for all that went before!
Friday night’s LOUD concert went straight into the opening performance of CoverDrive – no National Anthem or welcome to the 25 000-strong crowd swelling into Kensington Oval.
However, CoverDrive’s confidence before such a massive audience must be commended. All under age 22 and fresh from signing a double deal, their experience has been limited to music videos but their infectious mixture of Caribbean genres with hip hop – which they call Caripop – has quickly caught the ears of the young and mature.
Their attempt at an acoustic “fedora” session had to be aborted after one song, but their debut single Lick Ya Down along with Twilight and others got fully amplified treatment and the audience’s full attention.
After thanking Rihanna for the opportunity, the four-member group’s exit paved the way for a drawn-out DJ session followed by RocNation rapper J.Cole. Boring!
The evening then petered out into an 80-minute wait for the guest of honour. Patrons, realizing they could only drink so much as they grumbled in food lines in so-called VIP areas, grew restless and offered up rounds of the Mexican Wave, as international personalities including Brian Lara, Machel Montano and AJ dawdled backstage.
Finally, the real show started at 10:20 p.m., and immediately made amends for any previous inconvenience.
Moving discs flashed video images of Rihanna as an orb emerged from centre stage, giving “birth” to the superstar clad in blue and singing Only Girl (In The World).
The technical and production wizardry of the show got better with each passing note, as Rihanna slid across the stage rendering Disturbia, and as a car rose from the floor in Shut Up And Drive.
So much was going on onstage that it took some effort to absorb it all: “crash dummies” dancing up a storm, images flashing from discs and monitors flanking the 50-foot stage, lights strobing from the stage’s floor and ceiling and, mainly, Rihanna grooving, gyrating and strutting her stuff in a multicoloured body suit, shimmering silver dress and other outfits.
Many Barbadians were seeing the outstanding production for the first time and could barely control themselves as the reggae strains of Man Down oozed into the audience. And when she “pulled it up” and her voice started to ride the rhythm again, they were simply in awe.
To every lyric of the song which describes the shooting of a man by his female partner after a bout of physical abuse, they sang along; and even as she finally sank into the floor, “bussing off” a shot, many were still shouting.
Rihanna then teased them with a toned-down sensual, acrobatic intro into her other controversial hit, S&M. And finally, those who had never seen the banned video before were able to witness the chains and the hands pawing at the scantily clad singer and feel the aura of her excitement over chains, whips and sex.
“Bad” but, theatrically, perfectly good!
While her songs do not tell stories in the traditional way, her dance moves and video images did Friday night; with constant crotch-grabbing, hip-thrusting and Rihanna’s grinding on a member of the audience, followed by images of robot female soldiers in Hard and street gangs in Run This Town.
From sex and war themes, Rihanna re-emerged from the fiery red stage to soothe the audience with Unfaithful, Hate That I Love You accompanied by her lead guitarist whose acoustic instrument was painted in the Barbados colours, and the haunting California King Bed.
Pon De Replay and What’s My Name threw a dash of fun and innocence into the mix before Rihanna kept it real again with Rude Boy, noting: “If I don’t feel it, I ain’t faking it.”
Then she spoke to her audience: “Y’all being real bougie, nuh? We doan geh on so!!”
Two songs later, she shared an emotional moment with her Bajan family: “I travel everywhere in the world and nothing feels like this place. It all started about two streets away from here, in Westbury Road, where I grew up, singing in the shower and annoying my neighbours.
“Now I’m back home doing a concert for my own country. I owe it all to you. Thank you, Barbados,” said the 23-year-old who is currently the most sought-after artiste in the world after a mere six years on the music scene.
After rendering Take A Bow, her band’s grand piano descended from the roof of the darkened stage at the stroke of midnight, and before patrons could say “dis ting cahn be ova”, Rihanna was back, curling herself atop the piano to sing Love The Way You Lie.
The weather had been favourable but Rihanna brought umbrellas for the finale. And as she sang her first Grammy Award-winning hit, it rained confetti on the audience, some of whose eyes were wet.
