By Kenny Chang
Daily Bruin Reporter
Could she be the Queen of Pop? Well her brother is the King of
Pop, and he married the daughter of the King of Rock
“˜n’ Roll, so Janet Jackson is some sort of royalty at
the least.
Ah, it doesn’t matter. She was the queen at Staples Center
on Tuesday night, as she continued the West Coast leg of her
“All For You” tour.
At about 8:10 p.m., the lights shut off and the crowd began to
roar. As the tension built, a clamor grew and greeted, to some
dismay, the R&B group 112.
Though they performed a decent set of their popular songs,
ranging from the classic “Only You,” to the more recent
“Peaches and Cream,” 112 was not a great opener for
Janet Jackson. Their performance seemed half-hearted, and they
weren’t really sufficient in showmanship or in crowd appeal
to be an opener for the legendary Ms. Jackson.
Finally the time came as pyrotechnics exploded galore: Janet
(“Ms. Jackson if you’re nasty”) dressed all in
white with a white fedora-like hat, stood upon a pedestal and
greeted the Staples Center.
Janet’s smile was warm enough to make every single person
melt.
Opening with a few songs from her new album, including
“All For You,” the talented Janet put on quite a show
with her entourage of dancers in addition to a live band.
After that short set, Janet asked the crowd to
“reminisce” with her as she broke into sultry ballads
and slow jams from earlier in her career. The crowd was indeed very
appreciative of this gesture. One moment that brought cheers and
several chills (the good kind) was when Janet performed
“Again,” from the film “Poetic Justice,”
starring herself and the late Tupac Shakur. Screens behind her
provided clips from her music videos as well as scenes from
“Poetic Justice.” She performed “Let’s Wait
a While” as well, and again there were more chills as
everyone just listened to the longing in Janet’s performance
of this tune from so long ago.
The concert basically encompassed Jackson’s entire career.
She sang songs from all of her albums, ranging from
“Runaway” to “That’s the Way Love
Goes,” and even all the way back to “Rhythm
Nation.”
Janet asked the crowd to “reminisce” with her as she
broke into sultry ballads and slow jams.
The choreography and dance performances were definite high
points. From the “If” music video, Jackson and Co. did
the popular dance interlude to the Oriental-sounding bass line.
Another great moment was their performance of the dance routine
from the “Rhythm Nation” music video.
The sequence for “Escapade” included a very colorful
setup with giant toys and all the dancers and Janet dressed in
colorful costumes that either looked like Disney on acid or maybe
something out of one of Robin Williams’ nightmares.
However, nothing beats when Janet plucked a lucky chump from the
crowd and strapped him onto a table. From then on, she moved very
provocatively over, around and against the fortunate gentleman,
over which the cries of virtually every male in the audience could
be heard.
Following her routine to “Rhythm Nation,” the
audience was taunted by a few minutes of its own lonely roar before
Janet decided to come out for her encore acts, which included the
“Somebody to Call My Lover” and finished off with
“Doesn’t Really Matter” from the “Nutty
Professor 2″ soundtrack.
Janet Jackson is a great performer. The concert screamed out
endless hours of practice and the highest standard of showmanship.
The routines were danced to a perfect T, and Janet’s smile
was warm enough to make every single person in the Staples Center
melt. The pop acts that have come up in the last few years have
nothing on Janet, and after a performance like this, they
won’t ever. That night, she was indeed royalty.