And when the music starts I never wanna stop, it's gonna drive me crazy .

Madonna made her Denver debut at the Pepsi Center last night and through deft sleight of hand and online ticketing mayhem, I was pleasantly suprised to end up front and center for the show.

Kudos for the catwalk surprise. Well played.


I should say, not quite at the catwalk, because of a curious band of concert "fan" bordering the stage. The barricades were lined with tacky cougar-wannabes and their bored-out-of-their-gourd sugar-daddy husbands. Clearly out past their bedtime, someone gave them all an obscene amount of xanax.

Madonna noticed, and so did we.

The front row may have outbid the world for prime seats, but they were dead weight to the rest of us who were thrilled to be there.

Luckily the rest of us were there to have a good time, and Madonna didn't disappoint. It was a thrilling spectacle of sound and light that awaited us.

This being my first Madonna extravaganza, I wasn't sure what to expect really. I've seen the previous tours DVDs and this was a bit different. The dramatic set pieces I expected were thrown out this time for massive LED screens that moved all over the set, bathing the audience in Las Vegas strip afterglow.

It's pretty nifty seeing Keith Haring characters blown up in technicolor all around you!

You know it's a strong night when she takes a song of hers I loathe, La Isla Bonita, and updates it into a rollicking gypsy review that had us all clapping along. The on-stage bohemian party was a much appreciated jolt of energy

The other highlight, a benefit of being right there in front of it all, was the throwaway Devil Wouldn't Recognize You. The song itself left the hit-starved crowd a little puzzled, but it was a tour-de-force performance from up close. It was Madonna, cloaked, lying on a simple black piano, surrounded by an LCD cage teasing lights around her. Proximity probably made a difference on that number: The effect was stunning.

That weak tunes like those could be such highlights, along with rollicking crowd pleasers like Ray of Light, Vogue, Into the Groove and Borderline, only served to overshadow the weaker songs of the night: mostly newer stuff of hers.

Songs like Four Minutes and Spanish Lesson just seemed to crash and burn. Give it 2 Me would have seemed a natural closer for the show, but the crowd was vibing harder to Hung Up just minutes before. Hard Candy is a mostly forgettable album, and the live versions pretty much backed that up.

All in all, though, I was hoarse from the evening, and grinning from ear to ear. I'd be hard pressed to find much real fault with the show.

There is probably no one out there right now who knows how to put together a live extravaganza quite like Madonna. It is a perfect balance of sheer strength, dramatic showmanship and real rock-and-roll credibility that draws everyone in, yawning cougars notwithstanding.


It was an amazing show!

Pinch me though, was it all really happening an arm's length away from me?

A very memorable night!