LIVE REVIEW - GET $LEAZY TOUR

Pop-sensation Ke$ha loves glitter, dancing, drinking, and talking naughty. All of those are clearly displayed in her Get $leazy Tour. Ke$ha is currently touring the US with supporting act Beardo. With two albums under her belt, Animal and Cannibal, Ke$ha was guaranteed to have a satisfying set list. With a bold choice in Beardo as opening act, the Get $leazy Tour was sure to be entertaining and enjoyable.

            First to play the stage was the strange Beardo, a solo artist from California that boldly sings, or screams, about what is on his mind. He graced the sold-out show in St. Louis, Missouri as the only opening act. Sporting tight pink pants, a mullet, long earrings, and no shirt, Beardo is a one-of-a-kind one-man band. Using pre-recorded beats, he rocked the stage singing the likes of his originals “American Anthem”, “Girls and Pills”, “24 Hour Party”, and more. For some of the songs performed he’d play an electric guitar alongside his techno/synth beats. The majority of the time, Beardo received crowd action purely from pity. Many concertgoers laughed at his strange attempts at interacting with the crowd. His jumping up and down repeatedly did no justice for his body. Maybe, just maybe, if Beardo would have put on some fitting clothes, and did not screech his lyrics, he would have been enjoyable to watch.

            Pulses were racing as the lights dimmed as a warning that Ke$ha was about to go on stage. The screams from the crowd were almost painful during the couple minutes that Ke$ha’s stage crew were getting in their places. Finally, the goddess herself Ke$ha entered the stage on a diamond shaped platform dressed in a glittery leotard. Her stage was very elaborate with two levels of different instruments and had her glittery diamond in the middle. Usually this level of stage set up is for large-scale arenas, not 2000-person capacity clubs. Misty fog poured from the stage constantly. Finishing her outfit off with, of course, some ripped stockings, Ke$ha opened her set with “Sleazy.” Pairing her decent-but-whiney voice with some seductive dance moves, Ke$ha made the crowd go insane. Fans were jumping up and down screaming along to the lyrics. The energy level in the venue was one of the highest I have ever experienced.

            Following “Sleazy” was one of her hit singles “Take It Off.” Ke$ha stayed in her diamond platform throughout the song due to the major synthesizers used. “Take It Off” brought even more crowd energy, even though Ke$ha’s voice sounded like techno-overload. Nonetheless, the infamous single brought excellent crowd reaction with the help of provocative dance moves by Ke$ha and her backup dancers. “(F*ck Him) He’s A DJ” was the next song performed. It was a lesser-known song causing Ke$ha’s hot start to the concert to cool. Her stage dancers were the stars of the show. Throughout the show they changed their costumes numerous times to match the lyrics to the song performed.  As for the next song, “Dirty Picture,” the stage dancers dressed in tight clothing and pranced around with jumbo-size cameras.

            Ke$ha clearly knows how to keep up a party. She playfully got the crowd cheering again after a quick costume change when she started “Blow.” Armed with fake grenades and guns full of glitter, and a rabbit tail, Ke$ha paced the stage showering the crowd with gold, shiny glitter. Her blue lips could not stop smirking as she was clearly enjoying ‘shooting’ the audience. After another quick costume change, Ke$ha stormed back on the stage with her classic “Blah Blah Blah.” Dressed in an oversized American flag tee with ripped stockings, Ke$ha strummed her rifle shaped guitar and whined one of her most famous tunes. Her male backup dancers were matching in tight American flag short-shorts and stockings. The teenage-dominant crowd went insane and screamed along to the simple, catchy lyrics. The next two songs, “Party at a Rich Dude’s House” and “Backstabber” were equally entertaining, mainly because of the over-juiced dancers. A staged fight between occurred during “Party at a Rich Dude’s House” including beer, lawn chairs, and coolers as weapons.

            Following “Backstabber” was “Cannibal.” Ke$ha showed off her acting chops when she tied up a dancer onto a giant X and pretended to tear him apart. During the middle of the percussion-heavy song, she ‘pulled’ the heart out of the dancer, and drank it. Red foam poured out of her mouth by the end of the song. Things started to slow down as “The Harold Song” came on. It was clear that Ke$ha wanted to show off her clear vocal talents, opposed to her usual whine-talk, but it failed. “The Harold Song” is a slow, touching love song, but it did not go over well. The crowd settled and Ke$ha’s voice did not impress. She tried to recover with a sexual joke about her song “C U Next Tuesday” but the energy level was still dead. Not even as Ke$ha exclaimed, “This is my best and most favorite song that I’ve ever written,” as an introduction to her song “Animal”, the crowd still was unresponsive. She should have realized that her predominately teenage audience was not interested in her slow songs, and should have axed them from her set list.

            Thankfully, “Dinosaur” was next in the set, and it quickly helped Ke$ha make a solid recovery. The playful lyrics (D-I-N-O-S-A you are a DINOSAUR, an O-L-D M-A-N, you’re just an old man, hitting on me, what?)  were screeched by the young crowd. Ke$ha and her dancers pranced around stage with cowbells and funky outfits. She sure seemed to like dinosaurs, because there was a large dinosaur-shaped piñata hung on the ceiling, which was later revealed to be full of Ke$ha condoms. To continue on with her sexual theme, before she started “Grow A Pear”, Ke$ha begged her staged manager, who was dressed in a Santa outfit, to bring out a chair. She sat down, and spewed out a story to the crowd about a boy one day “that she wanted to ‘bone’, but he wanted to ‘talk.’” Lightening the mood, Ke$ha asked the guys in the audience to raise their hands if they wanted to ‘hook up’ with her. Surprisingly, there was a high population of males in the audience that wanted to get kinky with the pop star. She ended up choosing a very enthusiastic fan standing in the front row, and brought him on stage. The dancers saran-wrapped him to the chair, and she sang “Grow A Pear” to him whilst giving him a lap dance. It was quite hilarious when the male in the chair was mouthing every lyric she was singing to him. Also, a dancer was in a certain male body part costume prancing around stage much to Ke$ha’s pleasure. She got onto her knees and motor boated the costume. Classy.

            After releasing the eager fan from his chair, Ke$ha put on her signature spirit-hood and started singing “Your Love Is My Drug.” It was very enjoyable presentation, and actually made you feel good. It was very cutesy and not sexual, which was sort of a relief. The most electric song of the night was “Tik Tok” though. “Tik Tok” shortly followed “Your Love Is My Drug”, and it brought instant energy. Balloons were tossed across the stage and everyone was singing along. The dancers were twirling, jumping, and running wild. Ke$ha banged on a glitter covered drum, which caused glitter to fly everywhere. She giggled, announced it was her last song, and left the stage.

            After ten minutes of chanting, Ke$ha finally made her way back to the stage. The lights were dimmed to take in the full effect of her costume. Decked in a giant feather Mohawk, wings, and neon clothing, Ke$ha started “We R Who We R” as her encore. Thrusting her hips and prancing around, she looked like she was having the time of her life. At that very moment it was clear that Ke$ha is a unique artist. She clearly does not care what anyone thinks about her, and she just wants to have fun. She may have strange pop songs or may have an unusual fashion sense, but she is really an inspirational artist. She freely talks about sex, drugs, and whatever else pleases her, and that is what draws her in to the teenage crowd. She is a phenomenal performer and should get more credit for the work she puts forth. If she stops in your city, do yourself a guilty pleasure and catch her show.