Out Last Night: Britney Spears at the AAC (With Photos)

Out Last Night: Britney Spears at the AAC (With Photos)
The dancing was phenomenal and the lyrics were crystalline, too bad neither had anything to do with Britney Spears. At her concert last night at the American Airlines Center, however, Britney brought in a special breed of fan that needs only one thing to enjoy a concert: her presence. The concert pulled out all the bells and whistles to make it visually over the top, but the fans cheered the loudest when Britney was just standing and talking to the crowd.

The 40-minute countdown clock for Britney started on the big screens as soon as Nicki Minaj left the stage. And as the last few minutes ticked by, the entire arena was standing and screaming. As soon as her infamous “It’s Britney, b*tch” sounded through the arena, it was like the dam broke. The excitement, however, was suddenly stalled as the show started with a video plot line of “female fatale” that continued to interplay between her songs. Soon enough, the mega screen opened, and the people received their pop princess. Britney rolled in on an iron throne and stepped onto an elevator that brought her down to the stage. This was definitely a different Britney from my teenage years. Her moves were slower, more rigid, and minimal. However, her ten-plus back up dancers definitely picked up the slack, as the girls were grinding in cages and the guys, suited in full police attire (sunglasses and nightstick included) jumped and flipped on stage.

Britney wouldn’t know that her performance was anything less than what it was ten years ago because as soon as she started walking the stretch of the stage, out to the fans, people went nuts. And the further she got into the thick of the audience the bigger her smile grew as the noise of the crowd increased. And as far as lip-syncing, yes, she was obviously doing it. You could clearly hear each lyric come out of her baby soft voice anywhere in the whole arena. Sure, it was fake, but something should be said for actually being able to hear lyrics at a concert. I, at least, wasn’t complaining.

And even though her attempts at choreography may have been meager, she never stopped trying. She was suspended in the air on a platform for “Piece of Me,” and the entire time she never stopped moving, even if she was only kicking one foot out in front of the other. During “Big Fat Bass” one of her cornrowed dancers was breakdancing, hopping, and kicking upside down on one arm for at least 30 seconds (only receiving minimal applause). All Britney had to do, on the other hand, was fist pump on one of the multiple life-sized stereos and the crowd went wild.

These fans didn’t come for the show, they came for Britney, and even though the arena exploded with applause after every song, it wasn’t even close in comparison to how the walls shook when she would simply say, “Well thank you Dallas!”

Of course Britney robbed the spotlight, but her dancers were amazing. During “Don’t Let Me Be The Last To Know” Britney was elevated on a swing while one of her male dancers lifted himself into the air by holding onto two straps hanging from the chair, all the while doing aerial twists and turns. He ended his routine completely horizontal in an “x-out” position 20 feet in the air, making it look effortless (though he did have eight rippling abs aiding his act).