And then there were three. As Janet Jackson opened her much anticipated Friday night Essence Fest headlining set in the Superdome with “The Pleasure Principle,” first one, and then another, avatar appeared via the magic of hologram projection. The faux-Janets danced alongside the flesh-and-blood Janet before vaporizing. Even without her ethereal body doubles, she danced enough for three people.
For the first non-stop 15 minutes of her nearly two hour set, Jackson and her 12 dancers engaged in an eye-popping display of ultra-crisp choreography. Clad in future-shock silver and gold armor with knee-high boots, her hair cropped short, her eyes lined in heavy black makeup, her body supple and strong, Ms. Jackson cut a fierce figure.
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Charlie Wilson, Jackson’s predecessor on the main stage, won over the crowd with a sweaty, old-fashioned, old-school style of showmanship; he was the night’s heart and soul. Jackson’s set, by contrast, was a thoroughly contemporary spectacle for the eyes and hips.
The bass-heavy mix of the Dome’s main stage sound system emphasized the club beat at the heart of “What Have You Done For Me Lately” and “Miss You Much.” Her band – a drummer, two keyboardists, a keyboardist/bassist and a guitarist – focused mostly on providing the pulse for Jackson and her dancers.
The two massive iceberg-like structures flanking the huge stage functioned as lo-res video walls, this in addition to the six hi-res screens on and around the stage. Except for virtual video guest appearances by Q-Tip and Nelly, all that video power at Jackson’s disposal was underutilized – especially considering the impact of her innovative music videos.
A bees-eye view of a flight through an animated flower patch inexplicably filled the screens during “All For You.” Screen-saver-like geometric patterns were another constant. During one costume change intermission, the same dozen or so glamour shots of Jackson cycled around the screens. And yes, it is possible to grow weary of a portrait of the shapely star in a yellow bikini.
Another break was devoted to clips from Jackson’s acting career. The first, from “Good Times,” showed her as terrified young Penny about to be the victim of child abuse – a proven concert buzz kill. A clip from “Diff’rent Strokes” featured the recently deceased Gary Coleman. The late Tupac Shakur’s Lucky flirted with Jackson’s Justice in “Poetic Justice,” her 1993 big-screen debut. In a now infamous scene from Tyler Perry’s current “Why Did I Get Married Too?”, a scorned Jackson lays waste to glass table tops with a golf club.
Perhaps if her Essence appearance was part of a tour instead of her only planned concert 2010, a snazzier video presentation would have been prepared.
As impressive as her opening dance exercise was – that she and her crew logged weeks of hard work in rehearsals was obvious – it was a little cold and impersonal. When she left the stage for a costume change, the Dome was eerily quiet – but no one was leaving.
She returned in a gorgeous lavender and silver evening gown for a set of intimate ballads: “Nothing,” “Let’s Wait a While,” “Again.” Her voice was simultaneously delicate and strong, innocent and worldly. Here she supplied the heart and soul that was lacking early on. With the subsequent “Love Will Never Do (Without You),” an exceedingly pleasant midtempo romp, she finally seemed to be enjoying herself.
Having serviced the audience’s eyes, mind and heart, Jackson and company moved further south. During “Any Time Any Place,” dancers crawled on stage in black leather bondage gear, simulating S&M sex acts. Jackson shed a dominatrix cloak to reveal a skimpy, flesh-colored – her flesh color – leotard with strategically placed black stripes that, at a glance, appeared to be tribal tattoos.
A man plucked from the audience found himself strapped into a straight-jacket-like device inside a steel frame. A stern Jackson stalked over and, as an unsmiling taskmaster, proceeded to render him the helpless object of her, umm, affection. She buried his face in her bosom, licked his cheek and stroked his crotch. Finally, she laid him down on his back and mounted him.
“Miss Jackson, if you’re nasty” indeed. Whatever he paid for his ticket, he got his money’s worth, and then some.
The closing hit parade encompassed the snarling electric guitar of “Black Cat,” a sharp “Nasty” and “Rhythm Nation,” with yet another display of flawless choreography. Jackson reportedly planned to end the show with another hologram special effect. But a technical glitch with the hologram screen – stagehands struggled to raise it after the show’s opening sequence – apparently scuttled that idea.
Instead, as Jackson sang her breezy 1997 smash “Together Again,” video screens filled with pictures of her and her brother Michael as children. She co-wrote the song as a tribute to friends who died of AIDS. But in the wake of Michael’s passing, lines like, “Everywhere I go, every smile I see, I know you’re there, smiling back at me” assumed a whole other, more personal meaning.
Beaming, struggling with emotion, Jackson and her dancers held hands, bowed, and bounded off stage. In the show’s final, and most poignant, moment, emotion trumped technology.
Click here to read The Times-Picayune’s interview with Janet Jackson.
