Fresh off winning R&B artist of the year at last week’s BET Awards, super diva Beyoncé officially kicked off her new U.S. tour in Memphis Saturday night before a crowd of 12,000 at the FedEx Forum.
Between the awards show wins, the heavy radio rotation, music videos, and film roles, Beyoncé seems in danger of being overexposed these days. And she laid it on even thicker this night. Three giant video screens flashed her perfect face and body constantly, including one sequence that alternated glamour shots of the singer with footage of her crying fans with the inferred message being: I am gorgeous and adored.

But as much as you might want to hate her, at the end of the night Beyoncé delivered, presenting a lavish, visually stunning, high-octane show that proved she is not just beautiful but talented and hard working as well.
The glitter was in full effect from the start as the singer descended to the tiered stage in a shimmering silver dress and launched into "Crazy In Love," quickly revealing her secret weapon, a 13-piece all-female backing band. Though all lovely, these ladies were not mere eye candy; they could play, a fact Beyoncé showcased throughout the night by giving the stage over to them when she stepped off for her frequent "freakum dress" changes. In the middle of an extended "Green Light," for instance, the trumpet player stepped up for a solo followed soon by turns from both drummers, with one laying down lightning fills with one hand while taking a drink and the other delivering a precise pounding blindfolded.

Later Beyoncé, notable for being one of the least vocally flashy divas on the scene today, took a melisima-ladened solo turn herself. But mostly she stuck to straight-ahead interpretations of her hit-heavy catalog, including material by her trio Destiny’s Child like "Survivor" and selections from her films like "Listen" from the Oscar-nominated musical Dreamgirls. The biggest applause were reserved for her current hits, however, including a set-closing "Irreplaceable," sung as much by the audience as the singer, and an encore of "Déjà Vu," both from her current album B’Day.

Ultimately thought the concert was as much a triumph of staging and choreography as music. Utilizing lights, video, set pieces, and costumes the star and her crew gave each song its own distinctive, memorable look. And the singer and her 10 backup dancers remained in constant motion. At times there were two dozen performers on stage at once, and it was difficult to know where to even look. Given the contributions of so many, it’s all together fitting then that this was the first concert this reviewer has ever seen that ended with a credits roll.

Blue-eyed soul singer Robin Thicke opened the show. Thicke is the son of television actor Alan Thicke ("Growing Pains"), also known for penning the theme songs of television shows like "Different Strokes" and "the Facts of Life." The younger Thicke took a decidedly hipper musical path. His lean-but-mean four-piece band played a set of classic-mode soul that included the singer’s hits "Lost Without You" and his Pharrell collaboration "Wanna Love U Girl," with the band’s keyboardist subbing for the Neptune’s rapper. And in a nod to Memphis, Thicke, who often sings in his own sexy falsetto, gamely tackled Al Green’s "Let’s Stay Together," though the result was ultimately wanting.

By Mark Jordan,
The Commercial Appeal