A couple Fridays ago me & my pal Raquel went and saw Ricky Martin.
Or shall I say, RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRicky Martin! (Make sure you roll those R's.)
Raquel & I Heart Ricky. This was actually our second time seeing the bon-bon shakin' singer; the first time was 9 years ago on the 'Vida Loca" tour. We had 13th row floor seats.
This time, we were stageside. My roommate used to work for the concert promoter and got us last minute tickets which allowed us to have that particular view. It was amazing. Not only could we see up Ricky's right nostril, but we could look around the entirety of the jam-packed Staples center and witness weeping women, dancing gays, and lots of Puerto Rican flags.
The BFF used to always get annoyed with Ricky because "he is a fat gay man trapped in a think straight man's body." Well, Ricky's bulked up a bit since then, so maybe he's on his way to discovery? Ricky also was a bit of a hippie, prone to rambling between songs about things like the beauty of the earth and the special wonder of children and his gratitude towards all things on the planet and stuff. Hmmm... the last time we saw him, he was more concerned with keeping his balance while dancing on top of a Ford Mustang.
Not to say that the stage spectacular was not in evidence here. The backing of the stage area was ripped off from the Chicago jailhouse scenes - fire escape-ish bridges and ladders ready made for dancing on the ceiling. Drop out in the floor made for quick appearances and disappearances of the dancers. There were a couple costumes changes, audience flirtation, and a glorious moment when all the dancers emerged only to run around the stage with lit flares puffing massives amounts of pink smoke. Yes, PINK smoke.
Oh yea, the music. Well, I've never been crazy into pop, but I do love the Latin stuff, so Ricky gets away with it in my book. But really, when he gets all Puerto Rican and brings in the crazy percussion and sings in Spanish (which he did most of the night), it's quite good. I'm not kidding. There's a reason why Ricky Martin launched Latin pop on the world when he performed 'La Copa De La Vida" at the Grammy's so many years ago... Because he is truly vivacious, charismatic, fun, and has an awesome voice.
He is, however, kind of a lousy dancer. The first time around, we noticed that he shook his ass alot and let his dancers run around him, creating the illusion that he could dance. This time, he incorporated some capoeria moves, but still pretty weak on the dancing front. Still loads of ass-shaking.
Well, as my mom says, if you want singing AND dancing, try Chayanne. Now HE can dance!
