Anyone who says the SOEC is a quiet building, obviously hasn’t been to a Rihanna concert.
And, no, it wasn’t the 16 big rigs that lugged her gear from a show in Vancouver the night before rumbling. It has everything to do with Rihanna’s new edge, a grittier, harder version of the teen girl who came out with her debut hit single Pon de Replay in 2005. This transformed Rihanna, belting out tracks from her fourth studio album (Rated R) is, well, a good girl gone bad. Obvious from her barely-there outfits as she put chutzpah behind her hip thrusts, crotch grabs and slinky moves. It was only fitting her Last Girl on Earth tour on Monday in Penticton opened with a dreamy sequence and Welcome to the Madhouse playing.
Called “an animal,” by one male fan intoxicated by Rihanna as she pranced by in thigh-high black boots and switched costumes fulfilling the eye-candy portion for most of the male gender in the packed SOEC, the artist didn’t leave her female fans wanting more either. Rihanna opened wearing a prudish black floor length gown, flashing with red LED lights as she pounded her chest singing the heartfelt Russian Roulette. Rihanna was lifted high on a pedestal above the crowd as one teen girl ecstatically yelled out “Oh my god, Oh my god, I think I might cry.” After shedding her lengthy gown for an eye-popping pink one piece that left little to the imagination she hit her fans with Hard — complete with dancers carrying hot pink guns and a neon tank, which she straddled as it popped off.
Rihanna and her dance posse continued in high-gear as a car emerged from centre stage for the favourite song of the night for a group of Grade 12 students from Princess Margaret, Shut Up and Drive. Grabbing a young girl from the audience, Rihanna and her dancers, when they weren’t busy with amazing head spins and break dance moves, took baseball bats to the rusted out shell of a late 50s Chevy.
The tour, only on its second night of a North American gig, wasn’t without its drab moments. Just as the songstress had the crowd completely wound up throwing their hands in the air as she played guitar hero with a non-functioning axe slapped around her shoulders for the energetic I’m a Rockstar, things went a little sour. After the song she rushed off stage and it was announced the show was having technical difficulties.
Is this what Rihanna’s world is like? Technical difficulties? The 20-or-so minutes the concert stopped deflated the atmosphere in the pop star’s playground. It wasn’t long after the problem was solved that the crowd were back eating from her hand and dancing in the aisles. The Barbadian beauty knew exactly what to give them, Rude Boy.
As if that wasn’t enough to gain their love back, Rihanna sing-songed “Penticton,” a few times and encouraged everyone to join in for Rehab as she slinked around a couch on the catwalk. The artist changed pace back to the more danceable hits Don’t Stop the Music and SOS before the evening came to a close and the megastar stopped to apologize to Penticton and thank them for being patient with the technical difficulties. For her final song she sat down and enchanted everyone with Take A Bow, a testament to this artist’s genuine appeal.
Don’t let the hot pink machine guns, military/futuristic style garb, dancers dressed in bondage dangling from giant silver machine guns and Rihanna’s punk rock’esque candy-apple red mane fool you. The same woman gave 225 tickets to a group that camps in Naramata each summer, bonding together as adoptive parents of kids with African heritage, some of whom shed tears of joy that afternoon when they found out.
Oh, and that noise that came from the SOEC on Monday night? Well that was the five minutes of deafening cheers that rattled the buildings foundations as the almost capacity house called for an encore, which of course the gracious host gave, passing along a high-five to fan who rushed the stage.
Just another day in Rihanna’s world and Penticton seemed glad to be invited.
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