Music

Concert Review: Beyonce/Jay Z @ Citizens Bank Park

Featuring Forbes magazine's #1 and #6 earners shooting guns, robbing banks and yelling "motherfucker,"

[ 7/5 ] With each of these acts having played the Philadelphia market twice before their On the Run Tour teaming, you might have expected some empty seats for Beyonce and Jay Z’s big show at Citizen’s Bank Park.

Not a chance.

This gig, on a gorgeously balmy Saturday night, was sold out to the rafters. That says something about the staying power of this husband-and-wife team as well as the allure of the summer wind at its gentlest. Then again, maybe the gossipy publicity frippery (that Solange elevator freak out, Beyonce’s lyrical pokes at a cheating Hova) worked. No matter.

This was Bey at her finest (she’s at her peak as a vocalist) and Jay, well, Jay’s still on his greatest hits tip, which by this point is good, but a wee bit tired in spots — which is why he lets the missus do all the heavy lifting throughout the show. The woman’s burden.

Before going further — and this is a lesson that all pop stars doing big shows should know — the mini-movie as thematic through-line, no matter how well crafted, eventually gets annoying. Sure, it featured Forbes magazine’s #1 earner (Knowles at $115 million), and its sixth highest earner (Mr. Carter at $60 million) shooting guns, robbing banks and yelling “motherfucker,” but leave the French New Wave imagery to the French and I swear that if Jean-Luc Godard ever does “Big Pimpin’” I’ll rip him to shreds. (Fun fact: Bey/Jay’s “03 Bonnie & Clyde” — the slow, stewing duet that commenced their long set — was inspired by 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, a film originally offered to Godard to direct).

The cinematic references didn’t stop with the first song. Not long after that, during “Show Me What You Got,” Jay and Bey re-enacted the “Big Spender” scene from Sweet Charity with B and her girls working the berre with Fosse-ish aplomb while Jay looked on, licking his lips. Jay did that often, mostly ogling the missus’ posterior — a butt she wiggled with pride — while dancing his own two step. As far as his moves go, he was mostly content with that shuffle, rapping in place and disappearing into the stage floor as he did during the flame heavy finale of a particularly ferocious version of “Tom Ford.”

As dancers, Beyonce and her troupe are funky, chic and exquisite, especially when executing faux-Riverdance moves during “Crazy in Love” and the horse-like motions of bucking and rearing throughout the hyper “Run the World.” Anyone keeping score of Bey’s recent performances, take note: save for some signature steps during her biggest hits (“Single Ladies”’s wrist and rump shake) she’s changed her choreography from tour to tour. Brava, lady. One welcome holdover from Beyonce’s recent tours was her use of simple. quick-flashing geometric shapes and color palates on ragga-hopping songs such as “Baby Boy.” The gangster film was amusing (at first) and Jay’s use of famous mug shots was funny, but lines and shapes are elegant and stirring. Ask Mondrian.

Dancing and staging aside, it was the music, rapping and singing you were there for (OK, I was). Beyonce has fashioned herself into a damn fine vocalist with a command of theatricality unrivalled at this time (that’s right, Gaga). She made the slow, Radiohead-y “Ghost”/”Haunted” into something grand and worthy of a Bond theme, turned “Bow Down”/”I Been On” into a cocky, militaristic rant (her Prussian general’s cap helped), and lent the fast-paced “Why Don’t You Love Me” such a long, dramatic pause, you thought she was leaving the stage. And she still had more to give. She appropriated Justin Timberlake’s detuned role in her husband’s clattering “Holy Grail” by turning its “I still don’t know why I love you so much” bridge into a tortured bluesy lament, and did similarly to her own sad, spare, “Resentment” on the underused smaller stage. She saved her best vocal moment for “Flawless” and its manic take on self-love (“ I woke up like this”) like a woman possessed, singing with an occasional, hard, high pitch as if speaking in tongues. I’d love to hear more of that Beyonce.

When it came to Jay Z, it was weird. Not a bad thing, but he seemed old fashion in comparison to Bey while tackling his past hits. His music was straight laced and cool next to her messy, hot and modernist sonic vibe, his raps stodgy next to her pleas of passion. Jay said “bounce” and we did, but with Beyonce we could have somersaulted without her even asking, Oddly enough though it was his newer songs — tunes that I hadn’t been impressed with on their albums- that kept Jay in the game. Along with the aforementioned “Tom Ford,” the hot, house thump of “No Church in the Wild” (Kayne West’s song with Jay and Frank Ocean), and a caustic “Fuckwithmeyouknowigotit” (where he gave a shout to JKevin Hart, presumably in the house) proved that Hova’s raps are still capable of frenetic madness. He just needs to keep getting mad if her wants to keep up with the missus.

Luckily or unluckily (depending on your POV), there weren’t too many romantic interludes between the husband and wife. One that happened to be both charming, and seemingly impromptu, was when Jay kissed Bey’s neck during “Drunk in Love.” While it’s difficult to improvise during massive productions such as this, if this twosome ever does tour again, I’d like to see and hear more moments between them that at least seem off the cuff ala that smooch and her take on “Holy Grail.”