Britney Spears Live from Las Vegas

Only because a friend loaned me this and I had never seen Spears sing (hey, I am a fairly old geezer, long past being in the Britney generation), I decided to take a look. It surprised me; it wasn't bad. It actually was very entertaining and some of the skits she did were pretty funny. I have to admit; I was impressed....at least to a point.

This is a feast for the eyes, not just male eyes on Britney, but the wild special effects, lights, colors, explosions, dancers....it's quite the Las Vegas show. I expected "bubble gum" type songs, and some were, but not most. What I saw that I've never seen before on DVD in a live concert is someone lip-syncing! That doesn't say a whole lot for her singing ability if she has to resort to that. However, to be fair, she is dancing so much that it would extremely difficult to do both at once. Nonetheless, it takes away from the credibility of the whole thing. On the plus, at least her songs sounded the way she wanted them to. If done live, they might have been....well, not so good.

Since this concert was done two months after 9/11, there is a nice dedication to our troops and a simulcast to four military bases. I'm sure the guys enjoyed looking at her. Anyway, this whole thing was a lot better than I anticipated. I'm not too impressed with her personal life but she puts on an entertaining show, even with the lip-syncing.

This is one of my favorite Britney Spears concerts and I'm glad we are able to own it.

From what I've seen, a Spears concert is not only simply singing, but a theatrical production of sorts. Props, sets, the occasional special effects and background videos, not to mention Spears trying on a new costume with nearly every song. With her HBO broadcast from Las Vegas, it was obvious that Spears and company were going to try to take this all to another level. While Spears looks terrific in costumes that continue to cover less-and-less as the concert continues, there are some decisions that are just plain strange: for no apparent reason, Jon Voight turns up about halfway through to read a poem. The between-songs chatter is often corny and occasionally unintentionally funny (I think Britney even started a conversation with the audience with "Can we talk?" I'm suprised I didn't hear, "No! Sing, dammit!" from the crowd noise in the surrounds in the 5.1 audio mix). A "Behind The Music" skit about halfway through is terribly unfunny, which is dissapointing, given the fact that Spears has shown that she has solid comedic timing on "Saturday Night Live". In fact, the skit comes off like the worst of SNL. She opens with former No.1 single "OOPS I DID IT AGAIN", tied to a spinning wheel she rotates for the first verse, before coming on to the large stage to finish. She follows it up with (YOU DRIVE ME) CRAZY,.... OVERPROTECTED follows. Dressed in a very ... catsuit-type attire she puts plenty of oomph into one of the freshest and funkiest tunes of the show. Next is the enjoyable medley of BORN TO MAKE YOU HAPPY / LUCKY / SOMETIMES. She is dressed quite scantily, and that's always appreciated. BOYS, one of her more different sounding tunes, allows Spears to put her ... to good use, as she writhes around on stage and interacts, quite intimately, with her dancers. STRONGER and NOT A GIRL, NOT YET A WOMAN come after this. I LOVE ROCK 'N' ROLL is one of the more energetic performances as she pips away on a raised platform, before she hangs from the ceiling mid-air, in a stunt you could see the Backstreet Boys or NSync pulling off. Her urban influenced track WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE ME has plenty of synchronized dancing and energy. LONELY would have to be one of the better performances as she interacts with a computer generated version of herself, seen on a big screen. The song is almost like a duet. Very cool. Ballad DON'T LET ME BE THE LAST TO KNOW gives Britney time to breathe in a rather uninspired performance which is very lifeless and in this she sounds like a drag queen. Sorry Ms Spears, this was the shows' downfall. She picks up the pace with the cheery pop tune ANTICIPATING. Plenty of colour, this peformance is vibrant and very much for the young. She incorporates the audience into this one, by asking them to sing along and clap their hands to the chorus. This all changes when she strips off to a tiny, shimmery skirt and green bra top,for the pumped up performance of I'M A SLAVE 4 U. This is an awesome performance with plenty of heat and no doubt her male fans will have a field day, thanks to Spears' bust and her attire. You'll see what I mean. After thanking everyone for coming out, she appears back on for an alternative take on her biggest hit to date, BABY ONE MORE TIME. This is where she is drenched in a shower of rain for the performance which is not the ...BABY, we remember hearing. But seeing a wet Spears is satisfactory enough. I strongly recommend this to any Britney fan. You'll have fun. Top of Form 1 "Britney Spears - Live from Las Vegas" is a feast for the eyes and ears. 8/10

She always lip-synchs everything except for the ballads when she just sits or doesn't move. The rest is not live singing, and it was totally obvious in this 'concert.' People defend her by saying it's hard to sing and dance at the same time, but plenty of other artists do it. And it's not like she's a great singer either. I guess you'll like this concert if you're a fan though.

Catching this on TV was an odd experience- it was like a Rob Zombie concert, but instead of cool music and monster imagery it was a salute to a "Cherry 2000"-esque robot which lurched and jerked about the stage, belting out pre-recorded, pre-formed pop songs with all the skill and precision of Teddy Ruxpin.

The high point of delirious stupidity is when drunken "Noah's Ark" star Jon Voight (who must sit during his whole appearance, save he stumble off the stage and land head first in the orchestra pit in a puddle of his own Scotch-flavored vomit) appears, slurring a bedtime story to a "young" Britney.

The rest of the show is spastic, sub-"Mickey Mouse Club" dancing briefly seen between pre-recorder video bits. Appearing lost and queasy in this multi-media propaganda event is the clueless sex-puppet Britney (who is made of 85% recycled materials). She seems like one of those cherubic young girls whose soul-less, bitter moms force to prostitute themselves up for subhuman beauty contests, only this beauty contest is lasting Britney's whole life and the grand prize is having middle-aged fathers fantasize about her in the shower.