Madonna Loves Obama! - Her Election Night Concert Recapped

President-elect Obama gets sworn in in just a few hours and the country is all excited. But not as excited as Madonna I'll bet. Caught her concert at Petco Park in San Diego back on election night and  was able to snap the cell phone shot below. (Coincidentally, I took that pic in the moments captured in this video shared on YouTube by Madonna herself.) 

After opening the show proclaiming, “I am so fucking happy right now!” Madonna went on to repeatedly express her unbridled joy after Barack won (the word came in about an hour before she took the stage.) She even incorporated an Obama video tribute/political commercial into the production for this tour.  Though most in the audience were just as pumped about Obama, the show itself was a curiosity.

After opening 90 minutes late (maybe she was watching the early returns) Madonna came on and proceeded to do a two-hour (on the nose) show that largely ignored the entirety of her early career. Here’s the recap:

To begin, I have to mention that Madonna is a physical stud. Absolutely buff. She sported multiple sleeveless outfits and you could see all the muscles in her very cut and vascular arms. I guess it shouldn't be that much of a surprise because for the whole two hours she sang (sometimes with the assistance of a lead backing track, but mostly live) while dancing her butt off.

As you’d expect, the set list included nearly all of the new album, Hard Candy, including nice performances of “4 Minutes”, “Miles Away”, and “Beat Goes On”. The only songs from the album she didn’t do were “Heartbeat”, “Dance 2Night” and “Incredible”. There was some very good production for “She’s Not Me” (where Madonna confronted a series of look-alike Madonna clones from the “Material Girl”, “Vogue”, and “Open Your Heart” videos) and also during her costume changes when there were some cool video montages that incorporated portions of “Die Another Day”, “Jump” and “Rain”.

But the disappointment began to grow as the show progressed and Madonna failed to perform any of her biggest hits from the eighties. Yes, she did “Borderline” and “Into the Groove” early on, and "La Isla Bonita" about halfway through, but those were the only cuts from her first FOUR albums (counting Who’s That Girl) that she performed. No “Holiday” (even though the lyrics would’ve made it perfect for celebrating the Obama win) no “Lucky Star”, no “Everybody” (another perfect song to perform live.) Also conspicuously absent were “Like a Virgin”, “Material Girl”, and “Dress You Up”. 

There’s more… No “Crazy For You”, “Papa Don’t Preach”, “Open Your Heart” or “Live to Tell”.

I know this tour is to promote the new album, and I also know a lot of artists don’t feel like their early stuff is on par with their later material. Madonna herself has gone on record saying she doesn’t like some of her early records. But come on… how could she not do “Like a Virgin”?

And what about the stuff from the “middle-years”? There was no “Take a Bow” or “This Used To Be My Playground” (songs that could’ve served the dual purpose of slowing things down and letting her catch her breath while also showing off her voice.)

Throw in the more forgivable omissions of “Cherish”, “Who’s That Girl”, “Justify My Love”, and “I Love New York” and you see how Madonna could’ve easily done another hour of just hits.

So what songs were covered and what stood out? “Music”, of course, and there was a kind of Spanish production that began with “La Isla Bonita”, and led into some sort of odd fusion of Mexican and Eastern European fiddling/folk music/folk dancing that just didn’t quite work. “Express Yourself” was turned into an a cappella audience sing-along (and effectively ruined) but there was a very heartfelt and enjoyable rendition of “You Must Love Me”.

Surprisingly, she also did “Human Nature”, off the Erotica album, and that was a highlight. But “Like a Prayer” was merely average and she forgot the words (twice) to “Ray of Light”. On that number, and a few other songs, Madonna also played (or more accurately, she strummed along on) guitar, including a pretty sweet Gibson SG. Unfortunately, she wasn’t amped up enough to really hear her, so what was the point?

I guess I have bad luck at Madonna shows. Last time I saw her, years ago at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, there was an effing monsoon. (Seriously, animals were lining up two by two.) While dancing, Madonna slipped and fell at least twice then ultimately cut the show short -- and really, you couldn't even blame her.

But as for her November show, at least I’ll have a cool story about where I was when Obama got elected.