Music Review: P!nk - Qudos Bank Arena - 11th August 2018

This year there have been so many international superstars coming to Australia to play for their adoring fans. One such superstar is P!nk whose career started 18 years ago in the year 2000 when she released her debut album, Can't Take Me Home. Since then she has gone on to release six more albums, including her latest album including Beautiful Trauma which has already spawned four singles including What About Us and Revenge (featuring Eminem).

Now as you can imagine, after an 18 year career a lot of fans are going to want to go to the show and that means it's going to be hard, if not impossible to get tickets. For a few months I had tried and tried to get tickets but was unable to. Then one night I checked and snapped up a C Reserve ticket which was located in the front row of the third elevation at Qudos Bank Arena. I often buy tickets in the third elevation and being a few rows further forward makes such a huge difference to the experience that you have at the show.

There were questions over whether or not she would be able to perform given she'd had to postpone four shows during the week due to a stomach bug. Luckily she was better in time for Saturday night's show, which is the only show I had been able to get seating for.

I arrived at Qudos Bank Arena and the opening act was Australian band, The Rubens who have been around since 2011 and had hits on the Aria Charts.

Normally I'm not a fan of support acts and endure them, but The Rubens definitely impressed. They had charisma, stage presence and their music was actually good. Their vocals and energy was brilliant. It was a great way to get warmed up for the main event.

After their set finished, a DJ from the USA, Kidcupup performed. He was awful. At one point he was so bad I actually had to walk out and when I walked back in had to put my earphones in. He was so bad he actually hurt my ears. Not only were his mixes awful, he had an annoying personality and his stage presence was zero.

Fortunately his set didn't last long and there was a brief break before P!nk came out onto the stage. She came out swinging from a chandelier and opened with Get the Party Stated from her 2001 album Missundaztood. She then dove into the title track of her new album and tour, Beautiful Trauma.

The stage design was absolutely brilliant. It was filled with pink and there were plenty of dancers. Unlike other shows I've been to recently, P!nk's show was a performance, a real spectacle and high energy.

She later sung fan favourites, Just Like a Pill and Who Knew which really showcased her voice. It's one thing to hear P!nk on the radio but it's another to hear her in real life.

During the show she covered 90s anthems, Smells like Teen Spirit (Nirvana) and Just a Girl (No Doubt) before launching into hits Just Give Me a Reason and Try from her album The Truth About Love. During the former, her co singer, Nate Ruse appeared by television to sing his parts as he has done in other P!nk tours.

Aside from the great singing, the show itself was brilliant. The next part of the show opened with a fun video titled, Revengeland which was designed to take the audience on a journey about all the angst you go through when a relationship ends. There were blow up characters on the stage while P!nk sung.

Then during the song, Just Like Fire there were actual pyrotechnics in the chorus and even though I was in the front row of the third elevation, I could actually feel the fire where I was sitting. It was such a cool effect.

Like most celebrities, P!nk did make the show political prior to singing What About Us. I could have done without it but I won't hold it against her. She also sung a reflective song from her new album, Barbies, which is about how she wishes she could go back to playing with her Barbies before she had responsibilities.

During a P!nk show her dancers, band and back up singers are basically her family and at one minute she introduced them all on stage and then brought her daughter Willow up on stage. I didn't get a picture because the moment was so brief but it was pretty cool.

In all of P!nk's shows she swings from a bungee cord over the audience and thanks everyone for being at the show, so I'd been looking forward to this. The crowd went absolutely wild during the encore of So What and it was extremely awesome just to see what she's capable of.

There was a brief pause when she went off stage and then she returned for an accoustic rendition of Glitter in the Air from her fifth studio album, Funhouse.

Having been a fan of P!nk for 18 years it was awesome to see her live and I would have to give her a 5/5.

I'll be posting a review after her friend, Katy Perry performs on Tuesday as well.