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My First Madonna Concert
by Bret Hyde, Access Hollywood staffer
So last night, the hottest ticket in New York was the Madonna show at Roseland, a 3000 person ballroom in the heart of Manhattan's theater district, around the corner from Letterman. People lined up down 52nd Street and back up Broadway (some up to four days!) for a chance to see the Material Mom in a more - ahem - intimate setting than her usual room twenty blocks south at Madison Square Garden. The occasion for the show was the release of Hard Candy, Madonna's latest album of dance music which was produced by, among others, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, and Pharrell Williams. I was sent by Access to record the video footage of the concert you might have seen on our show. I had never seen Madonna perform live before, and since I wasn't about to shell out $300 to see her any other time, I was curious to say the least about the spectacle I was about to witness.
I showed up at Roseland promptly at 8 only to find out that Madonna was not going to take the stage until 10. After I was finally allowed in a little before 9, we were escorted to the press area upstairs. As I passed by the stage, I noticed a case full of guitars, which struck me as odd seeing as how this was supposed to be a dance album, and Madonna is ranked somewhere between Mick Jagger and Bono for their guitar prowess. I plugged my deck into the box and now had an hour to mingle backstage. Now let me say upfront, I never saw Madonna backstage. They were keeping her in some room far, far away from the press until she went out on stage. However, I did pass the time with her dancers and backup singers.
Also Rosie O'Donnell passed through and Josh Groban hung out following his performance on Letterman earlier that night.
The craft service table had a bunch of sandwiches and chips laid out, along with the requisite coffee urns and cooler full of water and Diet Cokes, but it was festooned with signs reminding the people who were not part of the tour that the food was not for them, and yes, that meant you.
The opening DJ set the mood by playing various candy themed songs as the hour grew closer - I Want Candy, Candy Girl - you get the drift, until finally it was 10 o'clock, and the DJ booth spun around to reveal Mrs. Ritchie resplendent in black and perched on a golden throne. This might have been a one-off concert, but she certainly didn't skimp on the showmanship. LED screens, lasers, HD cameras on dollies - this might have been a scaled down version of Madonna's regular show, but it still blows most other acts out of the water (An aside-KISS played the Lane Bryant fashion show at Roseland a few years ago, complete with full makeup and pyro - That was awesome).
Madonna opened with the title track from the album, and needless to say the crowd was very excited to see her. Which brings me back to the guitars. A few songs in, Madge was handed a guitar and strummed the opening riff to Satisfaction.
"Did you guys think you were at a Rolling Stones show? F*** that", she said.
Now keeping in mind that the Stones are pretty much the only band around that can beat Madonna in terms of longevity and average ticket price, it seemed like an apt reference. And while I would have loved to hear Madonna's take on the tune, she instead played Hung Up.
The fellow who inducted Madonna into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year, Justin Timberlake, joined her onstage for Four Minutes. Now I've seen a number of shows at Roseland (My Morning Jacket, Trey Anastasio, Gov't Mule, Jennifer Lopez' record release show, etc.) and the place can get pretty tight pretty quickly. All I can say is thank God I was upstairs and not on the floor when Timberlake came out. The place went nuts. They didn't care that Madonna is nearly twice as old as Justin or that the lyrics included such immortal lines like:
Madonna:
I want somebody to speed it up for me then take it down slow
There's enough room for both
Justin:
Girl I can hit it back just gotta show me where it's at
Are you ready to go?
It was the highlight of the evening.
It is generally the policy of most venues to only let TV crews record a minute or two of selected songs, and such was the case here. Following the JT/Madonna duet, the publicists told us it was time to pack up and go, and since as it turned out, Madonna was only going to play for a few minutes longer (bringing the total running time of the show to a whopping 38 minutes).
As I exited through the back door of Roseland, a crowd had gathered across 53rd Street. The music was still audible through the walls, and these people had gathered to hear what they could from an artist who, if no longer in her prime, still had the power to command the attention of her loyal fans. All in all, a memorable night for everyone lucky enough to be there.
$300 for a ticket and i thought the price of gas was high. does madge still have a brit accent. maybe that's what brittany was imitating