The “Anti” tour is Rihanna’s attempt at understatement. At a stop at the SAP Center in San Jose on Friday, May 6, the 28-year-old Barbadian singer, known for her racy Instragram posts and raunchy pop hits, opened the concert not with one of her many club bangers but the mournful piano ballad “Stay.” as she stood draped in an oversize canvas hoodie atop a bare white platform in the middle of the arena floor.
The no-frills performance — simple, unflashy and oddly impersonal — set the tone for the show, which was largely marked by its beige hues and disjointed mood. It was one of two weekend Bay Area stops for the megastar, who also performed at Oracle Arena in Oakland on Saturday, May 7.
Rihanna, who made her appearance 30 minutes after her set’s scheduled start time, also made a vague reference to some backstage troubles but promised the sold-out room, “I’m going to do my best to make it up to you all.”
She may have, but from the crowd it felt like the multiplatinum-selling singer, who recently broke the Beatles’ record as the artist who has spent the most weeks at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, had trouble finding her place during the 90-minute set. Her approach of cramming in two dozen songs while relegating some of her biggest singles into quick-fire medleys felt businesslike, almost cruel.
“Umbrella” was clipped; “We Found Love” was performed in passing during one of her many costume changes — and most likely on tape; while her unenthusiastic run through “Work” felt exactly as described.
Rihanna spent the first part of the concert squirming on a clear plastic catwalk above the crowd — revealing she was not wearing pants but rather some very high reaching boots — dancing along and occasionally mouthing the words to the numbers “Woo” and “Sex With Me” before making it to the actual stage, where she joined her live band.
Everything about the production, from the arsenal of dancers who looked like extras from the cantina scene in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to the harsh, industrial tones of the music — perhaps inspired by Kanye West’s recent road follies — felt cold.
The breezy Caribbean vibes of songs like “Rude Boy” and “Man Down” felt chaotic, altered to match the spaced-out mood of Rihanna’s latest album, also titled “Anti.”
Many critics and fans have called her eighth studio recording her most underwhelming release yet. Coming after Rihanna’s first extended break since dropping her debut in 2005, when she was 17, it took three years to make — and then some. Its release date was pushed back several times because of production issues before it dropped in January.
The songs she pulled from “Anti” felt directionless, particularly “Desperado,” a mid-tempo rocker with a giant honking guitar solo right in the middle.
Rihanna is bigger than the music now — a star of social media, couture designers and supermarket tabloids. The songs are there simply to serve as a foundation for the business empire, which ranges from a $25 million endorsement deal with Samsung to her own line of Manolo Blahnik shoes.
The concert was arranged in four thematic parts, but they all felt alien — seriously, the stage director must have watched “The Force Awakens” like a hundred times — until a final flourish when Rihanna seemed to suddenly snap to life, her body, voice and music regaining its familiar fluid splendor for sweaty, knockout performances of “Diamonds,” “FourFiveSeconds” and “Love on the Brain.”
Delivered together, they served as reminders that she’s at her best when she’s completely unrestrained.
The designated opening act, Houston rapper Travis Scott, never appeared, sending out an all-caps apology on Twitter that said, in part, “Craziest accident happen which got us in late.”
The no-frills performance — simple, unflashy and oddly impersonal — set the tone for the show, which was largely marked by its beige hues and disjointed mood. It was one of two weekend Bay Area stops for the megastar, who also performed at Oracle Arena in Oakland on Saturday, May 7.
Rihanna, who made her appearance 30 minutes after her set’s scheduled start time, also made a vague reference to some backstage troubles but promised the sold-out room, “I’m going to do my best to make it up to you all.”
She may have, but from the crowd it felt like the multiplatinum-selling singer, who recently broke the Beatles’ record as the artist who has spent the most weeks at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, had trouble finding her place during the 90-minute set. Her approach of cramming in two dozen songs while relegating some of her biggest singles into quick-fire medleys felt businesslike, almost cruel.
“Umbrella” was clipped; “We Found Love” was performed in passing during one of her many costume changes — and most likely on tape; while her unenthusiastic run through “Work” felt exactly as described.
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| Rihanna strips down in San Jose, but it’s not what you might expect |
Everything about the production, from the arsenal of dancers who looked like extras from the cantina scene in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to the harsh, industrial tones of the music — perhaps inspired by Kanye West’s recent road follies — felt cold.
The breezy Caribbean vibes of songs like “Rude Boy” and “Man Down” felt chaotic, altered to match the spaced-out mood of Rihanna’s latest album, also titled “Anti.”
Many critics and fans have called her eighth studio recording her most underwhelming release yet. Coming after Rihanna’s first extended break since dropping her debut in 2005, when she was 17, it took three years to make — and then some. Its release date was pushed back several times because of production issues before it dropped in January.
The songs she pulled from “Anti” felt directionless, particularly “Desperado,” a mid-tempo rocker with a giant honking guitar solo right in the middle.
Rihanna is bigger than the music now — a star of social media, couture designers and supermarket tabloids. The songs are there simply to serve as a foundation for the business empire, which ranges from a $25 million endorsement deal with Samsung to her own line of Manolo Blahnik shoes.
The concert was arranged in four thematic parts, but they all felt alien — seriously, the stage director must have watched “The Force Awakens” like a hundred times — until a final flourish when Rihanna seemed to suddenly snap to life, her body, voice and music regaining its familiar fluid splendor for sweaty, knockout performances of “Diamonds,” “FourFiveSeconds” and “Love on the Brain.”
Delivered together, they served as reminders that she’s at her best when she’s completely unrestrained.
The designated opening act, Houston rapper Travis Scott, never appeared, sending out an all-caps apology on Twitter that said, in part, “Craziest accident happen which got us in late.”
