Concert review: Janet Jackson at Chicago Theatre
The Janet Jackson hit parade has slowed to a crawl, and younger pop singers have usurped the 44-year-old icon’s iron grip on the charts. If there’s a single memory about her that sticks out over the last decade for folks with only passing interest in pop culture, it’s not her acting in “Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.” It has to do with a certain overblown wardrobe malfunction as she performed at halftime of the 2004 Super Bowl.
But there’s no better way for a performer to remind the world that she’s still kicking than a tightly-choreographed greatest hits show, and that’s exactly what Jackson delivered Monday in the first of three sold-out concerts at the Chicago Theatre. She doesn’t tour much anymore, so for those in attendance this was clearly an event – many of the fans looked as though they were part of the singer’s original “Rhythm Nation” in the late ‘80s.
“I want to be the one in control,” Jackson sang at the outset, and the set had a precision, I’ve-got-something-to-prove authority. Crucially, the concert was less like a soul-less video -- the impression left by so many Jackson extravaganzas in the past -- and more like the work of a still-vital artist determined to showcase her subtle strengths.
Continue reading "Concert review: Janet Jackson at Chicago Theatre" »