As captured during this Madison Square Garden presentation of her Velvet Rope tour this lavish two-hour concert special, originally produced for HBO, offers ample proof of Janet Jackson's fierce ambitions. Whitney, Celine, and Mariah can run circles around her small, sweet voice, but Janet brings a tough, muscular power to her live performances that none of those peers can approach, storming through myriad set and costume changes, and sustaining an aerobic pace through elaborate dance routines. .. This is a spectacular production of lights, dance, energy, and of course Janet's total control of the stage. Janet brings her distinctive vocals, sweet melodies and harder-edged dance rhythms to these songs: Velvet Rope, If, You, Let's Wait Awhile/Again, Control medley: Control/The Pleasure Principle/What Have You Done For Me Lately/Nasty/Throb, Escapade medley: Escapade/When I Think of You/Miss You Much/Runaway/Love Will Never Do [Without You], Alright, I Get Lonely, Anytime Anyplace, Rope Burn, Black Cat, What About, Rhythm Nation, Special, That's the Way Love Goes, Got 'Til It's Gone, Go Deep, Together Again. This show also has Jackson's own flavor of soft-core erotica(the "Rope Burn" sequence, in which an ecstatic male fan is lashed to a chair and gets to watch his favorite sex object pole-dance). and she fronts a formidable battalion of dancers, singers, and musicians to make her points. While it's obvious that the musical performances have been nipped, tucked, and polished to an acceptable sheen, Janet earns her props through sheer willpower. . However as I think Janet Jackson has alot of Energy on stage but I found this show was Borderline on Good&Badl ( i didn't get into the concert until the Jester segment started and it lost me during the final part which started with the song SPECIAL). I Applaud the Energy and Drive She has but Her Vocals don't Hold up for long and Certain Songs work while others don't. Janet's performance was glitzy... but sadly something was missing that final sparkle, ...my advice is puchase Janet's later DVDS... 7/10
Review of Janet: The Velvet Rope
