Beyoncé: The I Am... Tour

On Sunday night, June 21st, 2009, Beyoncé Knowles kicked off the US leg of her I Am... Tour to promote her 3rd (solo) studio album, I Am... Sasha Fierce. And I was there.

It was pretty impossible to tell where we were sitting from the information on the ticket, but when we got to our seats, we realized that we were in the 2nd row from the Diva section (which meant somewhere around the 15th row), and about 15 or 20 meters stage right of the smaller B stage.

Someone had said that Solange was supposed to be opening, but the song we heard in the hallway had way too much boom to be from Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams. Just as we walked in, the music ended, and we saw a pack of females walking off stage. "Damnit! Was that a new girl group?! I need a new obsession, and we missed them!" Turns out it was the new girl group from Rich Harrison (producer of Amerie's "One Thing", Jennifer Lopez's "Get Right" and Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" and "Freakum Dress") called Rich Girl (click here to see their very hot video and here for their amazing a cappella "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" arrangement).

We got to our seats just in time for about 20 minutes of commercials for Matthew Knowles' "Music World" label and Beyoncé/Solange endorsement spots. Then the lights went down. The curtain opened just a bit, and a silhouette (mostly hair) glided forward in front of a white light.

"Is that Solange?!"

Her costume had a huge ornate bow on the butt, which made the song's signature booty pop ("uh oh, uh oh") hilarious.

She did a great opening set before a costume change for her slower songs from the new album (which included a bridal-like skirt and veil for "Ave Maria"). She also had some unexpected songs in the lineup, including the an actual "Ave Maria", Sarah McLachlan's "In the Arms of an Angel", and this 90s favorite:

At one point, we thought she had appeared on the B stage near us, but it turned out to be a body double. Seconds later, she appeared on stage in a gold dress and was hoisted about 50 feet above the main stage, the serpentine skirt undulating below her before it dropped to the stage below. She then floated and flipped over the crowd (wearing the Christian-Louboitin style "Green Light" heels, but in glittery gold) to the B stage.

SoHo Crush: "If only it were her sister: we could call it Cirque du Solange!"

One of the most magical moments in the show was when she started "Irreplaceable".

Interesting note: She definitely quoted the far less popular male version of the song (around 2:55). Also, when people were pointing and gawking at the main stage, it was because they saw themselves on the JumboTron. SoHo Crash was the center of the screen for a few seconds.

Did you notice the guy in the red shirt near the stage? He and his group of über gays were seated right behind us, but they somehow worked their way to the edge of the smaller stage. They had been screaming "Legendary!" intermittently throughout the show. At one point, Beyoncé stopped and asked Red Shirt his name.

"LEGENDARYYYYYYYYY!"

"What's your name?!"

"LEGENDARYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

Laughing to the rest of the audience: "No, baby, tell me your name!"

SoHo Crush: "Out of the 40,000 people in the building, she hands the one gay retard the mic."

Me: "He reminds me of Timmy from South Park."

When she sang "Ego", I have to say that I was bracing myself for the end of the bridge. That "sing it with piano" part sounds like she needs a sip of tea (or a vocal warmup!) on the album. But she made the smart move of singing it mostly in her chest voice, much to my relief. It sounded great.

Along with singing some Destiny's Child songs, she also danced to tracks without singing before returning to the stage for another slow set.

The end of the concert was a total high. They started playing "Single Ladies" while showing a montage of YouTube videos to show on the JumboTron (of course, Shane Mercado was first). It was the perfect build up to the actual performance. But that wasn't the end. She closed with a highly emotional delivery of "Halo". After a long list of acknowledgments, she thanked the audience with the following message.

It was an amazing concert, and I feel so lucky to have experienced it so up close. And props to Pretty Betty for hooking up the tix! I have a shitload more videos, so I'll try and post those on YouTube in the next few days.

Did I mention that I made SoHo Crush giggle and blush when I lip synched "Hello" (not "Halo" but "Hello") to him? Yeah.

Click here to check out my album review of I Am... Sasha Fierce.

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And in a shameless attempt to stir Google traffic: I Am... Sasha Fierce, Madison Square Garden, 6/21/09, Diva, New York, Alanis Morissette, You Oughta Know, At Last, Etta James, Jay Z, surprise guest appearance, harness.