Bangerz by Miley Cyrus

          Terrified that April 8^th would turn out the same for PNC Arena as the Time WaZrner Cable Arena in Charlotte experienced the night before, the Raleigh crowd sat anxiously in their seats waiting for a crazy performance form Miley Cyrus. After a horrendous week of the flu, her beloved dog’s death, and a canceled show the night before in Charlotte, Raleigh had low expectations for Miley Cyrus’s Bangerz concert, yet Miley undoubtedly blew the crowd away.

            Miley Cyrus certainly has made a name for herself in the past year and made headline after headline ranging from her hair, her break-up, her twerking, and so much more. Though there’s plenty of negative things to say about the crazy ex-disney channel star 21 year old, it’s hard to claim she has no talent or can’t put on a good show. Too many won’t even give Bangerz a listen because of the hit song “We Can’t Stop” and the other stereotypes held with Miley Cyrus. When you really listen to all 16 songs of Bangerz, it reveals slow songs about the heartache of failed relationships, upbeat dance tunes, girl power rebellious hits, and ultimately every song on the album is hard not to dance and sing along to. Miley’s live performance fell nothing short of the way her recording sounds and the entire 3 hours of the concert were phenomenal.

            As the instagram feeds close down, and the hundreds of groups of girls put their tongues away for pictures, a long pink twisty slide protrudes out of a giant picture of Miley’s face, and of course there’s Miley Cyrus herself sliding down her own tongue and kicking off the Bangerz concert with the song “Bangerz”. This is the first time you catch a glimpse of the midget and 6’10 dancers she dances along with the whole show.

            You can easily lose track of the amount of leotards that Miley changed into during the concert, but it ranged from a bedazzled American flag get-up to a leotard covered in marijuana leaves. The concert was most definitely inappropriate, crazy, based around drugs and sex, and there shouldn’t have been anyone there under the age of 16, but through her crazy dance moves and props, Miley found a way to belt out each note of her set list.

Miley’s stage set up, props, costumes and the whole ordeal were definetly crazy, strange, out of this world, you name it. From a giant, and I mean giant, inflatable husky dog that seemed to appear from nowhere, to a tongue slide, to a giant Barbie car, huge bed, huge Ludacris bobble head costume, she had it all – large and crazy. A lot of concert-goers would relate some of her graphics and videos on the big screen to that of the biggest electric DJs, which is directly aimed at LCD and Ecstasy users. If you saw Hannah Montana in concert 6 years ago with your 9 year old, there’s no way you’d want to bring them to this concert. That was one of the best parts, the majority of the audience was girls in high school, which meant they were all the ripe age for when Hannah Montana aired on Disney Channel. Many of Miley’s fans have essentially grown up with her, and now that they are going through parties and relationships, Bangerz contains song after song of hits for high school girls.

Miley started the show off with three of the biggest party songs on the album, “SMS”, “4X4”, and

“Love, Money, Party” – pretty much every big party anthem except for “We Can’t Stop” and the crowd knew that would be saved for last. Miley then slowed it down with “My Darlin’”, and “Maybe You’re Right” which led into the incredible “FU”.

The classic lighters went into the air – or modern day lighters a.k.a. the flashlight of your smart phone – for “Maybe You’re Right”. Back to back songs about Miley’s ex-fiance had the girl-power of the stadium going wild. The sad, slow beat and lyrics of “Maybe You’re Right” took the teenage girl from “You may think I’m crazy / that I’m lost and foolish / leaving you behind / maybe you’re right” to the angry, crazy lyrics of FU “I’ve got two-oo-oo letters for you / One of them is F / and the other one’s U”. The beautiful red gown Miley was in for “Maybe You’re Right” got ripped off into a short, spicy red leotard for “FU”; the sequence and set up was perfect for the “break-up” segment of the song.   
                                     

Though a lot of Miley’s fans hoped for some old songs so they could relive their middle school and elementary school jam-session days, they were only fulfilled with “Can’t Be Tamed” and “Party in the U.S.A”. “Can’t Be Tamed” was the strange massive, creepy looking dog scene that you weren’t quite sure how to react to. Raleigh awaited for the tears to start flowing as they had in New Jersey and Brooklyn previous nights. The blow up dog was a huge replica of her dog who had just passed away earlier that night. Miley Cyrus had broken down in previous nights, and in New Jersey, cried for almost the entire show about her beloved dog Floyd. Miley pulled through that night though and sang “Can’t Be Tamed” without break. Just prior to this crazy stage prop floating on to stage, one of Miley’s very interesting and fun-loving transitions played on the big screen while she changed into her getup. 

At the start of the show, Miley had announced if she was taking a little extra time bag stage she was “either puking her brains out or having an emotional breakdown”. Despite her mess of a week, Miley kept it professional yet personal as a real artist has to do.

            “Can’t be Tamed” brought the crowd about halfway through the show and any doubts the fans had about Miley’s performance were certainly shot to hell by now. Miley’s voice was unstoppable and hitting every note, her dancing was crazy, talented, and ultimately just entertaining, her stage set-up, backdrops, backup dancers, videos, and more were clearly out of this world, and every word Miley spoke to the crowd was genuine, sober, and intimate.

            Miley’s slowest song on the album “Adore You” made the crowd wince and let out an “oh no” when a big engagement ring appeared on the stage. Everyone expected some direct references to her very recent ex-fiance Liam Hemsworth, but instead Miley made the crowd crazy with a “Kiss Cam” while she absolutely beautifully, and just like on the track, sang “Adore You”. Everyone in the arena was swaying, laughing, and singing along to “Adore You” while they watched the crazy couples in the front row fight to get on the big screen.

            During one of Miley’s crazy transition on stage, she somehow appeared at the opposite side of the arena, towards those with standing seats at the back. Accompanying Miley’s laid-back spot on her stool were just a couple of guys on the drums and guitar. Miley broke out some of her favorite covers to sing and spent almost 30 minutes just sitting talking to the crowd. Miley brought the pace down with some Lana Del Rey, Coldplay, and Dolly Parton covers; she definitely did the stars justice and kept the crowd rolling with her jokes and personality shining off the little stage at the back.

            Miley had reached the last stretch of her concert when she returned to the big stage. She would perform just three more songs until her stellar double encore. Miley’s unusually long set list as well as her eccentric stage sets kept the star up and dancing and singing for the entire three and a half hours, even when recovering from mental and physical illness.

            The “final” ballet of the night was a mix between slow, steady, belt-it-out jam and an upbeat, bouncy song with “Someone Else”. When she left the stage for the “last” time, the crowd went wild. Though Miley tells every crowd their “the loudest and craziest”, it was hard to imagine a louder arena with more energy and excitement than PNC Arena at that time. Usually encore chants last maybe a few minutes before it starts to very slowly tune out, the crowds did not stop cheering for Miley to get her crazy self-back on the big stage. Sure enough, not after long, the opening beats to “We Can’t Stop” came overhead and the arena somehow became even louder. Miley’s crazy encore to her three biggest hits ever, “We Can’t Stop”, “Wrecking Ball”, and “Party in the U.S.A.” definitely ended her Bangerz concert with a bang.

            “Wrecking Ball” was done absolutely beautifully alone on stage. With no cats, psychedelic space ships, giant dogs, back-up dancers, or cars, Miley Cyrus showcased her vocal ability before coming back on stage one more time in crazy patriotic gear.

            There’s no doubt Miley Cyrus has guts. She does what she wants when she wants, just as “We Can’t Stop” says, “It’s my mouth I can say what I want to”. Though the no-longer-teenage star has been bombarded with ridicule and criticism, she still comes through for her fans no matter what. It’s no secret Miley Cyrus can be inappropriate, rude, and frankly a little scary at times, but she has a talent that can’t be mimicked.

            Bangerz as a whole didn’t come with sky-high standards when the public thought Miley had fallen into the deep end with her “crazy” new short hair, because obviously the length and color of your hair is directly correlated with your success as an artist and your sanity as a human being. With her first real, professional tour and album, Miley has given her “Smilers” an overwhelming amount to smile about.