P!nk soars high in a spectacular Charlotte concert unlike anything you’ve seen

There are certain concerts where you know you are seeing an artist at the literal height of her powers, and so it was with P!nk Saturday night at a sold-out Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

For nearly two hours, P!nk owned the stage, as well as the vast space above it. She must have spent 20 minutes suspended in the air at one time or the other, singing while careening around the arena, or hanging upside down 50 feet above the stage, or sling-shotting herself from the floor to the ceiling.

Once, P!nk did a tandem routine with another aerialist, who held her suspended high in midair only with his feet, while she belted out another song. It’s the sort of spectacle you really must see to believe. There are no nets anywhere, and many gasps from the crowd of the “Oh my God, what if she falls?” variety. I can’t imagine what her insurance agent thinks.

This isn’t a new trick for P!nk, but it remains a startling one. Yes, her concert tickets were expensive, but with P!nk you also get the added bonus that this 39-year-old mother of two could pack up and join Cirque du Soleil at any time if the singing thing doesn’t work out.

It works out, though.

There may not be a single song in the current pop/rock universe that lends itself to an opening number any better than “Get This Party Started,” which is where P!nk naturally began. When an enormous pink curtain dropped, her dancers began performing a dazzling bit of choreography that no one paid any attention to because P!nk was swinging from a rotating pink chandelier, 50 feet above the stage, clad in a black sequined bodysuit. Now that’s called making an entrance.

From there came an energetic, snarling sprint through 25 more songs, spanning 20 years and seven albums. P!nk’s powerful voice reached the upper deck, which was necessary because unlike at your average Charlotte Hornets game, it was entirely full up there.

This tour supports P!nk’s “Beautiful Trauma” album, which actually debuted in 2017. The tour has been so successful, adding so many sold-out dates and going on for so long, that P!nk has managed to make another album in the meantime that comes out in April.

No concert is completely “Perfect,” although P!nk’s rendition of that big hit was superb (she sang the clean version). With P!nk’s vast catalog, she just can’t get to everything. While “Just Like A Pill,” “Who Knew,” “Try,” “What About Us” and “Just Give Me A Reason” were all fiery highlights, I would have liked to have heard “Don’t Let Me Get Me” and “U + Ur Hand” as well.

A few more video screens and a little more interaction with the crowd would also have been nice. P!nk is smart, opinionated and funny – a fine combination for verbal interplay. But it was more than an hour into the show before she said much to the audience beyond the standard “Are you all ready to have a good time tonight?”

When she did pause to talk, P!nk told a small story about a walk that she and her daughter Willow took around Charlotte Friday. (Willow would later dash on-stage for a cute cameo).

“I took my daughter out yesterday around the town and you all are the friendliest, nicest, most fun people!” P!nk said. “I shared my doughnut with the table next to us. It was a really good doughnut.”

Then, some irony: While P!nk was noting all this Southern hospitality she had embraced, an altercation broke out in the stands about 50 yards from where the rock star was standing. Security guards ushered several people out of the concert.

“Aww, no fighting,” P!nk said, suddenly sounding very much like the mother of a seven-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son that she is. “There’s enough fighting in the world! No more of that.”

She told one more brief story that went like this: “I once fell off a stage into a moat, because the bartender had blinking nipple piercings. And I got distracted and fell into a moat. And I wanted to die. But his nipples were amazing!”

Funny, right? I wouldn’t have minded hearing more about that, and also more about where to find that really good doughnut.

But P!nk wasn’t about the talking. And that’s OK. Cher went off on a 15-minute monologue at her concert in Charlotte in January, showing you certainly can have too much of a good thing.

P!nk was instead about the music, and the air above it.

And you know what? Let her do it any way she wants if she’s going to bring that sort of heat, night after night, on the edge of turning 40.

P!nk’s singular goal at concerts is obviously to show you something spectacular, something you’ve never seen before, something you didn’t really know concerts could do. In this, she succeeds.

P!nk’s next-to-last song was the rock anthem “So What,” and for that one she strapped on a new harness that allowed her to fly around the entire arena, drawing even with the people in the upper deck and occasionally landing like Spiderman on a number of small platforms I hadn’t noticed until then.

Once, from about 100 feet up, she plummeted straight toward the crowd, face-down. Many people shrieked before she came to a quick stop a few feet above their heads.

I mean – seriously? Who else does stuff like that?

P!nk (whose real name is Alecia Moore) grew up in Pennsylvania. The little girl named Alecia loved Madonna, and the woman named P!nk has found the same sweet spot as her idol did. Provocative behavior. Clever song hooks. One-name identity.

It’s not only that, though – P!nk can really sing. Her final encore was “Glitter in the Air,” a ballad she performed in baggy jeans and a simple white shirt.

There were no aerials involved in that one.

But P!nk’s remarkable voice – like the entire evening -- soared just the same.

This story was originally published March 10, 2019 at 10:28 AM.