20171026 Janet Jackson: State of the World Tour
Janet Jackson: State of the World Tour Public · with Janet Jackson Going clock Thursday, October 26 at 8 PM Allstate Arena 6920
Mannheim Rd, Rosemont, Illinois 60018
Janet Jackson’s comeback tour doesn’t open with the typical grandiose splashes pop stars often bring to arenas. No pyrotechnic explosions, no stunts to make her grand entrance.
Instead, a flurry of images referencing the Syrian civil war, white supremacist rallies and unarmed black men killed by police flash in front of the audience before she emerges, her visage obscured by a declaration promising, “We will not be silent"
“Are you ready to party?” asked Janet Jackson at the Allstate Arena on Thursday night, but the deadly serious look on her face implied anything but fun was in store.
So much has happened since 2015 and the release of her last album “Unbreakable.” She became (at 50) a first-time mother, canceled a tour, separated from the child’s father and, oh yeah, watched the country devolve into a morass of divisiveness and negativity. Right from the start, with a video montage of police shootings, poverty, white nationalists and other miseries, the rescheduled and renamed “State of the World” tour and Jackson alike were in full socio-political mode, the mood further fueled by “The Knowledge” and “State of the World,” both from her righteous 1989 “Rhythm Nation 1814” album.
But then came the party. With a ruthlessness every bit the equal of her activism, Jackson suddenly shifted gears, set aside current events and delivered a relentless barrage of hits, all squeezed into the span of a mere 30 minutes, each song replete with intricate choreography, with Jackson perfectly in step with her well-honed dancers. Yet the likes of “Control,” “Nasty” and “What Have You Done for Me Lately,” with their defiant messages, industrial beats and militaristic choreography, felt fully contemporary in context.
But then Jackson shifted yet again for an extended set of baby-making music. Seated on a stool and cooing “Twenty Foreplay” and “Come Back to Me,” eventually segueing to the sultry “Got ‘til It’s Gone” and “That’s the Way Love Goes,” the singer somehow made the mood swing work. She even returned from one costume swap dressed down, in a relatable ensemble of oversize denim jacket, track pants and flannel shirt tied around her waist, relaxed and laid back before, seamlessly, escalating once again into “If,” the angry “What About” and the galvanizing “Rhythm Nation.”
Given the tour’s purported theme, that would have been a good place to stop, but Jackson instead ended the night not with hits, slow jams or strident message songs, but more personal affirmations. “Black Eagle,” “New Agenda” and “Well Traveled” aren’t the types of songs to send people to the dance floor or the streets, but having started the show with a message of urgency and alarm, Jackson left the stage on notes of positivity.
“I don't know where this journey will end/ ’cause the world keeps calling me,” she sang, seemingly at peace with, if not the state of the world, then certainly the state of Janet Jackson.
Read MoreMannheim Rd, Rosemont, Illinois 60018
Janet Jackson’s comeback tour doesn’t open with the typical grandiose splashes pop stars often bring to arenas. No pyrotechnic explosions, no stunts to make her grand entrance.
Instead, a flurry of images referencing the Syrian civil war, white supremacist rallies and unarmed black men killed by police flash in front of the audience before she emerges, her visage obscured by a declaration promising, “We will not be silent"
“Are you ready to party?” asked Janet Jackson at the Allstate Arena on Thursday night, but the deadly serious look on her face implied anything but fun was in store.
So much has happened since 2015 and the release of her last album “Unbreakable.” She became (at 50) a first-time mother, canceled a tour, separated from the child’s father and, oh yeah, watched the country devolve into a morass of divisiveness and negativity. Right from the start, with a video montage of police shootings, poverty, white nationalists and other miseries, the rescheduled and renamed “State of the World” tour and Jackson alike were in full socio-political mode, the mood further fueled by “The Knowledge” and “State of the World,” both from her righteous 1989 “Rhythm Nation 1814” album.
But then came the party. With a ruthlessness every bit the equal of her activism, Jackson suddenly shifted gears, set aside current events and delivered a relentless barrage of hits, all squeezed into the span of a mere 30 minutes, each song replete with intricate choreography, with Jackson perfectly in step with her well-honed dancers. Yet the likes of “Control,” “Nasty” and “What Have You Done for Me Lately,” with their defiant messages, industrial beats and militaristic choreography, felt fully contemporary in context.
But then Jackson shifted yet again for an extended set of baby-making music. Seated on a stool and cooing “Twenty Foreplay” and “Come Back to Me,” eventually segueing to the sultry “Got ‘til It’s Gone” and “That’s the Way Love Goes,” the singer somehow made the mood swing work. She even returned from one costume swap dressed down, in a relatable ensemble of oversize denim jacket, track pants and flannel shirt tied around her waist, relaxed and laid back before, seamlessly, escalating once again into “If,” the angry “What About” and the galvanizing “Rhythm Nation.”
Given the tour’s purported theme, that would have been a good place to stop, but Jackson instead ended the night not with hits, slow jams or strident message songs, but more personal affirmations. “Black Eagle,” “New Agenda” and “Well Traveled” aren’t the types of songs to send people to the dance floor or the streets, but having started the show with a message of urgency and alarm, Jackson left the stage on notes of positivity.
“I don't know where this journey will end/ ’cause the world keeps calling me,” she sang, seemingly at peace with, if not the state of the world, then certainly the state of Janet Jackson.
