Kylie Minogue live review: durable pop hits shine like diamonds on Tension Tour
On stage for her new world tour, the 56-year-old singer was magnetic, and despite the surrounding gloss and glitter, it was hard to look anywhere but at this wonder of a performer.
Four songs into Kylie Minogue’s concert in Brisbane on Wednesday night, my companion leaned across and said, “She’s still got it.” His comment was laced with surprise, admiration and perhaps a little relief.
Both aged in our 30s, we’ve never known a time without Minogue in our lives. Omnipresent on music television and radio throughout our childhood with a catalogue of hits stretching back to our birth decade, as a pop cultural force she’s been as dependable as a sunrise.
Omnipresence doesn’t always translate to the concert stage, though. Some acts who’ve been around for a long time struggle to fill a setlist beyond a couple of reliable tent-pole hits that are designed to prop up each show.
Minogue bucks that trend by dropping pop bombs on the regular. After an opening reveal that saw her gracefully descend from the ceiling while sat on a swing and surrounded by diamond-shaped lasers, the Melbourne-born singer-songwriter proceeded to dip into her formidable discography – last year’s Tension II is her 17th album – with contagious glee.
Early on, her 1990 single What Do I Have to Do rubbed up against some of her recent singles, which also skew heavily dance-pop in style; their positioning cleverly serves to highlight her undeniable authority in this realm.
Pop music and longevity are strange bedfellows; it’s not often that popular sounds heard in one decade resonate into the next, as tastes change and audiences move on.
Yet like the diamond she held to her eye on the album cover of 2023’s Tension – for which this tour is named – Minogue is a rare find.
Commercially successful while now into her fifth decade in the public eye, with hits spanning the 1980s to 2020s, this world tour is designed to highlight her unusual dominance in this field. At that task, this show succeeded emphatically.
Her energetic opening bracket concluded with 2000’s Spinning Around, which had much of the crowd on its feet to mimic her moves. No famous gold hotpants in sight, for those wondering, although at one point she did reach back to grab a cheek with each of her hands and give it a shake, provoking screams of adoration from the 9,000-strong throng.
Wearing a sparkling silver outfit complete with thigh-high black boots, Minogue revelled in her first Brisbane show in six years, having issued three albums since she last visited in support of 2018’s country pop-tinged Golden.
Nothing from that release made the cut for this tour, and it’s hard to imagine many fans inside the Brisbane Entertainment Centre were too concerned by the omission, as what she offered instead was a comprehensive romp performed at high volume while backed by eight dancers, a four-piece band and three backing singers.
These supporting musicians were what elevated the show from good to great: although much of her recent material sounds like it was made with electronic arrangements rather than live instruments, in concert her band worked hard to deliver a live pop show par excellence.
Only six shows into a 70-date world tour that will run through to August, the entire contingent was in well-drilled lock-step.
Drums and bass – the latter played both on four strings and on synthesisers – were positioned high in the mix, with guitar and keyboards chiming in to provide more colour as needed. Her three offsider vocalists created a beautiful harmonic bed for the star, who used their sturdy singing as a springboard for her own high notes when needed.
Throughout the show, the 56-year-old singer was magnetic, and despite the surrounding gloss and glitter, it was hard to look anywhere but at this wonder of a performer, whose charisma is as unmissable as the sparkling red jumpsuit she wore for the middle section of a 28-song setlist.
Any lingering doubts about Minogue’s vocal abilities were put to bed mid-set, when she asked for audience requests on a smaller ‘B’ stage set amid the crowd. When a fan surprised her by yelling out Enjoy Yourself – the final track from her second album of the same name, issued in 1989 – the singer promptly delivered an a cappella rendition of the chorus, wowing everyone with an ultimate deep cut that she hadn’t attempted live since 2012.
What got her to the smaller stage was an extended version of Locomotion, her debut single from 1987, which she and her dancers performed while gliding up the aisles past rows of seated fans, who were thrilled to be in the presence of their idol.
From the middle of the arena, she handed out a few white roses while crooning the chorus to Where the Wild Roses Grow – her 1995 collaboration with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – and stunned with an acoustic take on Say Something.
The most dramatic and captivating song choice appeared near the end of the 110-minute show, when smoke filled the stage and Minogue emerged wearing a black hood to perform her trip hop-influenced 1994 single Confide in Me. Coloured by a stirring string sample and well-chosen guitar phrasing, this wonder of a pop song saw her reaching the highest notes in her vocal register and earning plenty of applause.
The stage design, lighting and production were all executed flawlessly, with a handful of confetti cannon showers delivered at peak moments. Her depth of catalogue and utter professionalism made for a superlative show, and as she ran through a few of her biggest hits near the end – Can’t Get You Out of My Head, Padam Padam and Love at First Sight among them – there was time enough to reflect on my companion’s earlier remark. Still got it? Never lost it.
Kylie Minogue’s Tension Tour continues in Brisbane on Thursday and concludes in Sydney (Saturday, Sunday and Monday).
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