Pussycat Dolls On Tour // Doll Domination Tour // Reviews

Reviewed by Matt (PCDWorld)
Venue: o2 Arena, London, 28th January 2009

Firstly, London's transport system, seriously Bus was late, train went at 30mph, underground "due to a signal fault at North Greenwich (The o2 Arena stop) .. great start to the concert.

Anyway, arrived a little after 6pm, never been at the venue that early before, queues of people waiting to enter the venue (thank goodness for the o2 priority) had a look at the merchandise (£55 for a hoodie! - ouch) and bought my USB thing.

Eventually got into the venue and found my seat, was in Block A1, Row H.

First up, Lady GaGa. Great booking this, couldn't ask for more, UK #1 single, great songs (buy her album!)

Next up, Ne-Yo. A entertainer, more for the ladies, but his show was too long. When it ended I felt like I've just sat through an entire concert by Ne-Yo (at 50 odd minutes its not a quick act) - again a huge name to have as a support act, but they should have allowed Lady GaGa another one or so and cut Ne-Yo down by 10mins, he was on just a little bit too long.

Finally the main act. The Pussycat Dolls, good introductory video, if rather annoying "baby" type vocals on the tape!

The show for me is rather divided into sections, the opening is great even if the opening song isn't the most crowd grabbing, but the show moves at a frantic pace from the start, before you know it you are 1/3rd of the way through the show and its hardly started!

Onto the solos, now I think this is a great idea, badly done. For starters Nicole mentions "well you know my girls have solo songs on the album ..." which gives a few confused looks around the venue, she's obviously not been briefed that these where omitted from the UK release. I love the solo section but I feel they would be better spaced out throughout the show, the show seems to lose some momentum at this point after a rather breathtaking start, the new mixes of I Don't Need A Man really work with the huge bassy speakers.

The solo's move on which after a video interlude gives Melody her second solo song of the night, ok its a cover of Big Spender, in a "old school" section but it proves that she is more than ready to take over vocals from Nicole on more songs.

Magic & Bottle Pop are great tour songs, although on this show we also had the entire Pussycat Dolls crew in the audience, including Ashley's Mum! So not to miss out on a chance, Robin appears on stage during the Bottle Pop "get the crowd on the stage" moment, which she seemingly won (which seems rather unfair) but she gave her USB to someone in the crowd and the others got the usual t-shirts (which is a fair prize looking at the price of them!)

Another niggle, although I understand why its there, is Nicole's second solo of the night, Halo. This tour is lacking on the slow songs, even I Hate This Part is ramped up to the dance remix at the end, they obviously need to perform StickWitU as that was a #1 single, but they can't really go straight from Dance to Slowness in a single swoop so they've obviously decided to use Halo as the mid-point. It's ok, it serves its purpose but is a bit of a talking point for me.

The show ends on a major bang with Don't Cha and When I Grow Up (despite tons of people leaving, its like hello the lights are off, Health & Safety will need the lights on when the venue is emptying ...) which ends the show on the same high and energy that the show starts on.

The show is far bigger than their first tour, and far bigger. I made comments on my review of the first show that they needed more, this show had more, pyro, flames, dancers, fireworks, percustionists ... sour point.

Ne-Yo had a great live band, it adds to the show for me, great they had 2 percussionists on stage, but not 100% sure what they really added to the show. They still need that full live band, if Ne-Yo can rock the joint with his, the PCD can rock it with theirs ...

Despite that, this show was miles better than their last tour, it hit almost all the right notes, all in all it was a great evening, even if Ne-Yo's set was a bit too long. Great show, not all dominated by Nicole, they acted like a group for most of the time too.

I'd give this show a strong score of 4/5 just hope if/when we get a 3rd Tour that they give us the full wack!

Here's to album 3 and another tour!

- Matt
PCDWorld