By Social Media Editor: Cassie Bondie

If you’ve ever seen P!nk perform live, you know what it feels like to witness a performer who is talented in their trade both in the studio and on the stage. Alecia Moore (a.k.a. P!nk) began her career in 2000, with her single, “There You Go”. Since then, she has released six albums and has sold over 110 million records worldwide. However, it may P!nk’s most recent album that has made her stand out as a contending artist among other singers of this generation.

The Truth About Love, featuring songs like, “Try”, “Just Give Me a Reason”, “True Love”, and “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)”, went on tour in the winter of 2013. The tour came to Michigan first in March, then again on November 6.

This is the night where I come in. Having purchased my mother two tickets for her birthday in July, I was quickly informed that I would be brought along on what was setting up to be the night of my life. For two months, my mother and I would have random exchanges that went something like, “Hey, Mom, guess what we’re doing in 23 days?” Or, as it got closer, “Hey, Cassie, guess where we’re gonna be in 67 hours?”

Now, I want to head this all up by saying that I am in no way a die-hard P!nk fan. Living with my mother, I’ve listened to all of the popular singles since I was little, so I knew all of her basic music (in all truth, I prepped myself so much in anticipation that I probably knew more songs when I showed up at the concert than my mother did). But I wasn’t expecting to be blown out of my seat, which was lucky since we were about three billion feet off the ground in the nosebleed section (I bought the tickets out of a student summer-job salary. You can’t expect stage-side seating from that).

When we first entered the Palace arena and found our seats, I was in so much shock from the height that it took me about 20 minutes to feel comfortable enough to move, let alone stand up and rock along with the opening group. Although, the opening band New Politics was arguably one of the most talented opening acts I have ever seen.

Following the opening, the arena lights came back on and the real crowd starting pouring in. In other words, everyone who didn’t want to come to the concert until nine because they knew the real show wouldn’t be setup until then. My mother and I clicked away on our phones, trying to find words for how excited we were. I found myself bouncing around in my seat, hoping something would happen, even though I’d never been that way at a concert before.

That was when things started to get a little…weird. One minute, I’m looking at a blank screen that is extended from the stage for those of us who, like my mother and me, were too far to get the personal details of the performance, and the next I’m looking at a guy dressed up like a circus performer licking a bald man’s head.

I’m not kidding. This extremely odd guy in a sparkling red outfit walked around the audience for about 15 minutes doing acrobatic tricks, licking people’s heads, stealing women’s drinks, and unbuttoning men’s shirts, all of this shown over the television screen.

This man eventually came onto the stage and introduced himself as the “host” of the show, who was going to take us through a journey to discover “The Truth About Love”. I give a huge kudos to whoever thought of a host, because there really is no better, creative, flowing way to cover up all of the costume changes that are involved in putting a concert together. Sure, he freaked some people out, including me, but the idea itself was very original.

The arena went dark, and then it began. “Raise Your Glass”, one of P!nk’s newer singles, blasted through the room as the artist made her way onto the stage (hooked up to a bungee cord and doing acrobatic tricks, of course). Between the sparks flying from all different directions and the dancers doing more tricks than I had seen in my life, I had absolutely no idea which way to look. It was almost hard to look at the main attraction with everything else there was to see.

That being said, the feeling was so exhilarating and just incredible to watch. The fact that this woman can actually take the stage (or the air above the stage as she did in at least four of her songs), do tricks that most of us can only stare in wonder at, and still stay on pitch and sing with incredible vigor is a feat most aspiring performers dream about. Not to mention the fact that the singer would stop between songs and have very real conversations with the audience.

P!nk had a way of making her audience feel special, even though the tour has done over 100 shows in the past year. She stopped to sign autographs, take presents (one was a Christmas stocking made out of her old album covers), talk to little girls, and once she even autographed a woman’s arm for a future tattoo.

There’s something very real about a performer who isn’t a size zero and can still be beautiful. She doesn’t have to have long hair and wear dresses to be admired. I realized in that concert that P!nk’s music is so powerful because she has a way of being a complete rebel without changing who she is. She encourages girls to be smart, cautious, and different than the crowd, but she’s still cool enough for those girls to listen to when they become teenagers and, later, adults. That really says something about her music.

When the concert ended, I felt a hole inside. I really did. How could it be over? The 180 minutes in that room had gone by more quickly than any school day of mine ever has. That concert, and all of the excitement involved, made me remember why I want to go live in a big city and see the world. It was inspiring, interesting, extremely well-directed, and eye-opening. Very few touring artists can say that about their performances.

“She let down her guard a lot more than normal [with this album],” says senior Keith Hutchins, someone who knows more about P!nk than most official websites. “It’s always really impressive that she can do all of her acrobatic tricks and still maintain her voice.”

And, as the girl who debated with Hutchins the whole ride to a Highlander Chorale rehearsal about whether the concert P!nk performed here in March was better than the concert in November, I have to agree wholeheartedly with his statement (We never did reach a conclusion on that argument, either).

“Her lyrics are real and she can speak to anyone,” Hutchins says. “She’s helped me through so many things. I thank her for that and I wish I could tell her.”

Seeing P!nk perform that night opened my eyes to the possibilities of what singers can really explain through their music. In one night, I went from a girl who sat quietly during concerts analyzing the setup and singers, to one of the crowd, standing up and singing along to what will probably remain the best performance I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing live. And I would like to thank P!nk for that.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhmKfCqfqL4&w=420&h=315]