Live Review: Pink, The Kin

It's wall to wall women at the Entertainment Centre tonight. Pink is quite seriously a phenomenon here in Australia amongst the female contingent – young, old, all shapes and sizes – it's utterly bewildering.

Opening tonight is Adelaide trio The Kin, who deliver a somewhat convincing and enthusiastic set of pop/rock to a fidgety crowd. But it's Pink's night tonight and, as the lights go down, the crowd goes utterly and predictably nuts. First though, we're subject to a pretty amusing MC who rants on about the ins and outs of love – it is The Truth About Love Tour, after all. Finally, the megastar herself is onstage amidst a spectacular stage, an array of dancers and a shotgun team of musicians. To say “onstage” though is somewhat of a misnomer as Pink du Soleil kicks off with the artist dangling from the ceiling, indulging acrobatics and not dropping a single note of Raise Your Glass. This show marks Pink's first visit to this country as a Mum and she's slightly watered down proceedings since the last time we saw her – while songs like Fuckin' Perfect and Slut Like You make it into the setlist, she seems reluctant to vocalise the naughty words, instead leaving it to her pair of backing vocalists. Regardless, it's the arena-anthems that are simply made for environments like this, raising the roof with not only Pink's remarkable voice, but also the delirious crowd – Just Like A Pill, Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely), Trouble and Who Knew all packing a weighty punch.

 A tender moment is offered in the form of Try, an epic ballad complete with circus-like choreography that slips right into a surprisingly stellar cover of Chris Isaak's Wicked Game. Nate Ruess from Fun. “joins” her on the big screen for another poignant moment in Just Give Me A Reason and an acoustic trio of tunes sees Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time slipped in for good measure. But you can't help but feel the setlist is secondary and a little disposable these days – there's no Get The Party Started or Family Portrait and it's the circus element that now rules. It is, however, utterly incredible watching Pink suspended from the middle of the room, literally flying from end to end overhead – nothing has been seen like this in a pop show and she executes it with gusto and ambitious conviction.