It shouldn’t be this much fun but watching the PD’s in full frisky flow on the stage is a guilty pleasure only the most cynical could argue with. What started out as a burlesque dance troupe in LA’s Viper Room and is now the biggest girl pop/R’n’B sensation on the planet certainly gives value for money. The choreography alone would take your breath away and involved non-stop gyrating, endless pelvic thrusting, and running up and down ramps, stairways and sundry other stage props.
And the songs aren’t bad either. Unlike most of their contemporaries, they bring a much wider range of influences to the party. Anyone that can find the missing link between Peggy Lee’s ‘Fever’, Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and Dean Martin’s ‘Sway’ has to be worth listening to. Add their own hits ‘Buttons’, ‘Stickwitu’ and their re-working of ‘Tainted Love’ and it’s not hard to fathom their appeal.
Visually, their image is almost perfectly in tune with the times, a kind of girl next door meets wannabee starlet – or the Spice Girls with better tans and a more rigorous health regime. (Doll Power certainly makes Girl Power seem tame; even at their most upfront The Spice Girls never came up with a line like, “don’t cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me”). While the stage-set was not as elaborate as that of Christina Aguilera’s show a few months back there was enough pyrotechnics on offer to keep the crowd mesmerised. Being Americans of course they did the usual “thank you so much for making our dreams come true – we love you” scthick, not once but several times throughout the show. A dance competition involved three hand-picked audience members being invited up to “show their stuff” which they did in style.
Earlier the overwhelmingly female and teenage crowd were warmed up nicely by Rihanna, who belted out her hits ‘Unfaithful’ and ‘SOS’ while a DJ cleverly spinned cuts by Shakira and Gnarls Barkley among others. But tonight was all about Doll Power and on the evidence it was clear that this lot intend to be around for a while.