Review: At P!nk’s Charlotte show, real candy, eye candy and an eyeful of ‘fire stuff’

Since it seems like every other review about P!nk’s concerts starts with a mention of her high-flying stunts or her ability to sing while hanging upside down, I’m going to instead begin this one — about her show in Charlotte on Sunday night — by discussing candy.

Specifically, Extra Long Twizzlers. Actually, no, wait. Whoppers. I’ll get to the Twizzlers in a minute.

Just over half an hour into the pop singer’s Spectrum Center 110-minute set, P!nk engaged in what’s become a “Trustfall Tour” staple: a game in which her musical director, Jason Chapman (an original band member and keyboardist), plays an older song of hers on the piano and then challenges his boss to “name that tune.”

For fairly obvious reasons, it’s not that much of a challenge for her. Which is kind of the point, I suppose.

And on Sunday, P!nk smiled as she sang a couple lines from the “mystery” song after Chapman played a for-her-ancient melody on the piano for about 60 seconds (apparently, it was 2000’s “There You Go,” although I didn’t recognize Chapman’s classical re-imagining of it had to go to setlist.fm afterward to confirm).

Her prize for winning? A big box of Whoppers.

“Why I put that into my show — by accident, actually, it just happened, wasn’t planned — was because I realized this was the only place that another human being could hand me candy and I didn’t then just have to give it to my kids,” explained P!nk, mom to 12-year-old daughter Willow Sage Hart and 6-year-old son Jameson Moon Hart. “So now we do it every night.

“Anyway, I’m gonna eat my damn candy.”

It’s almost a certainty that many of the fans who crammed inside the sold-out arena in uptown considered the high points of the concert to be something related to P!nk’s altitude at some point or another during the evening.

Perhaps it was the sight of her perched between the giant pink “Trustfall” lips 50 feet above the stage, right before bungee-ing straight down to open the evening with the funky, spunky early hit “Get The Party Started.” Or maybe it was the anxiety-inducing mid-air ballet she did with one of her seven male dancers, with the help of aerial silks, during anxiety-awareness anthem “Turbulence.” Or there’s a good chance it was the high-flying finale that saw her tumbling through three-dimensional space to visit all four corners of Spectrum Center, including ascending to where she was at eye level with crowds in the upper deck during “So What.”

But if you were on hand Sunday night, you’ve gotta admit: There’s definitely something memorable — and relatable, and simple — about watching P!nk cram Whoppers into her mouth, then listening to her lament the hassle of getting malted milk getting stuck on her teeth.

That’s probably why collateral candy incidents are becoming commonplace at her shows. I mean, if you keep publicly establishing that Twizzlers will get an entertaining rise out of you, as P!nk has done on this tour, fans are going to bring you Twizzlers.

“Thank you!” she said to a woman in the close-up floor section named Cindy, who handed the singer a hard-to-find pack of Extra Long ones at one point between songs. “I’m so tired of talking to people about Red Vines in California,” P!nk groused, probably only half-jokingly, while clutching her gifted Twizzlers.

“These taste so much less plastic,” she continued, pointing out that Twizzlers actually taste like “they could have been near a strawberry.”

Of course, there were plenty of highlights that involved candy that isn’t eaten, but rather candy that’s preceded by the word “eye.”

For instance, the stunning array of sequined leotards, cropped jackets and heeled boots she changed into and out of for performances of “Raise Your Glass” (which featured a pair of guys on a pair of oversized, neon-lighted scooters dressed up as pink flamingos); “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)“ (which featured five dancers dressed up as pink lips, complete with “mouths” that opened to reveal confetti cannons); and “What About Love” (which featured all 10 of her dancers swinging around colorful lighted balls like nunchucks and/or jump ropes).

Or like the choreography in “Trustfall” that was so mesmerizing that it drew my eyes away from P!nk and toward the dancers on the 18-foot tower to the rear of the stage. The five spent the entire duration of the song using trampolines, walls, stairs, platforms, and gravity to incredible visual effect. (See it, in another incarnation, here.)

At the same time, she would have done fine keeping it pretty simple.

Neither her soaring rendition of “Just Give Me a Reason” (complemented by piped-in Nate Ruess vocals) nor her aching cover of Adele’s version of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love” (complemented by shots of couples in the crowd cuddling on the big screen) needed bells and whistles to tickle us, um, pink ... if you’ll forgive the very bad pun.

The only time I thought she kept things a little too simple was when she went from a banger of a cover of Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” to a run of too many acoustic versions of lesser songs too late in her set, during which time bunches of fans seemed to sneak off for a restroom break.

And the only real hiccup in the show presented itself between “Heartbreaker” — which was mashed-up with “Just Like Fire” and featured big plumes of pyro — and her acoustic mini-set. She left to swap bodysuits, but returned rubbing her eye.

“Sorry I took so long,” P!nk said, as she squinted at the audience. “I was changing and then I got fire stuff in my eye. It’s OK, I’m left-handed. I still have my left eye. I feel like that means something. Right? It’s a good thing. I’m fine,” she quipped. Still, she kept rubbing at it, squinting, and making other weird faces. “I look totally normal, right? What is that stuff? I’m sure it’s not toxic.” (I really hope she didn’t actually injure herself here...)

Other than that, overall, the night was — as it says in the song that no longer uses the F-word over and over in its chorus when done live — “perfect.” In terms of P!nk’s performance, but also in terms of her connection to the crowd.

She fawned over the look of a fan while calling them “Sparkle Pony” (whose outfit I wish I could have seen, but I wasn’t able to spy who she was talking to). She picked up a frog hat that was tossed on stage to her and put it on her head (because, in case you didn’t know, she has a thing for frogs). She complimented a pair of fans on their dancing skills.

At every opportunity, in fact, she interacted, making clear eye contact with individual fans by the hundreds while waving and smiling and singing, whether she was soaring high above the arena floor in a harness or sharing her candy.

Yep: After devouring a handful or two of those Whoppers, P!nk handed the box to a security guard who handed it to a fan.

One other thing I’ll point out is that this was my first time seeing her, after missing shows here in 2019 and 2013. I was prepared for most of what I saw, particularly the aerial and acrobatic components. But I was expecting her to have a few harder edges, and among other things was surprised that she cleaned up “F---kin’ Perfect” for live audiences. (Apparently, while the S-word still comes out of the backup singers’ mouths on cue during “Blow Me (One Last Kiss), “Perfect” has been PG-rated for years now in concert.)

P!nk alluded to her softened presentation as she watched the fan who got her Whoppers share them with people around her.

“I used to pass out different kinds of things,” noted the 44-year-old singer. “I’ve changed. My dressing room used to be whiskey and cigarettes. Now it’s, like, ball pits and hobby horses.”

From there, P!nk went into full mom mode, expressing admiration for both the “Baby Shark” song and the song from the web series “Skibidi Toilet,” before slipping in praise for Olivia Rodrigo’s “hope ur ok,” along with a nod how much that 20-year-old pop star is adored by her daughter Willow.

Oh, and speaking of P!nk’s progeny ... as she’s done pretty much everywhere on the current tour, P!nk introduced her 12-year-old as a “surprise guest” on vocals for the back half of 2021 hit “Cover Me in Sunshine” — which ended with Mom wiping away a single tear and the crowd erupting in thunderous applause.

“‘One-take Willow,’” her mom called her, after wrapping her daughter in a giant hug then watching the girl disappear into the wings. “I am so OK with the fact that she gets the loudest cheer of the evening.”

It was, to be sure, the one moment of the night that was even sweeter than candy.

P!nk’s setlist

1. “Get the Party Started”

2. “Raise Your Glass”

3. “Who Knew”

4. “Just Like a Pill”

5. “Try”

6. “What About Us”

7. “Turbulence”

8. “Make You Feel My Love”

9. “Our Song”

10. “Just Give Me a Reason”

11. “F**kin’ Perfect”

12. “Just Like Fire” / “Heartbreaker”

13. “Please Don’t Leave Me”

14. “Cover Me in Sunshine”

15. “Don’t Let Me Get Me”

16. “When I Get There”

17. “I Am Here”

18. “Trustfall”

19. “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)“

20. “Never Gonna Not Dance Again”

21. “So What”