Though she's known to love a party, Rihanna started her Anti Tour at Bridgestone Arena with some capital-F Feelings, opting to open her very first Nashville performance with the pining ballad "Stay" — a song co-written by Nashvillian Mikky Ekko.
Dressed in white from head to toe, standing alone and glowing under a spotlight on a pop-up stage in the center of the arena floor, RiRi crooned, "It's not much of a life you're living / It's not just something you take, it's given." Fans in the packed arena sang along so loudly that at times the star was completely drowned out.
Just when all the tears had been cried (seriously, after the show we overheard more than one young woman admit to sobbing within 10 seconds of Rihanna first appearing), RiRi went for the emo-K.O. by slipping into another heartbreaker: "Love the Way You Lie (Part II)."Â
Our soft sides may have loved it, but our asses wanted to shake! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO US, RIRI, WE CAME HERE TO PARTY. But RiRi's gotchoo, RiRi's always gotchoo — soon, down floated a clear plexiglass bridge from the rafters, and Rihanna was carried away from her Island of Solitude, over the heads of fans while stomping, slithering and dry-humping her way through "Woo" and "Sex With Me." Yes, Ri, this is what we came for!
The Barbados-born pop star could clearly feel the excitement in the air — as she caught her breath and the hovering bridge delivered her to the main stage, Rihanna cried out, "I have to be honest and confess, I did not expect this type of ratchetry from Nashville!"
Anti's set list is deceiving — it may look like Rihanna performed about 30 songs, but some of those tracks were fused together as thematic medleys, so the whole gig lasted 90 minutes, tops. Considering Rihanna's eight studio albums — and zero previous visits to Music City — it felt like we just got a single bite of her entree. But for that hour-and-a-half, Rihanna took onlookers on one hell of a fantastic ride.
Through the evening, the all-white, unassuming stage design morphed from a simplistic set painted with muted pastel lights, into a variety of unpredicted landscapes. For "Man Down," Rihanna's "Folsom Prison Blues," thick clouds of fog reflected flashing, fiery-red emergency lights while Rihanna paced the stage in a glittery, fringe-covered black jumpsuit and cloak, looking like the sexiest villain in Disney history. Minutes later, for "Work" and "Where Have You Been All My Life," there were psychedelic terrains of swirling rainbow colors that danced around and on abstract vinyl blobs that shifted shapes as they inflated and deflated. That segment ended with an intense routine from a pair of glitter-covered dancers who were more contortionists than anything else.
Musically, the bulk of the songs were culled from Anti, but Rihanna also dipped into Roc Nation classics including "Live Your Life," "Run This Town" and "All of the Lights" (concentrating only on her contributions to the songs [aka, the hooks] and, for the most part, wisely forgoing piping in T.I., Jay-Z or Kanye's parts). When she performed "Desperado," she pulled out some heavy rock vibes that were harder than anything we've seen from Jada Pinkett Smith, punctuated by a gnarly solo from King Whammy Bar (as we dubbed him in our notes), better known as guitarist Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme. She also pulled out 2007's BFF anthem "Umbrella," which sent all the fans into a delighted tizzy.
"Y'all made me miss 'Umbrella' just now — y'all made me feel like that was some new clothes and shit," said Rihanna. " 'Cause, you know, we live with those songs for a while, and we're not sure, like, 'Should we put it in the show? Is Nashville even gonna give a shit?' " Everyone cheered even louder. Everyone gave a shit.
Look at all the foam. That is SO MUCH foam.
For the final act — the point at which the crowd has come to expect pyrotechnics, fireworks and/or literal tons of confetti from even the most basic pop set-up — show took a less-predictable turn. During the last quarter of the set, Rihanna and her band performed in front of a two-story wall of foam. Yes, a WALL. OF. FOAM. The white mixture poured down the front of a giant sheet of vinyl in large, bubbling columns, sparkling and oozing while she sang "Diamonds," the revamped Tame Impala song "Same Ol' Mistakes" and her collaboration with Kanye and Paul McCartney, "FourFiveSeconds." As the foam oozed, we kept staring at it, assuming it would eventually do something dramatic. We wondered, "Will the entire sheet just drop, suddenly, swirling up a storm of bubbles?" "Will it change colors?" "Will water start pouring out next?" No, no and no. It slowly flowed, Rihanna finished with "Kiss It Better," and away she went, leaving fans begging for more.
The tour credits rolled while the crowd streamed out of the arena, but The Spin stuck around, partly hoping Queen Ri would come back and be like, “Surprise encore, fuckers!" But we were also wondering what was to come of the foam, honestly. Because how does one begin to tear down the stage once it’s coated in a mountain of bubbles? Post-show foam party? A giant Roomba? Some kind of and that's why tour production was delayed? Nope, the crew brought out a couple run-of-the-mill shop vacs. We bet it took all night to clear that shit out of there.
