Pink’s Beautiful Trauma Concert At Madison Square Garden

Pink is a badass.

I had this thought often as I watched Pink perform at Madison Square Garden on April 4th in a concert that featured many of her popular songs along with high-flying acrobatics, colorful theatrics and intriguing dance routines.

The concert began appropriately to one of her early hits, “Get This Party Started,” with Pink suspended from bungie cords and doing flips from a chandelier. Pink would go back into the air several times again and again, sometimes holding the cords with her hands or entangling them in her arms and legs. When she was on the ground, she continued to do impressive dance and gymnastic moves with her entourage of dancers.

Pink’s status as a badass was backed up by her music. Okay, so Pink is a pop star and pop is very rarely badass, with a few exceptions. Pink is one of those exceptions. Thoughout her career, Pink has infused her music with powerful guitars and drums, and while it’s not hard rock, it still rocks. Those elements were present during the concert, such as when she and her band broke into a faithful, entertaining cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Pink’s music is also infused with her attitude and personality which is unapologetically out-spoken and fearless. Her songs often celebrate outsiders and she did so at the concert with two audio and video segments. The second segment was an audio recording of her speech at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards where she told her daughter that there are many different kinds of beauty, of strength, of people, and we all need to learn to appreciate those differences in others, and perhaps more importantly, in ourselves.

The segment, which garnered tremendous applause, led into “Raise Your Glass,” Pink’s rousing anthem to the love of the Other. The song brought to the crowd to its feet, including this 46 year old, and as I danced (well, if you want to call it dancing), I looked around the crowd and saw people of all types, sizes and beauty dancing, celebrating and joyfully singing the chorus:

So raise your glass if you are wrong,
In all the right ways,
All my underdogs,
We will never be never be, anything but loud
And nitty gritty, dirty little freaks
Won’t you come on and come on and raise your glass,
Just come on and come on and raise your glass

Perhaps Pink’s most badass move came near the end of her concert when she performed her song “So What” while suspended by cables and flying hundred or so feet in the air above the heads of the crowd. She sang as she flew and flipped, stopping sometimes to giggle at the fun she was having. Now, that’s badass.