The latest word out of Beyonce’s camp is good: Bey and Jay Z’s much-hyped “On the Run” tour grossed over $100 million. The North American leg of the tour ended in San Francisco Wednesday night. There are 2 more shows in Paris on Sept. 12 and 13. Then Beyonce will take aging rapper Jay Z home to NY for some much needed rest. Word is Beyonce limited the tour to 17 cities because her aging husband doesn’t have the stamina for a longer tour.
Music critic Jim Harrington explained the tour’s limitations caused by 45-year-old Jay Z’s lack of stamina:
Their On the Run Tour, which kicked off in April, has been pure box office gold, with hundreds of thousands of fans filling stadiums from coast to coast to see the ultimate power couple in concert. Billboard magazine says the trek is due to gross more than $100 million.
Yet just because a pairing makes sense doesn’t ensure that it will live up to expectations onstage.
Unfortunately, Jay Z and Beyoncé’s performance on Tuesday at AT&T Park — the first of two nights at the home of the San Francisco Giants — fell well short of its vast potential. The sold-out show wasn’t bad, just maddeningly mediocre.
There are many problems with this tour, all of which should have been ironed out long before it reached its final North American stop in San Francisco. The set list is iffy — despite stretching some 40 songs — and the production is awkward. There’s too great of an emphasis on video elements and other things that keep the two stars offstage, which sabotages any sense of momentum and dampens the enthusiasm of the crowd. The show grinds to a halt way too often, when putting the pedal to the metal would be a far better choice.
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Photos: Mason Poole and Robin Harper/Beyonce.com
