BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
She’s perhaps the most technically proficient singing star of her generation, a pop princess with a four-octave range that surpasses her frequently trite material.
Yes, she comes off a tad icy, blowing kisses to her fans with the authenticity of a beauty pageant contestant and excessively flipping her favorite prop – her luxurious hair (“Toss toss!” as Glinda would say in “Wicked”).
But Ariana Grande is a superior singer, and that’s really all that should matter.
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
She also excels at looking adorable – her opening outfit of ubiquitous cat ears, short, black dress and Christian Louboutin boots competed with the fireworks that sprouted during “Bang Bang” – even if the number of costume changes during her 90-minute set rivaled a typical Cher show.
But Grande, a showbiz pro at 21, knows how to play the PG-13 seduction game and carried it off -- a little stiffly sometimes -- at her nearly sold-out Philips Arena stop of "The Honeymoon Tour" Tuesday night.
She was cutesy and flirty as she arrived on a flying chandelier in a fringe dress and feather boa for “Right There” and, late in the show, sang the disco-tastic “Love Me Harder” atop a hydraulic riser and danced with a hyperventilating male fan.
Performing on a clean open stage equipped with a few stairs and a mini-catwalk, Grande was frequently surrounded by a troupe of dancers so vast, it was sometimes difficult to locate her diminutive frame in the scrum.
But even if you couldn’t see her, you could hear her, belting out the Diana Ross-sampling “Break Your Heart Right Back” or “Be My Baby.”
Her solid band, including a trio of string players, also contributed heavily – or more than usually heard at a pop show.
However, given Grande’s vocal ability, it seemed pointless – aside from giving her a break for another costume change – to spend time with a video of Imogen Heap discussing the sound-bending Mi.Mu gloves and then have Grande demonstrate their use during “Why Try.”
The groovy-looking device – kind of a Luke-Skywalker-hand-as-vocoder – will surely be put through a workout with lesser singers, but with Grande, it seemed an unnecessary detour into product placement.
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Though she isn’t much of a talker beyond rote stage patter (she did, amusingly to some of us, note before the perky “Pink Champagne” that the 2011 song was, “really, really, really old”), Grande endeared herself with a sweet audio clip of her grandfather giving her advice.
The crowd of tweens, teens and the occasional bro in a Florida Gators shirt (really? Really.) sang along with every glossy pop piffle. But the most memorable moments of the show came when she took a break from her usual glass-shattering notes on the gently pulsing “One Last Time” and when she rose from below the stage atop a white baby grand, crooning the ballad “My Everything” as shimmery confetti wafted from the ceiling.
Grande is already synonymous with the slick, Top 40 anthems “Break Free” and the horn-bleating “Problem” and those crowd-pleasers will continue to stuff her bank account.
But, like so many singers of her generation, her true talent glows brighter without the lacquered finish.
Opening for Grande was the charming British quartet Rixton.
Powered by charismatic frontman Jake Roche, the band delivered a taut set of power pop accented by soul, rock and dancehall.
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Though Roche’s voice echoed too much on songs such as “Wait on Me’ and the buoyant (and to-the-point) “Make Out,” his range was evident.
Roche and the band – Charley Bagnall on guitar, Lewi Morgan on drums and Danny Wilkin on keyboards and bass – didn’t have to work too hard to earn the crowd’s affection, but they did, anyway.
Roche encouraged pay-it-forward good vibes before the strummy “Appreciated,” while a medley that included “Uptown Funk” and “Crazy in Love” showcased Rixton’s rock chops.
The guys’ debut, “Let the Road,” just arrived a few weeks ago, but their first big U.S. hit, the Maroon 5-ish “Me and My Broken Heart,” suggests we’ll be hearing from them for quite a while.
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