At a sold-out TD Garden, Cyrus entered on a tongue-shaped slide, rode above the crowd on a flying hotdog, boogied with a parade of fuzzy, Technicolor wild things and wept at the feet of a 40-foot inflatable dog with glowing eyes.
Yup, that was her subdued.
Two days ago, the 21-year-old revealed via Twitter that her pup Floyd had died. She even warned the sold-out TD Garden with a tweet that read, “I’m sorry in advance if I am not myself tomorrow Boston. I will try my best to be my best.”
The loss loomed large through the show. Cyrus returned to it again and again asking her fans to help her get through what she called “the hardest day of my life.” But through the pain, she shined with the strangest set I’ve ever seen.
Cyrus doesn’t have the catalog to sustain two hours, but you barely notice the lackluster material when Cyrus is dueting with a 20-foot muppet or bumping up against dancers of every imaginable body type. And the good stuff was very good.
Last week, I wrote that haters will make any excuse to rationalize Cyrus’ success. What they won’t do is entertain the idea that she has talent. Well, she does.
During an acoustic set on a small platform opposite the main stage, she pounded out a pair of powerful ballads. On Bob Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” she sounded like the ’70s country queen she could have been. Coldplay’s “The Scientist” had her pushing her range without faltering — even as tears rolled down her cheeks.
The Miley army around her ate up the emotion. Her fans have a hunger, a nobody-gets-me edge, and they can’t get validation from teen hunk Justin Bieber or nice girl Taylor Swift. Only Cyrus can nourish this screaming, short-shorts-clad teen demographic — maybe 5 percent guys, 2 percent fans over 30 last night.
For all the nutso stuff, the Willy Wonka-meets-S&M fashion and Oz-on-acid video screens, Cyrus worked best when things were simple.
The champion performance of the night was “Wrecking Ball,” which she sung beautifully with no distractions on stage. The raw honesty resonated with the crowd.
These few quieter moments — “Adore You,” “Drive” — seem genuine because they are genuine. You can feel it. Even right after a song that had her grinding on the hood of a gold muscle car.
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