Rihanna in a photo from earlier this year.AFP / Getty Images
Rihanna
- At GM Place Vancouver
- On Sunday
"This is a dream... Welcome to Rihanna's world."
The words appear on a giant screen that shows the songstress asleep in an electric blue space capsule as Mad House plays behind.
The screen recedes and, wearing a floor-length, surprisingly demure black ball gown, Rihanna appears on a raised platform singing Russian Roulette. She cocks her finger, points at the audience and shoots.
The last time the Barbadian singer played GM Place, she was supporting Kanye West, high on the breezy pop success of Umbrella and Don't stop the Music.
Two years later, there's a darker edge to the music - the 2009 album Rated R was recorded following the very public blow up of her relationship with Chris Brown - and there's nothing soft about this new show.
Jack-booted dancers carry pink machineguns, while a hot-pink tank sits to one side of the stage.
As the back projection goes into overdrive with militaristic imagery, Rihanna strips down to a pair of high-cut pale pink panties and a revealing matching jacket with oversized epaulettes - and straddles the tank's gun.
Bang! It goes off.
Though she cancelled what should have been the opening night of the north American leg of her Last Girl on Earth tour in Seattle on Friday, citing production problems, the Vancouver gig goes off without a hitch.
Dancers in bondage gear dangle from giant silver guns, a car enters through the floor, dry ice shoots up, confetti drops down and Rihanna herself reappears after each costume change using a variety of mechanical devices.
There's certainly plenty to look at - not least the ridiculously pretty singer and her perfect bod. When she struts high above our heads in thigh-high rubber boots and spray-on body suit, tossing her flame-red coif to the beat of Rockstar 101, she couldn't be more convincing in the part.
During Disturbia, she's stalked by creepy-looking, red-eyed stilt-walking beasts; Wait your Turn sees her in a rubber bra and suspenders combo while hundreds of robots march on film behind her.
The strongest tracks from album Rated R are also the best live: Hard, Wait Your Turn, Rude Boy and Te Amo. Crowd pleasers from those earlier, sunnier times - Don't Stop the Music, Take a Bow and, of course, Umbrella - do their job.
The only jarring note of an otherwise pumping show is the over-long ballad section that threatens to destroy all the momentum that's been building steadily. With Hate That I Love You, Rehab, Unfaithful and Stupid In Love all sung one after another and either sitting down or reclining, the energy sags despite her impressive pipes.
But once the tempo is turned back up, all is forgotten - for sure, it's easy to be seduced by a cover of Sheila E's The Glamorous Life, with Rihanna driving the drums herself.
Even when her final outfit - a kind of futuristic French Maid get-up - suddenly inflates, adding bizarre water-wing-like affairs to the sleeves, she manages to look cool.
She finishes with a grin, grabs her crotch, thrusts her hips forward, and shouts: "Dance bitch."
"The dream is over," says the video screen. "Wake up."