Pop goes the princess

Singer teases crowd with sexually-charged show

By Krisse Mansfield

Friday night’s sexually charged Britney Spears concert arrived in Fresno on the third stop of her 43-city Onyx Hotel Tour.

Spears danced, moaned, sang and shook it for all she was worth and the crowd of 12,000 that filled the Save Mart Center had mixed reviews.

The production about to be witnessed, an emcee said, would take the audience to a place where fun-filled fantasies would keep them on their toes and where their bodies would be privy to much titillation.

Minutes later, Spears entered the stage on a 10 ft. cart pushed by shirtless men for her latest hit “Toxic,” dressed in a black leather outfit. The crowd roared with approval and rarely let up during the 90-minute show.

After running through hits such as “Overprotected” and “Boys,” Spears launched into cabaret versions of “Oops, I Did it Again” and “Baby One More Time,” dressed in pink panties, a bustier and stockings.

Spears stayed true to her promises of a more adult-themed show when she took the stage for “Touch of My Hand,” a song about masturbation.

Emerging in a white bathrobe, Spears stripped it off revealing a diamond-studded, flesh-colored bodysuit before writhing in a transparent bathtub. Below Spears, men and women laid in sexual positions on beds, some tied to headboards.

Spears took the sexual theme to the next level for “Breathe on Me,” a techno-inspired song about seduction.

While Spears grinded with a male dancer on a bed, sexually- charged images played on the huge screens surrounding the stage.

“ I just about had a heart attack when I saw that,” said Shelina Gustoff of Fresno.

Gustoff said Spears pushed the edge with the show, but never crossed the lines of good taste.

Stephanie Ramirez, who brought her 9-year-old daughter to the concert, disagreed.

“ I almost left the show because I didn’t want my daughter to see that,” Ramirez said. “I knew that it was going to be out there, but I didn’t know she was going to have a threesome going on and practically get naked and masturbate in a bathtub.”

Brandon Garcia of Fresno wasn’t sure how he felt about Spears’ performance.

“I still can’t decide how I feel about the show,” Garcia said. “I’ve seen her in concert twice before, and I just don’t know. But I do think that she reconnected with her fans, just because this show wasn’t as overproduced as the others.”

Other fans were more decisive with their opinions.

“ Oh my God, that was the best show I’ve ever seen,” said Martha Rodriguez of Visalia. “I’m 22 years old, and I’m a hopeless Britney Spears fan. And I don’t care what anyone has to say about it.”