Bangerz, Bangerz! Miley’s strutting her stuff… maybe a little too literally

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A lot of people were quite, for lack of a better word, scared for Miley Cyrus’ most recent tour, The Bangerz Tour, to come to Tampa. There was a lot of controversy about the antics that Miley was pulling on stage and a lot of rumors started circulating around the tour as well.

I’d heard that she wore clothes that were hardly considered clothes, that she rode a giant hot dog across the venue on the last song before her encore, and that she had an Amazonian woman and a midget as props for her stage performance… not to my so surprise, all those rumors were true.

Walking up to the venue, all you saw were girls in high-wasted shorts and crop tops with the little buns like Miley wore at the VMA’s in their hair. It wasn’t a pleasant sight considering half these girls were under-aged but that’s what I get for going to see Miley Cyrus and being excited about it.

First of all, the opening “band” for Miley was Icona Pop… You know, the 1-hit-wonder with that song “I CRASHED MY CAR INTO THE BRIDGE! I DON’T CARE, I LOVE IT!” They were pretty alright live but their songs were so repetitive that I found myself practically falling asleep during their performance regardless of how loud the music was or how many 12-year-old girls were screaming the words directly in my ears… Not to mention they were wearing outfits that made them look like R2D2.

After they paraded off stage, the anticipation was killing everyone including me. Then it happened, the board lit up with Miley’s face across it as the opening song started. When the verse was about to kick in, the light-up Miley’s mouth opened to reveal a tongue that stuck out of the screen and turned into a slide which real Miley slid down. She was dressed.. well.. kind of.. In this very skimpy outfit that essentially showed off her entire body.

Miley disappeared from the stage as this odd video played in the background till the next song, “4×4” then she went straight into her song “Love Money Party” where a very large Matchbox car came out onto the stage for Miley to roll around on and throw fake money in the air. This was definitely the first real “what” moment of the show.

She played through the next few songs till it got to “Do My Thang.” Miley came out onstage in this picnic table-looking outfit that hardly covered her. The part in the song where it’s normally a “drop” was replaced by banjos and she essentially threw a hoedown in the venue as compared to a rave-type thing. It was awkward and a little uncomfortable but all in all, it picked back up immediately after.

Just when I thought, “Hey! Maybe this won’t get any weirder!” the crew working for Cyrus brought out this MASSIVE bed onto the stage then Miley crawled into it to perform the song “#GETITRIGHT”. Through the duration of the song, more and more people crawled out from under the stage onto the bed and it turned into this mess of tangled arms and legs wearing lingerie on stage. Again, another “what” moment.

Immediately after that Miley disappeared back into the stage and a GIANT inflatable dog came out from behind the screen. Cyrus then came out wearing this odd, feathery outfit that covered more of her than all the last ones. She then performed “Can’t Be Tamed” and it was definitely odd seeing new age Cyrus perform an older Cyrus song. It was still pretty great, though.

Miley then went into her more ballad-y and slow songs. It calmed the crowd down and the entire stadium was lit up with people’s cell phones to sway during her songs, “Adore You”, “Drive”, and “Rooting For My Baby.” It was really a beautiful sight and the slower songs showed off Cyrus’ incredible vocal talent. It was nice seeing her show off her vocals for a hot second rather than her body. After her own songs, Cyrus performed a few covers ranging from artist such as Lana Del Rey to Coldplay to Dolly Parton.

After a few more of Cyrus’ own songs, we got to what she said was the last song. During “Someone Else” a hot dog got dropped from the ceiling which Cyrus then got onto and used to float across the venue. This was probably the biggest “what” moment for me because.. really? A giant hot dog?

She then left the stage, while still on the hot dog, and the crowd demanded an encore. She came back out and performed her two biggest hits, “Wrecking Ball” and “We Can’t Stop” which the crowd went insane for. She left then promptly came back to perform “Party In The USA.” People came out dressed as the Statue of Liberty and Abraham Lincoln and Cyrus was dressed in red, white, and blue. It was such an odd yet wonderful performance.

All in all, the Bangerz Tour was such a fun and crazy experience but it certainly wasn’t for all ages. The ages that should’ve been allowed at that show should’ve been at least 17+. It was a very inappropriate show, at least through the duration of Miley’s performance, and it was enjoyable for a mature audience. I give it a solid 10/10.