Review & Setlist: Pink at Fenway Park, Boston, 7

By Kristi Palma

As a harnessed Pink sailed through the air over historic Fenway Park on Monday night, a sold-out audience of 37,580 fans looked up in wonder.

Yet, the 43-year-old Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter had her own moment of awe while facing the crowd from a stage in the outfield of America’s oldest ballpark.

“I have been to a lot of places in the world, but I cannot believe I am playing Fenway Park right now,” she said.

It’s the trademark honesty fans of the Pennsylvania-born singer, born Alecia Beth Moore, have come to appreciate since she exploded onto the music scene in 2000, along with her powerful vocals — which are as strong as ever — and willingness to push her body to its limits during aerial stunts.

Pink’s “Summer Carnival” stadium tour, her eighth concert tour, has two stops at Fenway Park — night two is on Tuesday — and features several of her greatest hits such as “Raise Your Glass” and “What About Us,” as well as songs from her ninth studio album, “Trustfall.”

The trained gymnast opened the show with “Get the Party Started,” before bungee jumping from a large mechanical mouth, somersaulting, and landing gracefully on the stage. The screaming crowd, decked out in pink, were so ready for a party.

Several big hits followed in a row, such as “Raise Your Glass,” “Who Knew,” “Just Like a Pill,” “Try,” and “What About Us.” Throughout, Pink danced and twirled in a sparkling body suit and boots. Her costume changes involved a glittery hooded robe and various jackets, some with rhinestones, some with lips attached to the shoulders. At one point, a pink skirt descended from the ceiling and slipped over her head.

“If you’re wondering, yes, I like to change this much at home,” she said to laughter.

The carnival continued with fireworks, fire, and fog along with dancers flipping on trampolines to “Trustfall,” prancing in full-body lip costumes during “Blow Me (One Last Kiss),” and pushing each other in neon shopping carts during “Never Not Gonna Dance Again.”

Tender moments also emerged from the high-energy show. Before launching into “When I Get There,” a love letter to her deceased father that’s featured on her new album, she shared a funny conversation they once had.

“I don’t know what else to say about this song because I’m not ready to talk about it, so it just has to be funny,” she admitted, and embraced her lead guitarist Justin Derrico in a heartfelt hug when it was over.

For “Turbulence,” a song about anxiety featured on the new album, Pink channeled Cirque du Soleil, twirling from a trapeze above her audience.

Though Pink’s 12-year-old daughter Willow has been known to take the stage with her mother for their 2021 duet “Cover Me With Sunshine,” she was absent at Fenway due to summer camp, Pink said, so the proud mom sang with a recorded version.

Pink, an activist who supports causes such as the Human Rights Campaign, UNICEF, and Planned Parenthood, said being an outspoken female invites plenty of criticism on the Internet and she has often been told to just shut up and sing.

“I also get told that I’m irrelevant,” she said. “It’s fine. It only hurts a little. So I wrote a song called ‘Irrelevant’ so I could shut up and sing it.”

In a nod to Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Grammy winner Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, her opening act, she sang a mashup of her 2016 hit “Just Like Fire” and Benatar’s 1979 “Heartbreaker” (which Benatar sang earlier in the evening, along with hits like “Love is a Battlefield,” “Invincible,” and “We Belong”).

Some of the slowest moments in the show were when Pink covered Sade’s “No Ordinary Love” and the Adele version of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love.”

But the big moments were big. Case in point: During the final song of the night, “So What,” Pink harnessed up and vaulted through the air high above Fenway Park, flipping and zipping past singing fans in the stands like a musical Tinkerbell while belting out, “I’m still a rock star.”

Yes she is.

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