Los Angeles, Mar 11: Perhaps one day, Britney Spears will try a jaunt with no flashy staging, dancers and other gimmicks. But don't count on that happening anytime soon. The 22-year-old pop superstar values image over content and seems to think that moving into the adult phase of her career means more skin and shallow sexuality that's ultimately just tease and titillation. This year's Black Onyx Hotel Tour is centred around a futurist structure that also doubles as video screens and hosts special effects. An annoying ringmaster of sorts looking like a cross between a Cirque du Soleil host and Boy George in carnival drag serves as a snide commentator of sorts on the proceedings, which scream for a Vegas residency in Spears' future, where the glitz can rule.

Monday's show at Staples opened with "Toxic," Spears' current hit, which is speculated as being a slam at her ex, Justin Timberlake. The song is perhaps the strongest number on her latest album, "In the Zone," which generally abandons melody and actual hooks on most tracks for electronically anchored rhythms and beats. New songs such as "(I Got That) Boom Boom" and the misnamed "Outrageous" (it's anything but that) are faceless, indistinctive dance-floor fodder that seem designed to serve the choreography.
Wearing a tight black costume out of "The Matrix," with pumped-up cleavage, then later turning up in a pink bra and frilly panties, among other outfits, Spears and her flock of dancers gyrated in typical synchronised moves, the women sometimes looking like sci-fi apocalypse hookers and the men at one point shirtless in just suspenders and wearing bellhop caps to keep with the hotel theme, even pushing the girls around the stage on luggage carts. At times it was entertaining but overall came off as a variation on the same show she's been doing for several years.