Duff in London

Pop princess Hilary Duff has gone from blond to bronde, adding sexier outfits on stage and almost adult heartaches to her songs.

None of which prevented a crowd of 5,200 fans, mostly preteen and tween girls and their faithful moms, from screaming their adoration to her at the John Labatt Centre last night.
Duff didn’t disappoint her young fans with lots of hits — Come Clean, Wake Up, Fly and So Yesterday were in the set list — to go with her four dancers and solid band.

“If you feel like standing up and dancing with me, nobody’s watching. It’s a good time. We’re in this together,” Duff said late in her 100-minute show. That observation produced screams, as did Duff’s other friendly stage chat even if she spoke so quickly it obviously took young ears to figure out what she said.

They had also screamed when the stage crew cleared the stage for Duff by removing the table equipment used by the MC and DJ combination who opened for the teen star. The duo’s job was to mention Duff’s name so many times this critic lost count. Each mention produced screams.

To go with the thousands of young fans, there were some older ones. They would have enjoyed her good choice of covers, The Go-Go’s Our Lips are Sealed and Pat Benatar’s Love is a Battlefield. One of those fans might have brought along the night’s best pop culture sign. It said: “Can’t Get Enough of that Wonderful Duff.” Hey, isn’t that Duff beer, the brew that keeps Homer Simpson so mellow?

Duff is touring to support Dignity (Hollywood/Universal), her fourth album. It provided the first two numbers last night with Play with Fire and Danger.

Duff’s visit was her third to the JLC. If memory serves, she dressed conservatively — slacks, sweater and a slouch cap — the first time around. Duff’s first outfit last night was pretty Britney — pre-meltdown Britney– for the Texas-born teen star with its glitzy short shorts and back-revealing top.

Her best look was a brownish ensemble with gold accessories she wore for the encore’s finale of Duff’s take on Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus and Dignity’s Stranger.

Duff wore high heels in at least two styles for most of the show, but finally ditched the painful looking items and went barefoot for the encore’s finale, Stranger. Like Cher, the star this critic still insists is her role model, Duff’s a fine strutter who surrounds herself with hyperactive dancers and movers. That makes Duff look as if she’s on the move, too.

She also shows Cher-like determination to put the Duff brand in many zones from TV and films to music to fashion to perfume. The Duff brands came together, sort of, with her performance last night of With Love. That’s the name of her perfume.

Meanwhile, concert industry websites say legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne and rocker/filmmaker Rob Zombie are playing the John Labatt Centre Jan. 19. “I have not yet seen a confirmation sheet for that date,” JLC marketing director Dave Harris said of that show.

[Source & Photo Credit: Ultimate Hilary]