P!nk Summer Carnival U.S. Tour Opener: 7 Best Moments — Soaring, Swinging, Sinead O’Connor Tribute

P!nk and Carlile slotted in crowd-pleasing covers amid the originals. Brandi busted out a rocking version of Radiohead’s “Creep” — whose refrain “what the hell am I doing here?” was appropriate given her repeated shock at the huge crowd (“this doesn’t look real”). She also slipped in a “last minute” addition of her idol Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You” that inspired silence from the otherwise rowdy stadium. Likewise, P!nk made time for Dylan (“Make YouFeel My Love”), Sade (“No Ordinary Love”) and a brief bit of Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” during a ripping “Just Like Fire.”

P!nk told the crowd that when she was a little girl in Atlantic City she’d go down to the Ocean City Boardwalk and record her “demo tapes” and one of her go-tos was O’Connor’s heartbreaking 1990 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Nothing Compares 2 U.” She paid tribute to the singer whose death was announced just hours earlier via a moving duet with Carlile on the song that brought many in the audience to tears.

Singers have 100 different ways they can make an entrance. But nobody does it like P!nk. As her band revved up “Get the Party Started,” fans looked around for the headliner, who was, of course, perched 50 feet above the stage inside a pair of ruby red lips framed by the tour’s title in neon lights. She then descended to the stage in a shiny pink leotard as two shirtless male dancers spun around in oversized candy ring pops. As one does.

The recent trend of tossing things on stage at (or to) singers has sometimes taken a dangerous turn. P!nk short-circuited that by bending down to accept some gifts from her diehards during the show, graciously modeling a black apron covered in rainbows and the word “love” while promising to wear it the next time she cooks. She was also touched by a pair of bulldog-bedecked socks she said she’d give to daughter Willow (after she wears them first) and a cute frog painting earmarked for son Jameson’s room.

The emotional Trustfall track “When I Get There” is dedicated to P!nk’s dad, Jim Moore, who died in 2021. She told the Cincinnati crowd a funny story about how when the former pilot was sick he said he’d like to come back as a bird of flight. Or, maybe, a “cannibal chipmunk,” who would bite people to remind her that he’s still around. Now, whenever she sees a hawk flying high above, she said before playing “Get There,” she likes to think it’s her dad. Not for nothing, before her set began, a giant, majestic hawk floated in the air above the crowd for a few minutes.

On a night when fireworks, 50-foot-tall silver palm trees and gymnastic tumbling runs were just part of the scenery, the costumes for “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” were like something out of a Rocky Horror Picture Show reboot. In her umpteenth costume change, P!nk strode out in a black leather jacket with oversized pink lips on each shoulder (matched with black high-tops spray painted with “MAMA” in pink), surrounded by six dancers dressed as, yes, giant pairs of dancing pink lips.

By now you know a P!nk show is going to feature the singer breaking free of the surly bonds of pop stardom and taking to the air, more than once. So it was expected, but no less stunning, when the singer capped Wednesday show with her now-signature flight of fancy. The jaw-dropping aerial stunt during “So What” had P!nk rubber-banding from the stage to the highest, furthest point of the baseball stadium, flipping, spinning and yo-yoing while singing as if standing still as fireworks lit up the sky just like they do when the home team Cincinnati Reds score a victory. Final score: everybody wins.