Miley's 'Bangerz' show is campy and surreal, but lacks substance: concert review

Thursday's show at the Izod Arena in the Meadowlands ran through all of her greatest stunts: twerking, exploited little people (one in a cone bra), dancers in fuzzy animal suits, foam fingers — everything but a red-faced Robin Thicke.

Miley Cyrus performs at the Izod Center in the Meadowlands on Thursday. 

Say what you will about Miley Cyrus, but she definitely knows how to make an entrance.

At the Izod Arena in the Meadowlands on Thursday, Cyrus became the first performer in the history of music to vomit herself onto a stage.

When a giant video image of the star’s mouth opened, the live Cyrus shot from the back of its throat and was retched onto the stage by a slide fashioned in the form of her famous dangling tongue.

Watching, you didn’t know whether to giggle or to gag.

Watching, you didn't know whether to giggle or to gag.

During her show, Miley proceeded to regurgitate every costume, move, and prop that — in the eight fast months since the VMAs — has earned her nearly as thick a press kit as Barack Obamahas amassed in his entire presidency.

The new “Bangerz” show runs through all of the star’s greatest stunts: twerking, exploiting little people (one in a cone bra), dancers in fuzzy animal suits, foam fingers — everything but a red-faced Robin Thicke.

She knows how to make an entrance. A giant video image of the star's mouth opens, and the live Miley shoots from the back of its throat onto the stage via a slide in the shape of her famed tongue at the start of Thursday's show.

Along the way, Miley also sang — live, loudly and confidently, despite her complaints of vocal problems. Deeper emotion has never been in the cards, anyway.

As empty as this candy wrapper of a show may have been, it had a demented charge, and it contained nary an ounce of pretense.

Certainly, it had surrealism on its side. The shapes and colors of the event appeared in a kaleidoscopic swirl. Many came courtesy of “Ren & Stimpy” artist John Kricfalusi, a man expert at obliterating the always fine line between children’s theater and stoner art.

In “FU,” the screens filled with psychedelic mushrooms. In “My Darlin’,” a giant joint burned away, while in “Love Money Party,” the star sported a sparkling pot-themed unitard.

Cyrus perform at Izod center on thursday

For some sex, the funky “#GETITRIGHT” featured a projection of breasts and va-jay-jays formed from candy. Righteous types might find the mix of kiddie animation and grown-up games too much for their own children. Certainly, it presented the most subversive possible rebuke to Cyrus’ past. But, as it turns out, her audience has aged with her. At the Meadowlands, it consisted overwhelmingly of girls in their late teens and early 20s.

To further torch any bridge to her Hannah Montana past, Cyrus didn’t perform any songs from her early Disney days, though she did feature the pre-twerking hit “Party In the U.S.A.” as a zippy encore.

The star didn’t only shaft the past. She emphasized her earnest side by tearing up during several speeches about her dog, which died this week. She also threw a stronger light on her singing. She stressed that most obviously in an acoustic section.

Cyrus perform at Izod center on thursday

To her credit, she refused to lip-synch or use obvious backing tapes. If only her country-inflected voice projected something of greater substance. Her cover of Bob Dylan’s “You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” reduced a poetic classic to a pop throwaway.

That’s not a ruinous drawback for a night that put spectacle and camp first. Certainly, it was hard not to smile at a finale that had the star straddling a giant flying hot dog, dressed in mustard yellow, like a human condiment.

Sights like this struck a balance that defines today’s Cyrus — between the cheeky and the low. 

Cyrus plays Barclays Center Saturday