Before I begin my review of this concert, let me say a few things.

For the record, I am not a fan of Beyoncé. I despise divas. I cannot stand the genre called R&B. I do no like dance music in just about any form. I do not even know any of Beyoncé's songs.

I was pretty sure I had heard one or two from Destiny’s Child, but if hard pressed before the concert I couldn’t name them. My sister let me borrow a Beyoncé CD the other day, and I threw it out less than half way through. I simply couldn’t tolerate it.

And I had a spectacular time at this concert.

The question could be asked – "Why did you go to the concert if you don’t like her music?" And it would be a fair question indeed. The truth is that if was I living in any other part of the world I would not have seen her. She could have been giving away free tickets in the States and I would have likely passed.

Yet for reasons I’m not entirely sure of, I was excited about seeing her in Shanghai. Perhaps this was because so few musical acts that I know pass by this part of the world. Or maybe I liked the idea of seeing gaggles Chinese kids dancing to an American pop idol – kind of an East meets West thing. Or maybe I was just hankering for a little booty shaking.

The show was a right good jaunt away from us. We boarded two cabs, two subway trains, and did a pretty fair amount of walking to make it to the concert hall. All of this in the middle of rush hour. And if you haven’t tried to keep up with five of your friends while zipping through a 100,000 Asians all bustling to get to their own destinations, well you just haven’t lived.

We arrived. We scarfed down fast food. We found our nosebleed seats.

Not all of the seats were filled and there was much discussion of leaving the nosebleeds for more interesting seats one flight down. We all agreed to move, more or less, and when the lights went down there was a mass exodus. Unfortunately the ladies (which included my wife) got separated from the men and there was much anger (on the part of the ladies) and apologetic text messaging (from us men.) Eventually things settled down and we were able to enjoy the show.

What a show it was! She’s calling this tour the "Beyoncé Experience," and it was certainly that - quite an experience. Going into the show I half expected it to be lame. I figured Beyonce would mostly likely lip synch her way through the performance, and that most of the music would come from a DAT tape. Certainly I expected a fun light show and lots of scantily clad dancers along with flashy set pieces and costumes. But musically I was looking for a let down.