For Crying Out Loud!

At one point, the star even seemed to disappear from the stage while her voice played on: During the effervescent "We Got the Party," Cyrus ducked into a hidden door just before an apparent body double came through an adjacent door. She (whoever she was) spent the rest of the song away from the front of the stage, with blond hair falling in front of her face and not a single camera coming in for a close-up. She then left the stage for a costume and identity change (spangles for spangles -- and blond creation Hannah Montana for dark-haired Miley Cyrus) while the tour's opening act, the Jonas Brothers, performed a couple of songs.

Ah, the magic of popular music.

Whether sung by Montana or Cyrus, the music tended toward sugary power-pop ("Right Here"), synthy dance-rock ("Nobody's Perfect") and buoyant pop-punk ("I Got Nerve"), with lyrics that weren't necessarily meant to evoke Keats, or even Judy Blume.

"Life's what you make it/So let's make it rock," she "sang." Elsewhere:

"I'm a lucky girl/Whose dreams came true/But underneath it all/I'm just like you."

(Full disclosure: I am not a tweenage girl and never have been. All of this may be way over my head.) The crowd, of course, lapped it up. It was a sea of body glitter, blond wigs, Day-Glo "Rock Star" and "Princess" T-shirts and fingerless gloves.

Oh, the prepubescent pageantry!

Business was brisk at the merchandise booths, too. There were $10 "blinky lights," $35 pink cadet caps and two different $60 hoodies (Hannah on one, Miley on the other!). There were nine different Miley/Hannah T-shirt designs -- just $300 for the full set. There were also $20 tote bags -- all the better to help you haul your official merchandise.

The smartest buy? The $2 ear plugs.

"You guys are even louder than I thought you could be!" Cyrus said after the crowd apparently shattered some sort of noise record -- not to mention some of those glass-box office buildings in downtown Washington.

The shrill is gone now. Too bad the ringing in my ears isn't.

Staff writer Marissa N. Newhall contributed to this report.