Taking the Spice Girls Reunion With a Large Grain of Salt

It didn't take long for the newly reunited Spice Girls to get themselves back on a pedestal. All they had to do was ask their set designer for a boost.

The Girls made a big, self-exalting entrance at their Verizon Center concert Thursday night, rising from beneath the floor on elevator platforms, which lifted them several feet above the stage. With Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham (that's Baby, Scary, Sporty, Ginger and Posh to you) preening in their spangly Roberto Cavalli outfits and basking from on high in the approbation of the sold-out crowd, it was as though it were 1997 again in Spiceworld and the Spice Girls were still a global cultural phenomenon rather than a reunion-tour curiosity.

Spiceworld: nice place to visit, wouldn't necessarily want to live there.

For one thing, it's not a planet that embraces high art. "If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends/Make it last forever, friendship never ends," went the night's key chorus, from the group's breakthrough 1996 hit, "Wannabe," which was saved for the dizzying encore.

But they do know from entertainment in Spiceworld. Ooooh, girl, do they ever.

As pure pop spectacle, the Verizon Center show was exceptional, a wild sugar rush of staging, showmanship, glitter and wardrobe changes.

The Spice Girls aren't the most gifted vocalists. (They're not even the Pussycat Dolls.) But they performed with panache, oozing attitude and their curious brand of charm all over their eye-popping multi-level stage, which had plenty of moving parts -- including candy-cane stripper poles that were used during the treacly "2 Become 1."

Repeat: nice place to visit, etc.

For 100 minutes, the Girls powered through their old catalogue, covering all of their hits (the frothy "Stop," the jazzed-up "Too Much") and some of their misses (including the Isla Bonita import "Viva Forever" and the hyper-sexualized hip-hop of 2000's "Holler," which should have been a hit).

Singing into bejeweled microphones, the Girls added a new love song to the set, too: Reunion single "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)," which didn't exactly make headlines in the United States, peaking at No. 90 on the Billboard Hot 100.

"When you're feeling sad and low/We will take you where you gotta go," the five 30-something Girls "sang" on their elevated platforms as the band ripped into the Latin groove of show opener "Spice Up Your Life."

"Smiling, dancing, everything is free/All you need is positivity."