Hilary Duff captures grandstand crowd at Allentown Fair with music and moves

Hilary Duff performs at the Allentown Fair. (DENISE SANCHEZ / The Morning Call)

By Len Righi |Of The Morning Call 11:49 PM EDT, August 31, 2007

The costumes were eye catching and revealing. The choreography was flashy and pelvic-centric. The singing wasn't bad, and the six-piece band and the two backing singers didn't miss a beat.

Yes, Hilary Duff's show at the Allentown Fairgrounds Grandstand Friday night was a series of dance-pop videos come to life.

The Texas native, who will turn 20 on Sept. 28, drew a crowd of 3,549 -- substantially less than the 9,000 who turned out in 2005.

But she had the portion of the crowd on the track -- glow-stick bearing teens and pre-teens, virtually all girls and most of them accompanied by their moms or female adult chaperones -- standing on their seats and singing along through most of the 100-minute show.

Though technically proficient, Duff's performance was often impersonal and sometimes mechanical. Still, she started strong with "Play With Fire," "Danger" and "Come Clean," and reached her first high point with "Dignity," the title song of her fourth and latest disc, tapping her inner Madonna as seamy tabloid headlines flashed on a screen behind her.

Though "Gypsy Woman" was little more than excuse for Duff and her two female dancers to shake their butts and boobs, and the ballad "Someone's Watching Over Me" and "Never Stop" were yawners, she showed some cleverness with a complementary medley of "Beat of My Heart" the Go-Go's "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "Why Not."

The evening's best moment? "Wake Up," which Duff prefaced with a heartfelt explanation to her fans that despite peer and adult pressure "you can be yourself." She then sang the song like a big sister would to her younger siblings. Based on the crowd's reaction, It was a tender mother-daughter bonding moment with hugs all around.

Finishing on a high note with a fist-pumping cover of Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield" and "I Just Want You to Know Who I Am," Duff returned for an almost 25-minute encore that included "Fly," "No Work All Play" and "Stop Watching Me." Unfortunately it was 15 minutes longer than necessary.

Courtesy: Morning call