Review: Pink at the Linc was her unabashed, acrobatic Philly self

Pink ended her hometown concert at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday with a little disappointment: “I’m not allowed to fly because there’s lightning six miles away,” she told the crowd of some 44,000. “I don’t want to die.”

Normally the Bucks County-raised star, whose name is Alecia Beth Moore, has concluded her Summer Carnival Tour shows — which included a stop at Citizens Bank Park last September — with her sassy 2008 track “So What” while doing flips in midair above the audience. But Pink had already proven her rock star chops as she reveled in her homecoming.

Earlier that evening, following afternoon sun showers, the skies cleared just as opening band the Script started, with soft-rock hits “Breakeven” and “For the First Time.” The stage was framed by quirky, colorful inflatable animals that looked like a cross between Lisa Frank and Suicide Squad.

Pink fans mostly stuck to her signature color, with many sporting tie-dye shirts, pink cowboy hats, glitter, and shaved heads.

After a short set from DJ Kid Cut Up, Sheryl Crow performed with her upbeat energy and sing-along classics from “If It Makes You Happy” to “Soak Up the Sun.” When she performed “Real Gone” — she introduced the song acknowledging her initial reluctance to sing it for the animated movie Cars before it became one of her biggest hits — she broke out a killer harmonica solo.

Crow said, chuckling, that while Pink would be flying all over the stage, “I’m not going to do that.”

Pink, unsurprisingly, made her entrance 100 feet above the stage before she started bungee jumping to “Get the Party Started.” That’s exactly what the crowd wanted: Nearly 30 years into her career, Pink knows that despite releasing her latest album, Trustfall, in 2023, her fans come to hear and scream along to her (many) reliable hits while she completes gravity-defying stunts — and still sounds great.

She kept up the carnival spectacle over the course of two hours, spinning in the air upside down while singing her newer track, “Turbulence,” then breaking out trampoline dancers who flipped, fell, and bounced back as she sang the titular song “Trustfall.” On her motivational hit “Try,” Pink was suspended in a cagelike contraption that expanded and contracted as she spun dizzyingly.

She also performed a handful of covers, crossing “Just Like Fire” with Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” for a moment of headbanging and pyrotechnics and later sitting at the piano to play Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love.”

Pink was clearly thrilled to be back home and made sure everyone knew of her Philly pride. “I am so proud to be from here,” she said as the football field thundered with applause. “Every time I say [I’m from] the Philadelphia area, my chest puffs up cause they know right away they can’t beat me. They can blindfold me and drop me off anywhere, and I would survive.”

She called out special guests, including her mom, best friend, and guidance counselor from junior high. When she introduced her bandmates at the end, keyboard player Adriana Balic played the Rocky themeand Pink talked about getting cheesesteaks at Ishkabibble’s with her drummer Jason Chapman, who also grew up here.

It was a family celebration off stage and on: Pink’s kids — Jameson Moon Hart and Willow Sage Hart — both made appearances, with Willow joining her mom to sing “Cover Me in Sunshine.” Pink also took time to talk about the grief of losing her father, Jim Moore, in 2021 before performing a pared down acoustic version of “When I Get There,” in which she imagines him at a bar in heaven.

Pink followed up the emotional song with a jumping rendition of “I Am Here” with the gospel Jolly Music Choir of Philadelphia, which joined her in baby blue robes, singing, “Where does everybody go when they go?” Despite the rock star reputation, Pink once sang in a gospel choir in a North Philly church.

While she had to end without the aerial finale, her hometown fans didn’t seem to miss it much. Her music, Philly pride, and stunning acrobatics more than made up for it.