Pink a flying, singing, wise-cracking wonder

In the 13 years since her debut album - the sparkling R&B-lite of Can't Take Me Home - Pink has consistently crafted new ways of presenting herself. She insists on it, eschewing as she has any notion of ditzy celebrity and Mickey-Mouse pop. Rather than stay on hedonistic pop topics, she co-penned tunes that took on drug addiction ("Just Like a Pill") and dysfunctional parents ("Family Portrait") without losing hit-selling status.

One could call the Doylestown-raised Pink - a.k.a. Alecia Moore, and now as she prefers it, P!nk - a restless soul with a haughty temperament. Yet from the sights and sounds of Sunday's athletic live show at the Wells Fargo Center, Pink is a perfectionist, one who has redefined what sophisticated pop entertainment can be - adult and kinetic. She grew up without growing tiresome. Not every pop lass (hello, Madonna) can say that.

Without using AutoTune - without stopping to breathe, for that matter - or relying on dance troupes to do her work, Pink presented herself as equal parts Cirque du Soleil, Janis Joplin, and Kristen Wiig.

Pink sang, danced, joked, and flew (often all four at once), starting with a game show-themed video that presented her as a teasingly tipsy, anti-romantic willing to take a chance at love. When the video quieted, Pink strapped into a harness and appeared through smoke and sparklers. She bounced, sailed and glided through mid-air, wagging her head wildly as she sang the slickly anthemic "Raise Your Glass" without missing a beat or a breath.

That first song wouldn't be her last time in the air during the night. Toward the show's finale, she glided and twirled the length of the Wells Fargo Center during the nyah-nyah-ing glam rock of "So What" to mesmerizing effect. Still, that first song was a real stunner.

No sooner was she on the ground than Pink acknowledged the St. Patrick's holiday crowd with comic self-deprecation ("if everyone's drunk and happy I sound better and look better"). She also talked up her connection to her hometown; when a fight erupted on the floor during her passionate acoustic version of "Who Knew," Pink yelled but stopped before she made it worse. "I'm from here. I know."

That Pink has developed into a powerfully emotive vocalist while doing all the above was the key to the show's success. Her voice was huskily bluesy during the spiky guitar pop of "Trouble" and the soul-rock of "How Come You're Not Here."

While there was microphone trouble during her cover of Chris Isaak's hauntingly slow "Wicked Game," Pink managed to salvage a few bars with a low, lovely moan. The piano-driven ballads, in particular, showed off Pink's gusty voice - from the dramatic "Just Give Me a Reason" to the emotive "Family Portrait."

Pink's show would have been a dynamic wonder from her feats of flying and her comic timing alone, to say nothing of her score of dancers sliding down lampposts and stripper poles. There was nowhere you could look without spying another writhing dancer - but no one worked harder than Pink.