Destiny's Child A-live-O

My review of the Texan Three from the Guardian: Saturday June 4

More than mere music, Destiny's Child is a movement in marketing savvy. In honour of the Golden Arches, their tour is somewhat cynically titled "I'm Loving It", while even more money is being made in merchandising. From customised thongs to £15 programmes, the Texan trio are raking it in.

They might as well make it while they can, for it seems apparent from tonight's performance that their peak has passed. While previous albums boasted brilliant anthems to independent women, their more recent record, Destiny's Fulfilled, is a truly insipid affair. More concerned with fetching a boyfriend his slippers, their celebrated Survivor instinct appears to have dissipated in a puff of girl power. Which is a great shame, because it's their Bootylicious bravado that made them so brilliant.

This isn't to say that the show is shoddy. Live, DC still know how to deliver. There are numerous costumes changes, an ever-changing LCD backdrop, dancers, waterfalls, confetti, revolving stages and trap doors, while their vocals are pitch perfect and dance routines polished. "They must have such a laugh together," sighs one girl. "They sing dead good," says her friend.

But not even a brilliant back-catalogue can rid the feeling that this is a group gone off the boil. It is the utterly magnetic Beyoncé's big hits - Crazy in Love, Baby Boy - that breathe life into the show. She is perhaps given to histrionics, but her vocal is undeniably extraordinary. Powerful and able to improvise at ease, it's obvious who the real star of this set-up is. "Can you keep up," questions Beyoncé during Lose My Breath, the one decent record from Fulfilled. The crowd can, but it seems DC can no longer maintain the pace with either themselves or their lead singer.

This album and tour is rumoured to be the last. It seems they know to quit while they're ahead.