In Seattle, Janet Jackson runs through a marathon of greatest hits

Concert review

On the final stop of her Together Again tour, Janet Jackson held a raucous two-hour dance party at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday night, reminding the crowd exactly why she’s earned a claim to the throne as the “Queen of Pop.”

Showing no signs of a lengthy spell on the road, Jackson delivered a relentless barrage of hits at a pace that often seemed frenetic, but the payoff was a satisfying rush of songs from her classic 1989 album, “Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814.”

Before Jackson took the stage, veteran Atlanta rapper Ludacris whipped the crowd up into a fever pitch that left folks thirsty to keep the party going. The “Fast & Furious” star was on point, ripping through early hits like “Act a Fool” before getting the crowd even more amped with “Stand Up” and the playful aggression of “Get Back.”

There was only a brief wait until Jackson took the stage wrapped in a purple cloak as she sung “Damita Jo,” from her 2004 album of the same name. Initially, a slightly delayed video feed, combined with Jackson’s somewhat disappointing use of a backing track instead of backup singers, made it seem like she might have been lip-syncing, though that wasn’t the case.

It wasn’t a big deal, though, and Jackson soon tossed aside her cloak to reveal a sparkling gold outfit as she tore through her hit “Feedback,” which topped the Billboard dance charts in 2008. Jackson soon had the crowd dancing into the aisles with the seductive, driving heat of 1993’s “If,” another No. 1 hit on the dance charts.

When things slowed down with “That’s the Way Love Goes,” Jackson had the crowd enraptured and hanging on to her every word. In what was a theme for the night, Jackson didn’t perform the entire song, opting instead to segue into her 2006 single “Enjoy.”

If there was a complaint to be made, it’s not about Jackson’s ability to entertain. Her singing and dancing were as magnetic as ever, but in an effort to stuff 40 songs into less than two hours, songs didn’t get enough room to breathe, and most were performed as medleys. Despite being broken up into four acts, the show felt a bit rushed.

To the crowd, absolutely deafening in its applause, it didn’t matter. It roared with approval when Jackson took on “Nasty,” off 1986’s “Control,” which she let bleed into an effortless rendition of “The Pleasure Principle.”

By the third act, the band had moved front and center and the dance party kicked into another gear. “Any Time, Any Place” had people reaching for a dance partner, while “I Get Lonely” used a cascading wall of sound and a sultry chair dance with a male dancer to build slow-burning passion.

Jackson began the final act clad in black jeans and a black “Rhythm Nation” T-shirt, dropping “The Knowledge” replete with some impressive dance moves before taking command of the crowd once again with “Miss You Much.”

The propulsive synth beat of “Escapade” provided a moment of cathartic joy before Jackson returned the crowd to ecstasy with one of her most iconic hits, “Rhythm Nation.” After doing two remixed versions of “Together Again” earlier in the show, she came back for an encore with the original 1997 version.

It was a career-spanning marathon that at many times felt like a sprint, but perhaps that’s the only kind of show that an artist with dozens of chart-topping hits can give her rowdy legion of fans: as much as possible, and then a little more.