Just what exactly does Barbadian R&B pop queen Rihanna have to do with the Super Bowl? About as much as Fall Out Boy. Yet there both acts were, playing to a hyped-up crowd on Thursday night at Tampa’s Ford Amphitheater for the VH1-broadcast Pepsi Super Bowl Bash show that served as the unofficial kickoff of Super Bowl XLIII weekend. Rihanna closed the broadcast, wearing an all-black outfit that was a mixture of bondage gear and a space-age hockey uniform as she performed a string of her hits.

The set opened with a series of images on the big screen giving way to Ri-Ri appearing at the top of a set of stairs wearing thigh-high boots, a black bikini top with a high-waisted bottom and a black overcoat adorned with hanging straps. As she’s done often live, she spiked a hard-rocking take on goth pop single “Disturbia” with a bit of the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” as flames shot up across the front of the stage.

She then dove straight into “Breakin’ Dishes” without taking a breath, joined by a pair of backup dancers with legs up to there wearing black leather jackets, red bikini tops and black hot pants that matched Rihanna’s.

After some more football-related banter from O’Connell, Rihanna closed the show with a slow-grind take through “Rehab” and an amped-up “Shut Up and Drive,” which featured a chair dance, lots of funky wah-wah and screaming guitar solos, and graphics of spinning rims and neon speed gauges on the mega screens.

Source: MTV.com