Quit qiggling. Yes, I went to Kylie. For someone whose music has been rinsed in clubs for a few decades and who has had everyone from Stuart Price, to Calvin Harris, to Roger Sanchez and Fischerspooner work with her music, Kylie Minogue gets a pretty scarce amount of attention and respect among dance circles. Such is the lot of a pop star, I suppose. But any and all, and I do mean all, pretenses are quickly shoved off-screen for the live Kylie experience which this time has hit Australia under the Les Folies banner in honour of Ms. Minogue’s 2010 LP Aphrodite.

Billed as a $25 million live extravaganza, Kylie’s latest tour does indeed live up to the lofty expectations of pop arena shows today and you can see where the money is spent with a mammoth set featuring an ancient Greek façade, trapeze artists and of course a myriad of flashy costumes for Kylie and her legion of dancers endlessly writhing around her. It’s a genuine spectacle and unless you’re a 14 year old girl or a 40 year old bear (the seeming targets of Kylie’s fandom domination) it’s best enjoyed when you switch off and enjoy the sheer outrageousness of a show which includes Kylie flying across the arena on the back of a black angel, Kylie riding in a chariot pulled by gimp-masked men dutifully flagellating themselves and rising hydraulic pits that transformed into multi-tiered Busby Berkeley choreography patterns. Really, there’s no room for much critical thinking here when the gold hot pants come out.

Indeed, the crowd at Sydney’s Entertainment Centre was in the palm of Kylie’s bedazzled hand from start to finish, cheering with the opening chords of every song, gleefully getting drenched as the water cannons splashed across the stage during the encore of All The Lovers and even interrupting Minogue with whoops of adoration during a rare ballad mid-set.

That kind of blind devotion is quite fascinating to behold live, as Kylie could seemingly do no wrong – not even the choice to use the Soulwax rock revision of Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. Kylie clearly presents no illusions about being an awe-inspiring singer, or a versatile dancer for that matter, and her fans are in on the act, alternately bowing at her feet and throwing their hands up in praise like the campest evangelical rave you’ve never been to.

Of course, Kylie wouldn’t have reached these evidently unimpeachable heights without good tunes and great producers in her corner and the Les Folies show is a veritable hit parade of Kylie’s biggest dance-pop jams fed through a banging live system as if to remind everyone that before the Rihanna’s and Lady Gaga’s of today it was Kylie that was fusing the pop and dance worlds together. With pummeling stadium beats tunes like Get Outta My Way, Love At First Sight and the Sebastian Ingrosso produced Cupid Boy sounded better than ever, the transition into The Chemical Brothers’ remix of Slow (complete with epic lights and lasers) was insane and encore tune On A Night Like This got a massive trance makeover before careening into a (would you believe it?) dubstep breakdown. Yes way.

Cramming as much material and over the top production interludes as possible into two plus hours on a Tuesday night would satisfy even the most difficult fan, but even then, Kylie needn’t have worried about her reception in Sydney as when the incredibly well oiled machine ground to a halt fans across the spectrum walked out with grins and good vibes firmly in place.