Spice Girl's Tour Divorce

The sound of 10,000 hysterically screaming pre-teen girls is so startling it can send the popcorn flying out of your lap. By the time the group finally lands on the stage at 8:30 p.m.—arriving via a special-effects rocket ship—the screeching is so loud and high-pitched that dogs as far away as Bensonhurst are stuffing cotton into their ears.

Actually, it's not quite that bad. After a while, in fact, the cheery horror of all that prepubescent enthusiasm can even start to grow on you. A lot of the youngsters in the audience are waving cute homemade signs with messages for their favorite Spices ("I LOVE YOU EMMA"). Many are adorably dressed like Spices (where does one purchase a leather miniskirt and go-go boots for an 8-year-old?). Even their parents seem to be getting into the Spice spirit, unleashing some impressive screeching of their own. It's pretty sweet, really.

Of course, there are some less heartwarming scenes going on here as well. That lascivious-looking fortysomething guy waving his homemade Baby Spice sign is a tad creepy, for starters. And the mayhem over at the souvenir kiosks puts the fall of Saigon to shame. Kids and parents alike frantically claw through lines 12 or 13 people deep—all for a crack at buying $30 Girl Power T-shirts, $25 Spice Girl teddy bears, or $7 sheets of Spice Girl stickers. Outside the Garden, the gouging is worse: Scalped tickets are rumored to be going for as much as $2,000 (although $200 is probably a more reliable figure).

As for the music itself—let's just say that grows on you too. The kitschy pop pleasures of "2 Become 1," "Say You'll Be There," and "Spice Up Your Life" have by now converted even the crustiest rock critics. And on stage, it's nothing if not...energetic. The four Spices and their beefy Spice Boy backup dancers jump and jiggle through two hours of Spice standards, change clothes backstage faster than Clark Kent in a phone booth, and keep the audience stoked between numbers with Spice-style banter and jokes ("What did the big poo say to the little poo?"...). That banter, not incidentally, includes not a single reference to a certain ex-Spice who used to share their stage: The G-word is never once spoken.

It is sung a couple of times, though: In the chorus for "Lady Is a Vamp," when the Spices belt out their names, Ginger's isn't left out ("She was a part of us, part of our history, and always will be," as Baby explained before the concert). Ginger haunts the gig in other ways: Her face, pouty and proud, still adorns all of that overpriced merchandise at the souvenir stands. It also pops up frequently on the big-screen video monitors around the arena, in the prerecorded clips that accompany some of the tunes. And, of course, it remains forever fixed in the hearts and minds of all those thousands of faithful fans squealing their lungs out at tonight's concert.

For all the showbiz shenanigans and big-bucks boosterism swirling around these women, Ginger & Co. have made a potent connection—and maybe that's what Girl Power is really all about. Toward evening's end, when Scary and Sporty launch into an unexpectedly funky, surprisingly rousing cover of "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves," it sends thousands of little girls leaping to their feet in an ecstatic—and undeniably moving—moment of prehormonal feministic bonding. Even with one Spice missing from the rack, this music clearly does strike a deeply gratifying chord.

As one 10-year-old girl was overheard musing after the concert, "I didn't want Ginger to drop out, because she was my favorite. But it's okay. I'm getting over it."

So must we all.

(Additional reporting by Kristen Baldwin and Jessica Shaw)