Concert review: The other side of Miley Cyrus

Tween queen Miley Cyrus came to sold-out Target Center on Thursday night to say bye, bye, bye.

Bye to Hannah Montana. Bye to bubble gum. Bye to tweendom.

Say hello to the new I-want-to-grow-up-fast Miley. Little girls who have worshipped this Disney supernova be damned. (Sorry, but that word seems to fit her new vibe.) Miley, who turns 17 on Nov. 23, wants to rock you with long-hair shaking, noisy guitars and short shorts.

Problem is, Miley can’t rock a pair of short shorts or a hair-metal song. Whether she sang a ballad or partied in overdrive, her voice was more about volume than emotion. She couldn’t command the stage with either grace or attitude. And she couldn’t inject personality into any part of her presentation — not even her patter.

“I’m happy to be here,” the once-spunky girl-next-door said with no conviction whatsoever. “You guys are the best.”

Although this show was more elaborate and physical than Miley’s “Best of Both Worlds” tour in 2007, it felt like Arena 101 delivered by a too-much-too-soon TV star who needs to go back to the School of Rock. The effects tried to be cool but came across as lame: Miley and four women dancing like a PG version of the Pussycat Dolls with carpenter sawhorses as props to “Girls Night Out” (an evening of construction?) or Miley perched atop a red Harley-Davidson circling slowly over the crowd braying Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock and Roll” (rock ‘n’ roll in slow motion? hello?).

In the shameless tween tradition of market, market, market, Miley plugged her movie “The Last Song” (even though it’s not due till 2010) by showing a trailer and then launching into the film’s power ballad, “When I Look at You,” with the star starting at a white grand piano and eventually running around ungainly like a Steven Tyler wanna-be.