I was 13 when a schoolgirl uniform-clad Britney Spears stormed the charts with her debut song “…Baby One More Time.” I was immediately smitten. Britney had a funky voice, sweet dance moves, and was cute–but not so cute that she was inaccessible–which made both boys and girls like her even more. Britney is the only pop star whose career I’ve paid obsessively close attention to for more than a decade. Her bubblegum pop infiltrated my high school, college, and now post-college years. But seeing her perform live last night ended up being incredibly bittersweet. I felt like I saw a mere shadow of what was once pop’s unstoppable princess. From the beginning, Britney’s Circus tour has been plagued with reports that the singer doesn’t seem to be quite herself. Just one day prior to her appearance at the Tacoma Dome the singer left the stage during her Vancouver show for an entire half hour without any explanation. There was no debacle last night. Britney behaved herself and lip-synched and danced her way through a 90-minute set, complete with numerous costume and set changes. Most of the songs were pulled from her last two albums, 2007’s Blackout and last year’s Circus. And paying homage to the tour’s theme, the Tacoma Dome was arranged as a three-ring circus with dancers suspended from ceilings, gravity defying acrobats, creepy clowns, and men on stilts. The Britney camp pulled all the stops when it came to ensuring the tour be a memorable one for fans, even including an impressive sequence during which the pop singer was sawed in half and then appeared on the other side of the arena. But it felt like the glitzy freak show was mostly there to distract the audience from the fact that Britney just wasn’t into the performance. The blonde pop star smiled throughout the evening and had fans roaring with approval during songs like “If You Seek Amy” and “Womanizer.” But her movements aren’t as sharp as they used to be and she seemed to just be going through the motions. On slower songs like the sexy ode to masturbation “Touch of My Hand” she appeared more sluggish than she did sultry. Britney was up there onstage because everybody wanted her to be. But knowing the ringmaster doesn’t want to be there herself sucks most the fun out of a circus. Besides, I didn’t go all the way to the Tacoma Dome to see an actual circus. I went to see Britney. I left feeling like I only got a small glimpse. I wanted so much more.