Photo by Robin Harper/ Invision for Parkwood Entertainment via AP

Beyonce was way better than Rihanna and more consistently entertaining than Lady Gaga and Madonna. But Queen B's performance Thursday at Xcel Energy Center doesn't measure up to the extremely high standard Pink set there this year.

Beyonce doesn't have the boldness and daring of Pink, the depth of material and the flow of the show. But, in retrospect, Beyonce's highly entertaining performance was better than my review indicated.

After a nearly hour-long intermission after Luke James' set, she started 45 minutes late (we'd been told she'd take the stage at 9 p.m.), and she was still performing when the deadline for my newspaper review arrived. She started strong, got bogged down in the middle with too much unfamiliar and marginal material (I longed for a Destiny's Child medley but all we got was one DC song, "Survivor") and finished strong. Here is what Beyonce played at the X: Run the World (Girls)/ End of Time/ Flaws and All/ If I Were a Boy/ Get Me Bodied/ Baby Boy/ Diva/ Naughty Girl/ Party/ Freakum Dress/ I Care/ I Miss You/ Schoolin' Life/ Why Don't You Love Me/ 1+1/ on satellite stage: Irreplaceable/Love on Top/ Survivor (Destiny's Child / back to main stage: Crazy in Love/ Single Ladies/ Grown Woman/ I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton)/ Halo