After two stints opening for Britney Spears and Lil Wayne, superstar rap popstress Nicki Minaj's first headlining tour should be bigger and better than her supporting sets. Instead her hour-long show at Bayou Music Center was fun but also short, cheap and uninspired, even cribbing from last year's "Femme Fatale" setlist.

And yet if the sell-out crowd was disappointed, it didn't show, with fans gleefully filling in popular lines from Minaj's radio hits, squealing feverishly to shoutouts like "Where my white people at?" and many spending most of the concert standing on their chairs.

Minaj emerged onstage to "Roman's Revenge" (just as she did during the "Femme Fatale" tour) in a blond wig and black monk's robe, which were quickly dropped in favor of a brightly colored, graffiti-inspired hoodie and tights under booty shorts (on Nicki Minaj all shorts are booty shorts) for "Did It On 'Em," another déjà vu moment.

Unlike her televised performances, Minaj sang and rapped largely without a backing track and acquitted herself well.

Flowing quickly into "I Am Your Leader," "Beez in the Trap" and "Stupid Ho," all from Minaj's sophomore album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, as well as her verse on Big Sean's hypnotically catchy "Ass," and hits "Right By My Side and "Moment 4 Life," it felt like Minaj was leading a dance party set to a montage of her songs and verses for a solid 15 minutes.

Just when seemed like Minaj was going to blow through her sizeable guest spot and solo catalog in 30 minutes, the rapper/singer made her first costume change as an onstage DJ played "Turn Me On" and tried to pump up the crowd. The breaks were when the shortcuts in staging and presentation really showed.

Instead of leaving some dancers onstage to keep the crowd's attention, all six disappeared with her, and the light screens behind and above the double staircase that made up her set more or less functioned as giant screensavers. When it comes to engaging an audience even when off the stage, Nicki could use some pointers from Beyoncé. For an artist known as much for her theatrical characters and over-the-top outfits as for her singles, it was a huge disappointment.

Returning in see-through white lace that referenced Madonna's "Like A Virgin" look, Minaj fulfilled her pop star potential, singing her Euro-dance megahits "Starships" and "Pound the Alarm" before breaking again to switch to a pink Marilyn Monroe-esque dress for a ballad-heavy interlude featuring "Fire Burns" and "Save Me." (Though surprisingly not "Marilyn Monroe," although the recorded track played as Minaj left the stage for a final costume change.)

Switching to her trademark straight black hair, Minaj also flipped from pop to rap with tracks from her early mixtapes like "Slumber Party" and "Beam Me Up Scotty" plus new track "Come on a Cone."

One of my favorite things about Nicki Minaj is that she makes a distinction between being sexy and being a sexual object. "I don't condone females who depend on men," she told the audience before leading into her verses from Drake's "Make Me Proud." "If you're in school, stay in school, It's not cute to use your cooch. Go out and get what you deserve and then no one can take it away from you." It was almost as great as the feminist rant she spontaneously spun during her 2010 MTV special.

After mixing together her sections of "My Chick Bad" and Bottoms Up" (another Femme Fatale leftover), Minaj opened up the stage to Houston rappers Bun B, Paul Wall and Slim Thug, who each took a turn on the mic performing the songs they are known for. (Somewhere in Houston, Mike Jones wept.)

"Houston is responsible for bringing so much of the culture to hip-hop," she gushed, and while it was a great moment for the audience to see the trio of local greats on the stage, it also seemed like Minaj was looking for a way to fill out her set.

After the Houston interlude, Minaj closed out the show with her 2011 megahit "Superbass" as confetti shot into the air as was off the stage by 10 p.m. with a quick goodbye. With a set that lasted scarcely an hour (no encore here) with no less than three costume changes, this headlining tour didn't feel much more substantial than a RodeoHouston concert, and there wasn't much in the way of interesting lights of sets to distinguish it either.

With tickets selling for up to $100, I'd want my money back. Luckily the high energy crowd didn't seem to agree.