Observing the entertainment juggernaut that is Janet Jackson’s Unbreakable World Tour live and at full volume Friday night in the Blaisdell Arena brought several things to mind.

First, seeing the crowd that turned out for the show, it’s no surprise that Jackson sold out three nights in the arena almost before tickets became available to the general public. The audience for the Friday show — it was the second of the three, the final show is today — represented every race and major ethnic group found in the Islands, every fashion “tribe” and gender preference. In terms of age, the crowd ranged from 60-somethings to teenagers.

Second, either Jackson’s fans here like her older material best or the fans of the older material — songs from the albums “Control,” “Rhythm Nation 1814” and “janet” — yell louder than the folks who like her recent stuff. “Miss You Much,” “Rhythm Nation” and a thunderous arrangement of “Nasty” were greeted with screams, cheers and enthusiastic applause. “Let’s Wait Awhile” was almost instantly a spontaneous sing-along with no prompting necessary.

The new songs did not get the same response. Maybe Hawaii has yet to become familiar with them.

In technical terms, Jackson’s show is one of the most high-tech productions Honolulu is going to experience in 2015. The elaborate synchronized lighting sequences, video projections, pyrotechnics and choreography make Unbreakable worth every penny of the ticket price in terms of production values.

Not to mention that Hawaii has loved Jackson for almost 30 years — and that she’s been loved longer than that by the few “old-timers” who remember those two albums before “Control” that didn’t go anywhere, and her television work before she became a recording artist. The love was evident early in the evening when she was cheered and applauded while she stood almost motionless, apparently adjusting an earplug.

The downside of the show was that some of the early classics were condensed for the purpose of squeezing in as many songs as possible into a 1-hour, 40-minute show.

The most glaring hatchet job on Friday was an arrangement of “Control” that ends before she gets to the song’s timeless message of self-empowerment: “Make your life a little easier/When you get the chance just take control.”

Watching it all from “Yeti Country”— a seat in the upper level, four rows down from the ceiling — it was obvious that despite the concerns that had been expressed in advance about the possibility that someone might photograph or shoot video of Jackson while she was performing, much of the audience was capturing everything with their iPhones. Looking down on that sea of iPhones as they moved to the music, it was evident that many, many memories were being recorded by hundreds of happy fans.

The evening included a couple of “only in Hawaii” moments. Someone gave Jackson a white lei while she sang “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” and she wore it for a minute or two. In the final moments of the show she told the crowd that she has loved Hawaii most of her life in part because “my family used to come here almost every year to watch my brothers perform.”

That’s something she’s not going to tell a concert audience in Chicago, New York or Cleveland!

She also acknowledged during the encore that there had been “technical difficulties” during the evening. Most of the fans had probably assumed that everything had been part of the show.

All three concerts have been sold out almost from the second tickets went on sale, but a few “resale” tickets may be available. Anyone who is on the fence about seeing Jackson in Honolulu should check out the selection and buy if they can afford it.