Live
Hot Buttered Soul – Black is Beautiful Tour: Boisfeuillet Jones centre, Atlanta 23/09/11
Fri., Sept. 23, 2011 was damn sho’ some good food for the soul…
Live from the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center, modern day soul icons Angie Stone and Raheem DeVaughn grace the stage as the headliners of the Black is Beautiful Tour. The Grammy Award-nominated singers/songwriters perform in front of the same funk –n-- soul six-piece rhythm section: serving up some dynamic helpings of live classic soul that recalls the days of vinyl, Afro picks, burning incense and the radio’s late night Quiet Storm sessions.
And speaking of food for the soul and dynamic helpings…I had just that prior to showtime. A one-of-a-kind, down home reception in the Piedmont Room took me back to my Spartanburg, South Carolina roots. It was on as I was lickin’ my fingertips and rubbin’ my stomach simultaneously: a buffet chocked full of collard greens, green beans, garlic and herb mashed potatoes, honey golden cornbread, spaghetti and meatballs, curry chicken, rice and gravy, meatballs, beans and rice and Michael Holmes’ sliced sandwich wraps. Sounds good, huh?!? Yes, it’s a sweet life at times if I may say so myself…full of Amber’s Joy bite-sized caramel pecan cheesecakes, Cakes by CoCo and Kice Catering’s golden sheet cakes with red frosting…eh, but I digress.
Once DeVaughn takes the stage in his three-piece mint green ensemble and white sneakers, the self-proclaimed “R&B hippie neo-soul rock star” doesn’t fail to leave the crowd with an eargasm…or in his words, politically conscious music…or baby makin’ music. He blesses the audience – he refers to ‘em as “music lovers” – heavy on the croons and a killer falsetto with side orders of beaded raindrops of sweat and ol’ school flavor that recalls some of the greatest soul vocalists of this century. “The more energy you give, the more I give back,” he tells the crowd. Performing favorites such as “B.O.B,” “Desire,” “You” and “Guess Who Loves You More,” DeVaughn works his magic: coming into the crowd, sitting on the edge of the stage and damn near sweating and sangin’ so hard ‘til he came out of his coat.
Stone keeps the fire burnin’ and doesn’t miss a step. “Ain’t nothin’ like real soul music: something that you can feel,” she says to the audience: coming out on stage puttin’ up the black fist. She takes us on a trip down the soul train: opening with “I Wanna Thank You” and performing a tradeoff medley between D’Angelo’s “Brown Sugar” and her own “Everyday.” From there, she’s “Pissed Off” and manages to still perform two unreleased tracks. The evening is full of delectable treats: appearances on-stage by Anthony David, Algebra Bassett and Calvin Richardson (who performed “More Than A Woman” alongside Stone, revealing on-stage that she hadn’t performed that track in almost 10 years). She shows love and pays homage with “Brotha:” presenting a check for $18K to the 100 Black Men of Atlanta towards scholarships. For time constraints, she zooms through a snippet of “No More Rain (In This Cloud)” (bummer) but performs “Wish I Didn’t Miss You” for an encore: with a reggae-flavor followed by Latin rhythms.
Of course, I would’ve personally appreciated if Stone would’ve dabbled into some of her Sequence catalogue – you know, “Funk You Up,” “I Just Want to Know” or my favorite “Angels Playing Hooky” – or even “Seems You’re Much Too Busy” from her Vertical Hold days would’ve sufficed, but for what it’s worth, everything stuck to my ribs. When it comes to soul, everything is all in good taste (literally).
Photos: DJ Blak Magic
Words Christopher Daniel
