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Keep It Simple

Van Morrison

Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008

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InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY

Usher at Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY -June 14th, 2000

Usher

I’ve got to say, going into this show I was not a big Usher fan. I was offered a ticket at the last minute and said, "what the heck." I mean, my kind of music is The White Stripes and The Strokes. So, I didn’t know what to expect from Usher, but I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. The weather on this night at Jones Beach was absolutely miserable. It was rainy, damp and downright cold! Usher would have to really impress me to make up for Mother Nature.

Well, to my surprise, Usher put on one heck of a performance. Not only is the guy a great singer, but a marvelous dancer. He’s like the Michael Jackson of his generation. I’m not exaggerating! He put on a Madison Square Garden performance in this unseasonable setting. If I only had his moves there’s no telling what I could do! And charisma, Usher’s sure got it. At one point in the show, he took a quote en quote "contest winner" on stage and romanced her like he was Luther Vandross. The guy sure knows how to work a crowd.

I think the best compliment I can give Usher is this: I will now go out and buy one of his discs. I especially liked his live performances of "Nice & Slow" and "U Got It Bad". And what can I say about Usher’s band? They were so tight, you could listen to them all day and all night. It’s like Usher has taken the best session musicians on tour with him. A great move for such a young performer. If you get the chance to see Usher perform, take it. If he can change my opinion then he can change yours. I guess my sister is right; Usher is quite a performer and a great entertainer.

-- Bret J. Callahan

Being at the show with Bret, I’ll add my own 2 cents to his commentary. Like Bret, I couldn’t claim to have anything resembling encyclopedic knowledge of this guy’s music and/or career, so I more or less expected an ordinary R&B show, with some great singing and a few crowd pleasing dance routines. I got a LOT more than I had bargained for.

The evening kicked off with a few lackluster warm-up acts before Faith Evans took the stage, who performed admirably if not remarkably, especially on the slower, groove-based numbers which, for a few minutes, turned the Jones Beach Theater into a southern gospel tent. Nas was next, who pulled off his routine of old-school rap by involving the crowd as often as possible. The stage set resembled a Mid-Eastern mosque, but other than his entrance through the set’s collapsible door, it served no particular purpose, especially since his show consisted of little else than strutting around the stage, spewing out his hits and throwing out the occasional dis at fellow east-coast rapper ‘Jay-hova’. The weather didn’t cooperate much with Nas, and neither did the sound system, since his rapid-fire soliloquies often went by incomprehensibly. In short, he got the job done, made the audience laugh a bit and sing along, but never rose above the weather that sat over the theater like a wet dishrag.

The turning point came with Usher, who performed as if it were a sunny 78 degrees, and his intention was to make it even hotter – a LOT hotter. Few performers have the magnetic charisma of Usher, and he worked it on Friday night. The large-screen camera work showed us his every move, as well as every facial expression, and left no doubt that he was focused, and ready to give it up. The wet stage was an insurance hazard, especially with the twelve-foot high twisting ramp that Usher utilizes to traverse the stage, but he and his dancers moved as though they had rehearsed on ice, slipping only occasionally, and not even acknowledging the adverse conditions. Usher also wins points for bringing up an alleged ‘contest winner’ on stage, and then seducing her in his onstage bed, a routine that would have left Prince (or Madonna, for that matter) looking almost sexless in comparison. By the time that Usher broke out his heartbreaker hits toward the end of the show, the entire crowd was roused to their feet, swaying to the music, and ignoring Mother Nature’s worst. It takes a magical performer to overcome dire conditions, and Usher made us all forget the rain, and party like it was a star-lit summer night.

-- Thomas Ryan