Mood. That was the high point of John Legend’s performance at the Gym Tuesday night.
His ability to take his audience through an array of moods proved to Barbadians that here was the consummate artiste – not a studio-dependent star whose recordings tell only half the story, but a genuine musician whose live voice and inflections sound even sweeter than the CDs.
And with his seven-piece band, anchored by a wailing lead guitar and funky bass on a cushion of soulful horns, the night was more than just about ballads and Ordinary People; it was about musicality and moods.
Legend’s musical strategy was in place from the start as he opened with Hard Times from his album Wake Up!
“Cold, cold eyes upon me they stare. People all around me and they’re all in fear . . . from my party house I feel like meetin’ others, familiar faces, creed and race, a brother. But to my surprise I find a man corrupt. Although he be my brother, he wants to hold me up,” he sang in part, letting listeners know that in the real world, love is indeed hard to find.
Then, one of his three backing vocalists, Jessica Wilson, joined him for the Quickly – a recorded collaboration with Brandy – which carries the same sad theme of Hard Times; but this time with the encouragement to make the most of whatever little time we have left.
And when he launched into Refuge (When It’s Cold Outside), the sad, lonely imagery was totally on point.
That was when he changed the mood, rendering Blame Game, the Kanye West song on which he featured last year, followed by Heaven, which immediately got the audience singing along to his backing vocalists repeatedly crooning “heaven only knows”.
Moving between his piano and the standing microphone, Legend then sparked the mood of reflection with Wake Up, the 1975 power song from Harold Melville and the Blue Notes.
His versatility was then put on display with No Other Love, the sweet reggae number that featured Legend caressing the microphone as the women in the audience pliably, willingly responded.
Staying in the reggae vein, he teased them with Can’t be My Lover and then figuratively took them to the dance floor with Slow Dance, an “oldie-goldie”-textured song in which he was joined by a patron, Candace Possee, who was lifted onto the stage by Legend’s bodyguard.
It was the end of a rather amusing incident in which the guard had whisked away another woman who had dared to rush onstage before. But for the lady in black and blue, it was a dream come true!
Following with songs like We Just Don’t Care and Number One, Legend filled the house with romantic imagery – lovers walking, love lost, lost regained – with little ballads like Save Room and Good Morning, I Can Change which he recorded with hip hop veteran Snoop Dogg, the forlorn Everybody Knows, This Time (I Want It All) and So High.
And as his voice floated between a high falsetto and a deep tenor, the crowd sang along, hanging on for dear life, it seemed, to every lyric.
When the Green Light flashed on with him atop the piano, he seemed “ready to go” and so were some of the fans who, having spent as much as $300 for a prime seat, were heading to the exits fully sated with some 90 minutes of the Legend.
But three minutes later he was back, without the band, advancing with raised right hand and finally sitting before the piano again, to render Ordinary People – the signature hit that launched him into the limelight where he has simply grown in musical stature and popular favour.
Still it was not the end and, for good measure, he added Stay With You.
The crowd would have remained for another 100 minutes, if asked; for Legend could have done it with his wide repertoire.
