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Sunday, October 3, 2004
Usher comes home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Usher Raymond does not walk — he glides. He does not sweat — he glows.
He does not perform a concert — he puts on a show.
For his homecoming concert Saturday at Philips Arena, which was a near-constant marvel of athletic choreography, he did the splits, moonwalked, walked on his hands, breakdanced and executed a standing backflip.
The Atlanta R&B star also sang a big batch of songs that were, for the most part, noteworthy only because he was singing them. He didn’t always have the world’s best material, but he radiated so much charisma and sexuality that you barely even noticed.
This Michael Jackson acolyte is indeed a smooth criminal.
He opened with “Caught Up,� a strong song from his phenomenally successful 2004 “Confessions� album, and spent the early portion of the show with a group of dancers who, in their uniforms and white gloves, resembled hot-stepping doormen.
Usher himself changed clothes a number of times throughout the night, usually winding up in some version of a stylish suit or a muscle-revealing shirt. For “My Way,� however, he seemed to be wearing the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
(In case you were wondering, Usher’s famous abdominal muscles made their inevitable cameo about 45 minutes into the show when he tore off his shirt and unleashed his rippling physique.)
As for the music, it was up and down. Mostly up — some songs, for instance, showcased the lovely high-end of Usher’s voice. A long midsection of ballads, though, was just passable, and the show did for a moment sag.
Usher’s opening act, the rapper and producer Kanye West, has remarkable songs and so-so delivery. If Usher has a problem, it’s the reverse.
Still, this wasn’t a problem very often, in part because the show had a lot going on besides music. (The performance was being taped for a forthcoming DVD, and one imagines there’ll be no shortage of visuals when the thing comes out.)
At one point, Usher danced with two frisky women who were wearing what we might conservatively call “pajamas.� At another, he serenaded an audience member in such tantalizing fashion that the young lady seemed ready, at any moment, to melt into a puddle.
Usher saved his recent singles “Burn,� “Confessions, Pt. 2� and “Yeah!� — which this year were simultaneous Top 10 hits — for the end of the show. The performance ended with “Yeah!,� the rapper’s huge (and well-deserved) hit single featuring Atlanta hip-hop stars Lil Jon and Ludacris.
Jon didn’t show up on stage, but Luda did, taking the audience — which by this point did not seem capable of any further enthusiasm — into a state of delirium.
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