“I know this is date night for some of you,” American R&B singer John Legend said to his audience Monday at his concert opening the Byblos International Festival.
“Try not to f**k it up,” he continued, adding that singles in attendance might “get lucky.”
His remarks encapsulated the singer-songwriter-pianist’s brand of earnest, lust-laced romance.
The night was a first, both for Legend – on his inaugural visit to Lebanon – and for the festival, which had not previously featured a contemporary R&B act.
As the seven-piece band started up, the 36-year-old Grammy-winning singer marched out to center stage in a white blazer, white T-shirt, black pants, and sneakers. Without introduction, he immediately launched into the tribal, otherworldly “Made to Love,” one of the vocalist’s most innovative songs from 2013’s “Love in the Future,” his most-recent studio album.
Only at the start of the third song did he acknowledge the audience.
“Byblos, tonight, I want to be the best you ever had,” he declared, before launching into his hit “Tonight (Best You Ever Had),” from the “Think Like a Man” soundtrack. “I don’t want to brag, Byblos,” he said with the swagger that some singers adopt for concerts. “Sometimes you gotta talk that shit.”
While “Love in the Future,” offers some of his most distinctive melodies and edgiest production, Legend set it aside for later in the show. Instead he dove into a rather monotonous mix of older up-tempo songs that oddly included the occasional cover, such as The Beatles’ “I Want You.”
His performance likely satisfied hardcore Legend fans who – judging from a handful of female shrieks in the standing area by the stage or clusters of swaying fans singing along in the seats above – seemed to be a select group in the thousand-plus audience.
Whether uptempo R&B grooves or slow pop ballads, Legend’s tunes can sound generic. Concert performances can amplify this issue, particularly on up-tempo songs, which are often remixed with heavy instrumentation against a pounding beat. Moreover, the arrangements overshadow Legend’s considerable singing and piano-playing talents.
After half an hour, Legend took off his blazer and slowed down the tempo, stripping down the band, and diving further into “Love in the Future.”
“Last night was the last night you’ll ever spend alone,” he crooned in “The Beginning.” “Soon as I saw you, baby, I had plans, plans to do it ’til we have a baby.”
Legend’s voice is smooth, impeccably clean and pure, without the rasps, melismas, or other vocal dressings commonly heard in R&B or gospel. It’s inoffensive and the effect can be either distinctive or bland, depending on the song and instrumentation.
It’s when it’s just the man sitting at his piano, singing an earnest ballad, that Legend’s talents shine through and he begins to assume a stronger stage presence.
“Oh don’t go,” he implored huskily in a new song of the same name from his album-in-progress, elevating an otherwise pleasant but unexciting ballad. After “Love in the Future’s” funky “Save the Night,” the vocalist stepped away for a quick break, leaving it to his two backup singers to fill the time.
Their “filler” was perhaps the highlight of the concert. Both women gave solo takes of the lyrics “save the night,” elongating them into florid multi-octave trills. Their stunning vocal gymnastics, coupled with the beautiful nasal quality of their voices, made for an exceptional performance, possibly outshining that of Legend himself. A listener nearby remarked that the ladies should perhaps form their own act.
The night was a slow burn. As two hours passed, Legend thanked the audience and left the stage before his two greatest hits, predictably setting up an encore.
If there was one song that truly seduced the entire audience, it was “Love in the Future’s” smash hit “All of Me,” written for his wife.
As Legend began playing the opening chords on the piano, the audience rose to its feet and joined him from the first word to the very end. It was no longer just a man, his voice and piano, but a thousand backup singers, to whom Legend occasionally gave way to sing the choruses fluently.
The panoramic twinkling lights of the city wrapping around the stage were rivaled by the lit screens of the smartphones raised to video-record the performance.
Done with romantic seduction for the night, Legend closed the show with black civil rights anthem, “Glory,” his Academy-Award-winning song for the film Selma.
The Byblos International Festival continues July 26 with a show by acoustic rock virtuosi Rodrigo Y Gabriella. For more info, see http://www.byblosfestival.org.
By Alexis Lai
