CONCERT REVIEW: Soulfully Flirty Excitement (NY Post)
By DAN AQUILANTE Last Updated: 10:36 AM, September 30, 2009
Posted: 1:20 AM, September 30, 2009
MAXWELL is a chameleon.
At his debut headlining gig at Madison Square Garden Monday night, this veteran R&B belter was as skilled at flirting with the ladies as he was making the guys respond to his soul calls.
Right up front, when he laid down the song “Lifetime,” he worked the girls with this slow-burn jam, tickling them with his impressive falsetto during a ballad shaded with organ swirls and guitar fills.
Then, as if flipping a switch, Maxwell became the quintessential soul brother. The singer stepped into a lone spotlight in the dark Garden, half singing, half preaching as if he were possessed by the spirit of Sam Cooke.
Maxwell is handsome and lanky; his body language is angular whether he is doing a split or reaching for the sky. Even more interesting is how he speaks silently with intricate yet unconscious hand jive.
As good as those stage personas were, Maxwell was most impressive at Monday’s show when he became Mr. Excitement on the songs in which the arrangements center on voice and drums, peppered with trombone, trumpet and sax blasts. That combination was terrific on “Gravity: Pushing To Pull,” in which the sonics were akin to Maxwell being supported by a miniature version of the USC Trojan Marching Band.
Drum-line beats suited Maxwell especially well in songs when he kept his voice in the lower register and his phrasing staccato.
Where rhythm did take a back seat to melody was on the singer’s cover of the Rev. Al Green’s classic “Simply Beautiful.” Maxwell crooned here with a jazzy, wild soulfulness. His vocals meshed nicely with the wah-wah guitar accompaniment on what evolved into a very atmospheric piece.
There were a couple of times during this performance when he tried a little too hard — such as when he offered up the new tune “Stop the World” off this year’s CD “BLACKsummers’night.”
To introduce that song, he teased the house saying, “This is dedicated to all the girls who’ll toss their panties onstage tonight.” Lingerie lobbing is kind of like kissing — if you have to ask, it doesn’t count. That song and the request for ladies’ britches were Maxwell’s only major missteps in an otherwise stellar concert.
dan.aquilante@nypost.com
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Concert Reviews 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
lala October 1st, 2009 at 3:04 am
Yes its a good thing for us overseas peeps…nothing will beat the real thing but yes I will be looking on youtube as of now lol