The Live Experience
Raheem DeVaughn holding up his new mixtape at B.B. King's Blues Club, NYC, 7/10/07
Last night Raheem DeVaughn and Julie Dexter revived a sun spent crowd at New York City's B.B. King Blues Club with smart soul music. Opener Dexter, a Atlanta-based British expat and veteran independent artist, was charged with introducing herself to a crowd of mostly DeVaughn devotees. Although versed in jazz and dnb, Dexter kept it R&B, barring the occasional reggae flourish, which generally charmed but drained at least one song, the extraordinary "Ketch A Vibe," of its otherworldly sensibilities.
After a foot-aching wait filled in part by the strumming of host and Franklin Bridge guitarist Curt Chambers, Raheem DeVaughn powered onto the stage to "Lost 1," a track from the most recent of his many, many mixtapes, The Street Experience Vol. 5. Casually clothed in a black I ♥ NY tee, cargo shorts with a Gucci cap covering his now low cut hair, DeVaughn instantly captivated. Zipping across the stage DeVaughn projected his stellar voice, at moments angelic then satisfyingly lusty, and transitioned into the title track of his beautiful 2005 debut, The Love Experience (which made my top ten for '05). Following up with another of the album's offerings, "Sweet Tooth," DeVaughn questioned, "Who wants to be my candy girl," only to be answered by ear splitting screams and the following observation by a female fan to my right, "M&M's ain't got nothing on him!"
Helming a tight backing band including background singers Steve Smith and Bilal Salaam, as well as painter Demont Pinder whose work has been featured on DeVaugn's album sleeves and music videos, DeVaughn ventured into new material and directed the "powers that be in the building" to take note of their enthusiastic reception. As reported here, DeVaughn's sophomore album was due to be released earlier this year. If the quality and sentiment of new songs "Grown Woman" and "Marathon" are any indication, this next album promises to be at least as lovely as the first given their uncommonly credible romantic conceits and DeVaughn's thoughtful delivery, witnessed in full last night.
DeVaughn's set also featured an old school medley tailormade for seventies and eighties babies and culminated with DeVaughn and the audience dueting on the lucid love song "You": resonant but not as endearing to me as "Is it Possible" or "Where We Stand," two acute observations of relationship in bloom and wilt from The Love Experience that I would have loved to hear live. Still it was an invigorating show and "at least I can say that I (finally) experienced love," DeVaughn style.
Some shots from the show (click on pics for larger views):
Set List:
Lost 1
The Love Experience
Sweet Tooth
Marathon
Ask Yourself
Grown Woman
Medley: Adore, Let's Chill, Let's Get it On, Cruisin'
Believe
Can't Hide Love/Guess Who Loves You More
You
Tags: Music, R&B, Raheem DeVaughn, Soul
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Comments
1.
kenya says:
Raheem is the man, the shit, the one to rock ur world! and oh yeah, how can I forget? all that and a bag of chips! Thats for all of the 80's babies out there reading this....... If you haven't copped his first album, you dont know what your missing..... and if you haven't seen him perform. Damn, what the "F" are you waiting for? This cat performed as if he has been performing since he was floating in his mamas womb.........
08/24/2007 at 3:36 AM