Usher pulled out all the hits and more in Vancouver

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      At Rogers Arena on Thursday, November 27

      It didn't take long for the Vancouver stop on Usher's UR Experience tour to start feeling like a greatest-hits show. Clad in a black biker jacket with a red-and-white sequined armband (it looked like Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback ensemble crossed with something Michael Jackson would have worn circa Bad), Usher Raymond didn't waste any time before busting out the chart-toppers.

      By the time he and his army of backing musicians and dancers had worked their way through "My Way" (a Billboard No. 2 hit in 1998), "OMG" (No. 1 in 2010), and "You Make Me Wanna..." (No. 2 in 1997), it would have struck even the most casual observer that Usher has a lot of hits. Like, a lot of hits. (And why not play them all? After, it's not as if he has a new record to promote; despite giving its purported title to the singer’s current tour, the much-delayed UR has yet to see release.)

      So if his wardrobe was a conscious evocation of Jackson or Presley or some other dead pop icon, it wasn't entirely unjustified. Usher has certainly copped his share of dance moves from the Prince of Pop, whom he has cited as a formative influence. The spins, the moonwalk-like glides, the ending songs with in triumphant poses—the only thing missing was the single spangled glove.

      But Usher has clearly studied other past masters, as well, as he proved on "Twisted", an old-school R&B stomper that gave both the four-piece horn section and the backup dancers a serious workout. If it had a whiff of the Godfather of Soul about it, Usher confirmed this was no accident by tossing a casually James Brown–esque "Ow! Good God!" into the proceedings.

      There were a couple of missteps amid all the fancy footwork: having the DJ spin parts of songs while he sang over top of them turned the concert briefly into a glorified karaoke gig. This was possibly a nod to Prince, who did something similar on his last arena tour. And things dragged considerably when Usher had his camera crews scan the crowd for hot women, whose images were then shown on the large screens flanking the stage. This might have been slightly entertaining had it not dragged on over the course of two songs ("Superstar" and "Bad Girl").

      Fortunately, things picked up again when the singer vanished for a bit only to reappear seated behind a C3PO-gold drum kit, which rose up from under the stage. Usher—who turns out to be a pretty great drummer—bashed out a beat that morphed into the stop-start shuffle that drives "Good Kisser", a loving ode to blow jobs and the ladies who are kind enough to bestow them. After that, he left percussion duties in the hands of Aaron Spears, who is an even better drummer.

      What might ultimately earn Usher a place among the giants is the fact that he can sing like a mofo. One of the highlights of his Vancouver show was "Climax", a minor-key lament that allowed the singer to show off both his impressive falsetto and his powerful emotional range. He pulled off a similar feat of vocal acrobatics when he ended "Burn" purely a cappella, and during MTV Unplugged–style renditions of "There Goes My Baby" and "U Got It Bad".

      After a set-closing kick through the crunktastic "Yeah!", Usher returned for an encore of "Without You", his collaboration with David Guetta. He somehow managed to transform that broken-man plaint into a plea for unity. Kind of a "Man in the Mirror"/"Heal the World" moment, if you will. In any case, it was a perfect note to close on, complete with fireworks both literal and vocal.

      Keep your eye on this Usher kid. He's going places.

      Comments

      2 Comments

      shoegazer

      Dec 4, 2014 at 8:06pm

      I still can't believe that Peter Green had to do an early show at Richards back in 98'to make room for this tripe.I'll retire to Bedlam.

      John Lucas

      Dec 5, 2014 at 12:08pm

      Hey, I like "Oh Well" as much as anyone, but there's room for more than one kind of music in the world.