By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
R&B singer Maxwell electrified fans at the Verizon Center on Friday, October 2. (Courtesy Photo)
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(October 7, 2009) - Like a long-lost lover singer Maxwell courted the audience gathered at the Verizon Center last Friday night, slithering across the Y-shaped stage, gyrating against the microphone stand and crooning in that signature falsetto that has been the soundtrack for many a bedroom dance.
But the crowd needed no cajolery; their love for him seemed undiminished by his absence and they were ready, eager even, to welcome him back.
It had been eight years since the singer dropped out of the R&B scene. And, though other artists had contributed sometimes quality, certainly popular songs to the soul/R&B genre, none seemed to possess that special, baby-making quality that made Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite and Now, such iconic albums within the genre.
When a now-afro-shorn Maxwell made his reappearance last year, performing an Al Green classic during the BET Awards, it seemed to signal the return of the slow jam messiah. His limited fall 2008 tour only whetted the public’s appetite. And, by the time his latest project, BLACKsummers’night — the first of a trilogy — hit the marketplace in July 2009, music aficionados were clamoring for the album, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard Albums Top 200 and sold 316,000 units in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Similarly, tickets for his tour—which also showcases Chrisette Michele and rapper Common—were swooped up by voracious fans, more than 13,000 of whom came to see the singer at the Washington, D.C. venue.
“I’ve been gone for about eight years and ya’ll still—ya’ll shut the haters up,” said a visibly moved Maxwell as the audience screamed his name.
Accompanied by a knowledgeable audience, the singer launched his performance with spirited renditions of classics like “Sumthin’ Sumthin’,” “Get to Know Ya,” and “Lifetime,” and the second release from his latest album “Bad Habits.”
“We’ve been loving like this for 14 years, ya’ll. I’ve been in your bedrooms and didn’t know it,” Maxwell said of his relationship with fans. He added in a sultry tone, “Do you have any room for me tonight?” then, launched into sexed-up performances of Al Green’s “Simply Beautiful” and “Fortunate” that had fans tossing their underwear onto the stage.
The singer unabashedly accepted the silky offerings, along with flowers and kisses and gave himself over to the grasping hands of the women—and some men—who vied for a chance to touch him.
Thoroughly working the stage—doing splits and other flexible dance moves that should have been impossible in his derriere-hugging trousers—the singer seemed to make every part of the audience feel like he was singing just for them.
After a funkified version of “Help Somebody,” Maxwell settled into the slow groove of “Fistful of Tears” and “Playing Possum.” The songs, which are representative of the more emotional—rather than sexual—side of love which marks BLACKsummers’night, seemed to invoke, with the stark riffs of a Spanish guitar and the moan of a trumpet, that tender feeling within the audience.
But the undisputed highlight of the night came right after Maxwell wailed, “Ha huhhhhh” into the darkened arena, signaling the start of his enormously popular cover of Kate Bush’s “A Woman’s Work.” In crystal clear falsetto, the singer belted out the tune to the audience, which sang and screamed in near-orgasmic throes.
In its wake, “Stop the World,” and “Till the Cops Come Knocking,” were somewhat anti-climactic. But the signature bells of “Pretty Wings” quickly urged the now-seated audience to its feet again. And as the chiseled-faced singer crooned in a near whisper, “If I can’t have you, let love set you free to fly your pretty wings around,” the flock of women surrounding the stage swooned and Maxwell solidified his spot in R&B sovereignty once again.