anyone catch Stevie?

[rhythmicstorm]

oh my god. i can't believe i missed this show. stevie wonder is my earliest musical memory... the soundtrack of my childhood... one of the most influential musicians of my life. check out the setlist at the end of the second review.


Stevie Wonder
Bottom Line: A joyful celebration of a singular catalogue.
By Erik Pedersen

Sep 7, 2007

Greek Theatre, Los Angeles
Wednesday, Sept. 5

Led onstage Wednesday by his daughter, Stevie Wonder began an often funny, sometimes rambling but heartfelt monologue. He praised God; thanked his family, friends and fans; and playfully rued becoming "the world's youngest grandfather." And the sold-out Greek Theatre crowd just listened.

Ultimately, he wanted to explain why he is on his first concert tour since the mid-'90s. Wonder spoke of his pain and lack of motivation after his mother's death last year. But, he said, several weeks ago, "My mother's voice came into my ear: 'Boy, you better get your ass out there.' "

The line drew a huge laugh, of course, but it and the entire six-minute speech served as the perfect setup for a show that melded themes of joy, love and spirituality with fond memories. And what a show it was.

Wonder mixed his singular funk with gorgeous ballads, backed by a dazzlingly tight eight-piece band and three singers, including daughter Aisha Morris. In marvelous, confident voice, he delivered 130 minutes of hits and album cuts that mostly had the audience alternately rapt and raucous.
The set happily focused on Wonder's 1970s commercial and creative heyday. Indeed, his oldest song was 1969's "My Cherie Amour." There also was a rather pedestrian pair from 2005's "A Time to Love," but he spotlighted that magical four-album run from 1972-76, and not always with the most obvious choices.

Early in the set, Wonder played the first three cuts from "Innervisions" in order, and "Living for the City" was the only single. During "Visions," he offered some of the night's overt though not in-your-face political messages, evoking the aftermath of Katrina and decrying "Jews and Christians, Muslims and Hindus ... fighting each other, killing each other." Still in midsong, he cried: "Stop it, stop it, stop it! Stop the war. Stop the killing."

But the set also included plenty of light moments, including a dopily countrified take on "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" that followed a straight run-through of the 1970 hit. And he backed that with a left-field cover of Chuck Berry's "Memphis." There also was a hilarious male-vs.-female singalong on "Ribbon in the Sky." He had some fun of his own during that song, at one point adding maybe a hundred syllables to the word "sky" -- not milking it, just toying with it.

Among the many other highlights: the participatory reggae of "Master Blaster (Jammin')"; "Higher Ground," complete with trippy intro and some growled vocals; and "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing," which opened with dueling bongos and remained awash in Latin rhythms.

Midset, Wonder drifted into an extended run of ballads, which featured some of the 57-year-old's most remarkable vocals of the night -- alternately breathy and powerful. But as lovely as the slow jams were, the show's energy sagged after a while.

But he raced to the finish with a slew of mostly uptempo smash hits, many truncated in medley form. It was a reminder that, had he chosen to, Wonder could have played a show stacked from top to bottom with nothing but hit singles.

One major gripe about an otherwise terrific evening: no horn section. The synthed brass on "Higher Ground," "I Wish" and especially "Sir Duke" simply cheated those classics. Maybe next time.

And here's hoping that next time isn't 10 years on.




2nd:
Toward the end of his Greek Theater appearance on Wednesday, Stevie Wonder called for his daughter – “Aisha!!!” – as a familiar drum/bass line crept out of the background, and the band swung into Isn’t She Lovely, the song written about her some thirty-odd years ago. For a few seconds, the Jumbotron screens were filled with the two of them, Stevie bobbing back and forth intensely, Aisha gazing at him with great love as he began to sing.

Isn’t she lovely, isn’t she wonderful
Isn’t she precious, less than one minute old
I can’t believe what God has done
From us he’s given life to one
Isn’t she lovely, made from love

It was a moment that sounds like it’s being played for corn, and I’m sure they do this every night on tour, but every person there bought it. It was, like so many moments that evening, incredibly moving.

Stevie Wonder’s songs have a way of getting to the heart of the matter. During two and a half hours on stage, he got to the heart of a lot of things. Big stuff. His mother’s death, which he explained during a brief monologue at the opening was the inspiration for this exceedingly rare road trip, and described hearing a spectral voice that said “Boy, you better get your ass out of bed!” Injustice, leading the audience through a chant of “Stop the war! Stop the killing!” during a shockingly powerful rendition of Visions. Enlightenment, bringing the crowd to its feet with that unstoppable clarinet riff that kicks off Higher Ground, all of us pledging to Keep On Tryin’. Love, so many times, so beautifully, never more so than during a sparkling Ribbon In The Sky. And even Fun, celebrating the good old days of doctor-playing in I Wish.

Wonder’s disappearance from the road these last twenty years, making only brief appearances at benefits, created an insane demand for tickets, evidenced by a full page of frantic Craigslist postings begging, pleading for help getting in (one of them from this writer). The crowd was his to lose, and he gave generously. Nearly all his biggest hits pre-1980 were given full readings, the medley treatment only kicking in for about five tunes at the end. Enthusiasts got deep-album cuts, many of them from the beloved 1972 album Innervisions. He joked and told stories in between, at one point getting the audience to sing along with a country two-step rendition of Signed, Sealed, Delivered. “No, y’all ain’t doing it right, listen up. ‘Aaahm’s yoooooors’”, he drawled in a perfect Johnny Cash. And then he made us do it over until we got it right. Sheesh. No wonder his band is so tight.

Well, they’d have to be, to keep up with him. His singing, harmonica playing, keyboard playing, and ability to fully inhabit every fiber of a piece of music, are all completely intact. They don’t damn MAKE singers like this anymore. A couple of years ago at Live 8, he handed the mic out to Rob Thomas and Adam Levine for a few verses apiece. (Maybe not the most robust choices for modern singers you could think of, but they are pop icons who are widely considered to be able to “actually sing.”) Needless to say, he made mincemeat out of everything that came near him. It was like watching Mike Tyson fight your grandmother. They’d fart out a couple of technically accurate lines, relatively in tune which is apparently some kind of miracle these days, bask in glorious shit-eating grins for half a second, and then fall under the wheels as Stevie let out a single “Ooooh baby!” It was some funny shit. Clearly he’s still a force to be reckoned with.

Given his generosity with the mic, it seemed possible that an LA show might have more of the same, with every celebrity from Snoop to Jack Black showing up for their two lines. Thankfully the only guest brought out was opera singer Anita Johnson, introduced as the daughter of Wonder’s recently departed friend Alfred Johnson, to sing When I Fall In Love. This is, admittedly, a gorgeous song that can stand up to a voice as hysterical as Celine Dion’s and retain some amount of grace. In the hands of Johnson and Wonder, particularly against this backdrop of loss, it was an emotional stunner, and an unexpected high point in a night full of obvious ones.

The end of the night came earlier than expected, Wonder leading the band through a final set apparently made up on the fly, leaving the stage at 11 sharp and never coming back out. Too bad, as I’d read they were doing You Haven’t Done Nothing during the encores at earlier shows and that would have gone down exceptionally well. I also noticed a small drumkit set up at stage left, presumably for Stevie, which he never got around to. But small complaints about what we DIDN’T get seem terribly un-generous on a night like this.

At least we Angelenos usually get to see him at Christmastime, usually doing a half hour at the House Full Of Toys benefit amidst a bunch of current R&B stars. There'll probably be one this year and given Stevie's newfound interest in long sets, you might want to think about going to that.

As it is, I'm calling gig of the year.

Setlist:

Love's in Need of Love Today / Too High / Visions / Living For the City / Master Blaster (Jammin') / Higher Ground / Golden Lady /Ribbon in the Sky / Overjoyed / Can't Imagine Love Without You/ You and I/ Lately/ How Will I Know (with Aisha Morris) / Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing / Signed, Sealed, Delivered / Memphis, Tennessee / Boogie On Reggae Woman / My Cherie Amour / When I Fall in Love (with Anita Johnson) / MEDLEY: I Wish, Sir Duke, Isn't She Lovely, You Are the Sunshine of My Life / Superstition / I Just Called to Say I Love You (fragment & Stevie monologue) / Another Star

[Cleantone]

When I went to Full Sail in 1999, he played in our parking lot. His keyboard tech was one of the teachers at the time.

[ScS]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SCZv7786KY

[drewry]

speaking of hearing stevie at a young age:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ul7X5js1vE
Sesame Street

[diesel]

yeah i caught the bmore show, very similar set and feel that the reviewers described. i didnt recognize most of the ballads, but the funkier stuff was great.

[rhythmicstorm]

how was the band?

my boyfriend was convinced it would've sounded cheesy since stevie has made a few bad records of late. but i insisted that the shows would've sounded hot, because he is a genius.

[diesel]

the band was great. he had three percussionists, guitar, bass, and keys. the only thing that was missing was horn players. it was an entertaining show. the guy is really funny and charming and he played for at least 2.5 hours.

i was a little under dressed and there was a brisk breeze blowing from the inner harbor so i spent most of the time under a blanket instead of groovin.

pier six is a great venue though. too bad it doesn't get enough solid acts.

[Phrazz]

That venue just needs a good promoter. Anyone?

I also heard somewhere that the owners were thinking about selling the 8x10 Club (business, not the building). If I had a million dollars.

That review is stellar. I'll put Stevie on my "short list" of performers to see. I had to take Johnny Cash off that list. Maybe I can still catch BB King again while he's still around.

Remember, if you ever get a chance to see a living legend, it may be your last! So if you're on the fence about going to a legendary show, just jump.

[magpie]

if you ever get a chance to see a living legend, it may be your last! So if you're on the fence about going to a legendary show, just jump.

exactly...
john got to see bb king a few weeks ago.

and we're going to see neil young a few weeks from now. soooooo excited!!!

[KLUE]

Going to see Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello on Sunday