On the whole, New Edition show was old-school fun. But some of the pieces were puzzling.
An hour into boy-band-turned-nostalgia-act New Edition’s headlining “Culture Tour” set on Sunday night, Ralph Tresvant took command of the stage at Spectrum Center in Charlotte to perform the biggest hit of his ’90s-era solo run.
Wearing a sharp red jacket and a cool red fedora over black pants and a black shirt decorated with a rope chain necklace, the 53-year-old singer crooned the silky-suave “Sensitivity” while joined by a growing bevy of backup dancers — first two, then four, then a half-dozen, all clad in leopard-print bodysuits.
Tresvant sang not quite like a man two-fifths his age but really honestly pretty close, finishing the track with a flourish of melisma and a sexily sing-songy “I love you, Charlotte” to cap what would qualify as one of the night’s smoothest moments. Then groupmate Ricky Bell tagged himself on to the stage for his own solo number ...
... and promptly delivered the unsmoothest moment of the entire show.
If you turned your attention for more than one second at the exact right time, you might have missed it.
It came as he walked down the steps from the riser at stage right to the opening strains of “When Will I See You Smile Again?,” when — even though Tresvant had just provided a geographical reminder — Bell shouted: “How y’all doing tonight, Greensboro?”
Bell managed to catch himself immediately: “I mean Charlotte, sorry about that,” he said, chuckling.
Then he quickly moved on as if nothing ever happened, announcing that the 1991 Bell Biv DeVoe ballad was “for the ladies” and jumping right into it.
On the one hand, you might argue that he handled the gaffe like a pro. On the other, I’ve said this before — most recently in 2019, when Stevie Nicks confused North Carolina with South Carolina — and I’ll say it again: A pro should never make a gaffe like that in the first place.
“Get the little things right” is Rule No. 2 in the live-show section of the (insert genre here; in this case, it’s R&B) star handbook, and “Know where you are, at all times” is a little thing that’s actually kind of a big thing.
Of course, Rule No. 1 is “Give fans their money’s worth, at minimum,” and fortunately, “The Culture Tour” largely succeeded.
I have to admit that I was a little concerned when I turned off of Caldwell Street onto Trade Street to find some of the longest lines I’ve seen in years waiting to get inside. If there was ever an opener I didn’t want to miss a second of, it was Jodeci; I figured they would do an extra-special show, since all four members are originally from the Charlotte area.
The good news is I managed to get to my seat before they went on. The disappointing news is the set was pretty routine.
Their voices still sound fine, but their performance was personality-less — and they had nothing special whatsoever prepared for Charlotte. No special shout-outs. No diversions from the list of songs they’d done in every other city on this tour.
In short, Jodeci underwhelmed.
But second warm-up act Charlie Wilson overwhelmed, with the former leader of The Gap Band charming all of the roughly 18,000 people in the building with an unapologetically cool set of 15 songs that sprawled across 70 minutes.
Wilson has headlined in Charlotte multiple times in the past, most often at the 10,000-seat Bojangles Coliseum, most recently in 2018, and this felt like a headlining set. He was loose, unhurried, sure-handed, hugely entertaining.
The crowd roared as the 69-year-old singer opened the show by boogey-ing through dance-floor Gap Band hit “Party Train” and then jumping up and down during the climax of his second song, the chart-topping Gap Band funk jam “Early in the Morning.” Fans roared even more loudly when — after finishing the latter — he quipped, “If you see me stumbling around here ... I’m not drunk, and I’m not high. But I’ve had two knee surgeries, and it hurt like hell right now!”
Among many other highlights: Mid-set, Wilson and his six female backup dancers donned suit jackets, fedoras and sneakers lined with LED strips, which put on a colorfully mesmerizing display of dancing lights when the arena went dark for the infectious “Burn Rubber On Me,” yet another Gap Band smash.
He closed his performance as he’s closed so many shows that he’s headlined, with a literal mic drop.
But there was still another hour and a half of classic R&B to come.
New Edition was last in Charlotte on the outdoor stage at PNC Music Pavilion in June 2016. The big difference is that Bobby Brown was not on that tour. So this lineup, often referred to as “all six” — that is, Ricky, Michael (Bivins), Bobby (Brown), Ronnie (DeVoe), Johnny (Gill) and Ralph — hadn’t been in town together in just shy of a decade.
As it turns out, not much has changed from their 40s to their 50s. Which is a good thing.
They still can’t (and never will again) replicate the prepubescent voices that recorded ’80s hits like “Candy Girl” and “Mr. Telephone Man,” but the change in octave doesn’t make the hooks any less infectious.
Bobby still can’t (and probably never will again) do the choreographed dance routines as animatedly or with as much technical precision as the other five guys, but his moves aren’t as cringe-worthy as they’re sometimes made out to be, and if you keep a close eye on him they actually become kind of adorable.
They still do a remarkable job of giving everyone a time to shine, from preacher-y hype man Johnny strutting solo stuff like “My, My, My,” “Fairweather Friend,” “Rub You the Right Way” and Teddy Pendergrass’s “Love TKO”; to Bobby putting a more soulful growl into songs like “Roni,” “Every Little Step,” “Rock Wit’cha” and “My Prerogative”; to Ricky, Michael and Ronnie covering their Bell Biv DeVoe hits like “Do Me!” and “Poison” with verve. Even Ralph, like we mentioned at the top, gets his moment in the spotlight.
And they still gamely poke fun at their past infighting, as they did this time after Bobby waved his hand dismissively and left the stage in the middle of a rendition of 1985’s “Count Me Out” that featured Michael, Ralph, Ricky and Ronnie.
Ricky, before the next song: “Yo, Bobby. Why did you leave on ‘Count Me Out’?”
Bobby: “’Cause that song reminds me of the time when y’all basically kicked me out of the group. So I figured ... you might as well ‘count me out’ of performing that song.”
Ricky: “There’s another reason, though. I mean, that’s good, that’s valid. But what’s the other reason.”
Bobby: “I didn’t come to rehearsal.”
Ricky: “Yup. But anyway, brother, we are happy to have you here with us right now, man. I speak for everyone here. Because you’ve been through a lot, and we just want to say we all appreciate you. We support you. And we love you, brother.”
The crowd cheered. Bobby and Ricky hugged.
Ronnie, semi-sarcastically, with a smile: “Awww. Ain’t that cute, ain’t that cute.”
It was an enjoyable moment, on a night when New Edition orchestrated several. I loved the outfit changes, loved the simple throwback choreography and their terrific, energetic backup dancers, loved hearing the more-maturely-rendered versions of songs I listened to over and over again when I was a middle-schooler and high-schooler.
But the night yielded a number of head-scratching moments, as well. In addition to Ricky’s temporary confusion about what city he was in ...
1. As mentioned, New Edition continued its time-honored tradition of highlighting various parts of the group in addition to the spotlighting the whole. Jodeci, meanwhile, squandered a similar opportunity that would have been its easiest layup of the night. That is, here you’ve got K-Ci & JoJo on the same stage together, why in the world would you not have DeVante Swing and Mr. Dalvin take a break so the Haileys could do “All My Life” and “Tell Me It’s Real”? *Shrug emoji*
2. Although Wilson mostly wowed, at one point, the singer went weird. Near the end of his set, he coaxed thousands into turning on their cellphone lights — more than any I’ve seen at one time at Spectrum Center in many, many shows. But instead of just going straight into his feel-good R&B song “I’m Blessed,” which could then have been both an aural and a visual treat, he asked people to use their phones to send him messages on social media about whether or not they liked his show. By the time he started singing, many of the cell lights had been extinguished. *Shrug emoji*
3. A few minutes later, Wilson sang a verse and a chorus of a song that was released less than a month and a half ago: “No Stoppin’ Us,” which he recorded with Babyface, K-Ci and Johnny Gill. Seemed like a great opportunity to perform it live with two of his three collaborators, no? *Shrug emoji*
4. Johnny announced that he’s “been under the weather for the last three or four days,” but said “there was nothing going to stop me from coming here tonight.” I assume he’s been tested for COVID and was negative, but it just seems — to me — like that’s a curious position to take in these particular times. *Hmm emoji*
5. Michael looked out into the floor section at one point and made eye contact with someone while saying, “I got a real king in this city, that’s been a good father figure, my stepfather. Right there. Father-in-law. You’re all of that to me. Both of those. That’s why I said it that way. Mr. Don Looney, y’all. He’s a real king.” Or, at least, phonetically it sounded like he was saying Don Looney. And maybe it’s common knowledge that Michael has this connection to Charlotte, but it’s not to me. I would love to know a bit more. *Hmm emoji*
Lastly, I’ll say that it’s always a nice touch to see big-name artists give a nod to the host city in some fashion.
I actually kind of expected that, if anyone, the members of Jodeci would be the ones wearing Hornets gear. Instead, it was Ricky, Michael and Ronnie, who performed “Do Me!” as Bell Biv DeVoe while wearing black ballcaps with the Hornets’ name in gold lettering.
As a bonus, later, for “Poison,” Ronnie donned a teal-colored Hornets cap.
And by the way, Ricky — that’s the Charlotte Hornets, not the Greensboro Hornets.
*Wink emoji*
New Edition’s setlist
1. “Candy Girl”
2. “Mr. Telephone Man”
3. “If It Isn’t Love”
4. “Roni” (Bobby Brown song)
5. “My, My, My” (Johnny Gill song)
6. “Do Me!” (Bell Biv DeVoe cover)
7. “Fairweather Friend” (Johnny Gill song)
8. “You’re Not My Kind of Girl”
9. “Hit Me Off”
10. “N.E. Heartbreak”
11. “Jealous Girl”
12. “Is This the End”
13. “Cool It Now”
14. “Count Me Out”
15. “Every Little Step” (Bobby Brown song)
16. “Love T.K.O.” (Teddy Pendergrass cover)
17. “Boys to Men”
18. “Sensitivity” (Ralph Tresvant song)
19. “When Will I See You Smile Again?” (Bell Biv DeVoe cover)
20. “Rock Wit’cha” (Bobby Brown song)
21. “Poison” (Bell Biv DeVoe cover)
22. “My Prerogative” (Bobby Brown song)
23. “Rub You the Right Way” (Johnny Gill song)
24. “Can You Stand the Rain”
This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 5:45 AM.
