Review: Mary J. Blige’s concert was full of emotion. But it also left me wanting more.
.JPG "Mary J. Blige performs at Spectrum Center during her Gorgeous tour on Wednesday, September 21, 2022 in Charlotte, NC.")
At its best, Mary J. Blige’s concert at Spectrum Center on Wednesday night was a showcase not just for her vocal range — or for her three-decade-spanning catalog of R&B music — but also for her range of moods.
And I’m not sure which of them I liked seeing her in the most.
It’s intoxicating, for instance, when she’s feeling playful. Like when she stopped in the middle of 1992’s “Real Love,” one of her biggest hits ever, to ask the crowd, “How many of y’all wanna do a Mary J. Blige dance with me?” (It sounded like the answer was ... pretty much everyone.) “Y’all know how I do. I keep it real ghetto. Now here we go.” Then, as her fans chanted, “Go, Ma-ry! Go, Ma-ry! Go, Ma-ry!,” the singer spent 30 seconds hopping, kicking up her knees, stagger-stepping, bobbing, weaving, and generally looking like she was having the time of her 51-year-old life.
But it’s arguably even more exhilarating to behold her when she’s angry. Case in point: As she brought her cover of Rose Royce’s “I’m Goin’ Down” to a climax, she seemed to turn the song about wallowing in misery over a break-up on its head by snarling through a bonus verse.
So sick of always bein’ down and miserable
‘Cause of some unworthy n----
I’m so tired of it, haaaa, heeyyyyy
See, I been goin’ through too much hell with so mucha these n-----
And I’m sick and tired of bein’ sick and tired
Yeahhhhhh, tired o’ goin’ down, tired o’ goin’, goin’ down
Goin’ so down I take no bull---
(Or at least I think I heard those last four words right. It was a little hard to tell because by that point, the 10,000-plus Mary J. fans inside the uptown arena were roaring.)
Perhaps the most thrilling version of the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul I saw on Wednesday night, however, was the one that showed up to belt out “Not Gon’ Cry,” from 1996’s “Waiting to Exhale” soundtrack.
Like with “I’m Goin’ Down,” Blige growled her way toward the Babyface-composed song’s finish line —
He waaasn’t worth
He waaaasn’t worth
He waaaaasn’t worth
He waaaaaasn’t WOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRTHH
— and that last “worth” was a primal scream she drew out for nine long seconds, tears welling up in her eyes, her face threatening to melt into an ugly-cry —
Any — aaany, any — of my —
— then she did exactly what the song said she wasn’t going to do — crouching down, burying her head in her hands — but explained it away in another sermon-esque, talked-sung extra verse:
I said I wasn’t gonna cry
But I’m cryin’ for joy
I’m cryin’ ’cause I’m free
I’m cryin’ ’cause it’s over
Blige let out two quick high-pitched screams as the crowd went berserk, then she flip-flopped again:
Wooooo, I ain’t gotta do it no more
So he wasn’t worth my — my — my precioooooouuus teeeeee-ayyyyyy-arrrrrrrrss
“These is happy tears,” Blige said, as she wiped hers away. “This is tears of freedom. ’Cause this — this thing right here that be happenin’ — you just get tired of goin’ through this right here, but this happens all the time.”
Whew. Talk about mixed emotions.
Speaking of which, I had them, too, on Wednesday night. Unfortunately.
On the one hand, Blige’s presence on stage — for all the reasons mentioned above — was electrifying. Her look was striking, from the blonde locks that spilled down to her hips to the three different pairs of leather boots she wore that were pulled up over her knees (she proved she can pull off some surprisingly nimble dance moves in five-inch heels, by the way). And her voice was bright and punchy during uptempo selections like show-opening new song “Amazing” and first-ever single “You Remind Me,” emotive and beautiful on slow jams like “Failing in Love” (another new song) and “My Life ’06” (another old one).
I just felt like I didn’t get to hear her voice enough.
Some of it is simple math. From house lights off to house lights back on, her headlining set clocked in at 1 hour and 28 minutes. If you factor in, though, that Blige left the stage three times — for a total of 15 minutes, to change outfits — that’s only 1 hour and 13 minutes of MJB.
It also seemed like she turned over an inordinate amount of the singing duties to the audience, relegating herself, basically, to backing vocalist for large parts of hits like “Mary Jane (All Night Long),” “Be Happy,” “I’m Goin’ Down,” and “Real Love.”
The latter, incidentally, was one I was really excited to hear her perform. But after launching into the “Ooh, when I met you / I just knew that you would —” she cut herself off, holding her mic out and largely letting her fans take it from there. Not just the verse, but the chorus, too. Plus, it was over and done with in a mere 1 minute and 50 seconds, because after the second verse, she pivoted into “Love No Limit.”
Which speaks to another concern: that the pacing seemed a little too frenetic.
She got to “Love No Limit,” the sixth song in the set, just 10 minutes into the show. In all, the Grammy winner covered a whopping 32 songs in the 73 minutes she was on stage, and going back to that simple math, we’re talking less than 2-1/2 minutes per song.
But I guess these are matters of taste.
Some people like a good,full-crowd singalong, others feel like they didn’t pay good money for the headliner to stand there while everyone else does the work. Some people like a little bit of everything, others prefer quality over sheer quantity.
That’s not to say we didn’t get Blige’s best effort, or her backup dancers’ or singers’ best, or her band’s. (Though I will say the production team needs to fix the latency issue that distractingly caused the big-screen video of her performance to not quite sync up all night.) I’m sure we did.
I just mean I think I’d rather hear her blow the doors off 20 songs than have her blow through 32 of them, and I’d rather her rely on less assistance from the crowd.
Overall, I just felt like I wanted — and needed — more.
Then again, better than wanting less, right?
Mary J. Blige’s setlist
1. “Amazing”
2. “On Top”
3. “You Remind Me”
4. “Changes I’ve Been Going Through”
5. “Real Love”
6. “Love No Limit”
7. “Mary Jane (All Night Long)“
8. “Rent Money”
9. “Reminisce”
10. “You Bring Me Joy”
11. “Be Happy”
12. “Good Morning Gorgeous”
13. “Here With Me”
14. “Love Without the Heartbreak”
15. “I’m the Only Woman”
16. “Mary’s Joint”
17. “Failing in Love”
18. “Come See About Me”
19. “Not Gon’ Cry”
20. “I’m Goin’ Down”
21. “Everything”
22. “Beautiful Ones”
23. “All That I Can Say”
24. “Share My World”
25. “My Life ’06”
26. “Work That”
27. “Enough Cryin’”
28. “The One”
29. “I Can Love You”
30. “Family Affair”
31. “Just Fine”
32. “MJB da MVP”
This story was originally published September 22, 2022 at 11:02 AM.
