Modern soul boy comes to the sterile environment of London’s o2 arena… or so one thought.
A friend told me to go to Raphael’s gig as the last time they saw them in the Jazz Cafe they said he put on a hell of a live show. When news of him was touring came around I had to buy a couple of tickets, unfortunately the venue came up as the o2. Now I’ve been to the o2 before to “Rock the Bells” hip hop festival but we were seated (yeah that’s right) upstairs. It felt very disconnected from the stage and was more of something to tell your colleagues round the water cooler the next day, rather than how much you felt the gig. So I was dubious.
With a nice belly lining of a cheap early bird special at Thai Silk (service is interesting with an interesting background ambiance of Newcastle’s struggle to get out of the drop zone being played on the speakers… amazing really) we went into the venue. I must say I was pleasantly surprised with how it was set up. Security were efficient but friendly. The cloak room attendant was efficient and relatively friendly, with the bar staff being pretty timely and understanding for a juice order. The bottom bit was spacious and nicely decorated, but somehow felt small enough not to realise you’re in a big fuck off dome.
The support band were mid way through their set, of admittedly I found standard sounding neo soul. However it was nice enough to set the mood. Eventually Mr Saadiq and band came on, dressed in zoot suits and looking straight from a speak easy back in the day you felt there was an impending show coming on. Playing stuff from his various dabblings as Lucy Pearl, Instant Vintage, Ray Ray, All hits at the house of blues and of course The Way I see It, it was a good show. A few old boys really were up for the Toni! Tony! Tone! stuff but personally I was feeling his new take on an old classic sound.
His backing singers were superb, with support band playing a really tight set. They gelled well, and all worked the show nicely. Saadiq had a good rapport with the audience, and particularly the ladies as he wanted to seriously get some McLovin going on as well. It was a well produced but not too contrived show, musically tight and the spirit of 50 years of Motown, over 50 years of Stax and Chess it seemed like a perfect time to release this album. Also on a final note his commentary on Hurricane Katrina on Big Easy is pretty dark but really well executed, particularly when you actually realised that’s what he’s singing about over a very upbeat song.
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