Row R, Seat 2 – right section, on the
right-center aisle
These two living legends of soul – each
of whom celebrated her 80th birthday recently – both put on great shows, each in her
own way.
There was nothing fancy about Knight’s
performance. Wearing orange (possibly to honor the victims of gun violence?),
she was supported by three “Pips” (all female) and a six-piece band (guitar,
bass, and two percussionists and keyboard players). She proceeded to do 14
songs, mixing hits such as “Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me” with lesser-known
cuts such as “Make Yours A Happy Home” and the opening “Taste Of Bitter Love”. Near
the end of the show, she featured somewhat reimagined arrangements of “I Heard
It Through The Grapevine” (which I liked) and “Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye)”
(not as much). She finished up, just about an hour after getting underway, with
her cover of Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were” and “Midnight Train To
Georgia”, sandwiched around her version of gospel great Donnie McClurkin’s “Stand”.
She didn’t seem to have lost any of her vocal chops, holding some notes for
lengthy periods throughout despite not having any long solos to give her much
of a break, and the backup singers and band more than held up their share of
the show.
Unfortunately, by the scheduled 8:00
starting time, well under half of the non-lawn portion of the sellout crowd had
found their seats inside the Filene Center. As a result, we were frequently
distracted by latecomers being ushered to their seats, up to and including
during the concluding “Midnight Train". As Knight didn’t tell any
especially long stories between songs, it was difficult to do this gracefully.
(To be charitable, I expect that anyone who arrived by car much later than 7:30
may have had trouble finding parking, and at best probably faced a lengthy walk
to the venue.)
LaBelle certainly featured more in the
way of showmanship, as she invited four men up on stage to dance and sing (sort
of) with her on the penultimate “Lady Marmalade”. The set also made extensive
use of lighting (often creative, occasionally annoying), and she deployed four
backup singers, along with a band featuring a horn section. While Knight had several
relatively brief band solos in her set, Labelle’s portion of the evening
included two back-to-back numbers with multiple extended solos, the second of
which provided a costume-change opportunity (white to pink, if you’re keeping
track). As with Knight, I didn’t notice any signs of vocal decline; she was hitting
(and holding) stratospherically high notes well before Mariah Carey was even
born.
Aside from the duet on “On My Own”,
which I thought was a bit of a mess, I enjoyed all of her material, although it’s
not nearly as familiar to me as Knight’s body of work. The show was a nice mix
of ballads – “If Only You Knew” is one of my favorites – and more up-tempo
material. Their somewhat unlikely version of Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands
Where My Eyes Could See” actually worked, although I would have loved to have
her include “New Attitude”. “Marmalade” of course was fun, with “Bad Girls”
ending the hour-long set.
The 30-minute intermission between
sets was enough for just about everyone to be seated when she started her set
at 9:30, although a noticeable portion of the audience was heading back toward
the parking lots during the final 10-15 minutes of her hour on stage.
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