Mellow Smooth

POSTED June 25, 2009 BY Maurice

Last night was a crazy one for music fans in Vancouver. Megadeth & Slayer rocked GM Place while rapper Gift of Gab from Blackalicious dropped rhymes at The Biltmore. In another part of town, the Tragically Hip had fans partying at The Orpheum while Major Lazer was blowin’ speakers just around the corner at the Commodore.

Down the street at the Centre for Performing Arts, a decidedly different vibe ruled the evening. The artist known as Maxwell brought his unique brand of vintage-style soul to our city for the first time and made us realize what we’ve been missing. New songs like “Pretty Wings” were received well but it was his ultra smooth renditions of old favorites like “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)” and “Sumthin’ Sumthin’” that brought the crowd to its feet.

Backed by an equally polished live band, he glided energetically yet effortlessly around the stage with a stealthy array of moves and showed us just how great modern soul music can be.

Maxwell

More pictures after the jump…

Maxwell02

Great stage presence and as mentioned, some really slick moves…

Maxwell03

The loss of his signature afro was not insignificant, but thankfully didn’t affect the music one bit.

Maxwell04

The entire band was given the opportunity to perform solos & introduce themselves at the end. Pretty rare these days.

Laura Ibizor

The opening act was Laura Ibizor, a talented neo-soul / R&B singer from Ireland. Highly recommended.

Category: Music,Our History

http://evanhaveman.com Evan

i was fortunate enough to be there and it was a spectacular concert. as soon as i got home i bought laura izibor’s album and pre-ordered maxwell’s new album off itunes.
Boon Kondo

The centre was smaller (narrower) than i remembered but thats a good thing. Im back there for Jimmy Cobb’s tribute to the 50th anniversary of Kind of Blue during the Jazz Fest. Actually….in a funny way, the Maxwell gig coulda been a nice tribute to the spirit of MJ – just the essential elements that make a dope soul/r&b/funk show: the moves, the swoonin of the ladies, the solo’s from the musicians……hey, dont forget the legendary Wah Wah Watson (who as I google him, turns out, also played on Off the Wall on top of countless other classic funk/soul jams). http://www.wahwah.com/history.html. I think Watson also played the funk guitar lick on the one song that i was disappointed Maxwell left out – Welcome from Urban Hang Suite.

Yeah, i love it when there’s so many shows on the same night in town. Imagine if all the go’ers ended up at the same after party, lol.

Anyhow, sweet pics, Mo! Yeah, what’s up with the strictness of pic taking at the Centre though? Do they always have the no pic policy at this venue? I was there before for the jazz fest and same thing. Even though we’re in the era of free mp3s and stuff, paying what we do for the shows, we should be free and able to picture away, no? Then again, with a backing band like the one Maxwell had….it was worth the price without a doubt.

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Mellow Smooth