John Legend - Metro Theatre - 1/10/05

Firstly, thanks to Sausage for discovering that he was playing a solo gig! I knew he was touring with the Black Eyed Peas, but wasn't particularly interested in paying $90 for an act that I'm not 100% keen on.

Eeeek! It was soooo good!

Carrie and I got to the Metro at about 7:20, and after standing around for a bit, got into the theatre and seated ourselves in about the 3rd row of seats overlooking the dance floor. The two support acts came and went - nothing particularly memorable. The first dude was a bit Jason Mraz-ish. The second dude (Diego Santiago or something) was from the "Black Eyed Peas Family", which apparently meant that he'd sung on their previous 2 albums. He turned out to be pretty hip-hoppish (not really my thing). The highlight of his performance was him going "You guys have no idea who the f#^% I am!", and the crowd cheering in enthusiastic agreement, hehehehe.

So John Legend got on at about 10:30ish. His voice was amazing - as good as on his album! He alternated between being seated at the piano and dancing about the stage. I loved the twists they put on the songs - the reggae feel of Used to Love U, the gospel feel at the end of So High. Another highlight was the whole crowd singing along in chorus with Ordinary People...how awesomely gratifying that must be for a performer!

I reckon the mark of a great performer is when they're actually better live than on their CD, and it was SO MUCH the case in this situation. Compare him with, say, Sarah McLachlan that I saw earlier this year. I mean, she was good, but she didn't ADD anything to her album performances. Unlike John Legend! Eeek! He was soooo good!! He was also able to draw in people who weren't familiar with his stuff already...more than I can say for Sarah McLac....ok, maybe I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about her. (Something to do with the $125 price tag. Grrr.)

Let's Get Lifted Again
Get Lifted
Alright
She Don't Have to Know
Live it Up
Number 1
Misunderstood
Used to Love U
Selfish (cover of some Kanye West song apparently!)
I Can Change
Again (a new song for his next album)
Ordinary People
So High
**
Stay With You
Refuge

All in all, SO WORTH $35! Will definitely go again!

I love John Legend!!

=)

(Oh, to top the night off, when we were exitting the theatre, we ended up standing about 50cms from Will.I.Am from the BEP for about a minute. If I had known his name, I would have said Hi. As it was, Carrie and I just muttered to each other "Is that the dude from the Black Eyed Peas??" and smiled vaguely in his direction.)