$10 bootleg t-shirt outside Barclays or $40 inside?
I opted for the bootleg as I exited the venue after attending Maxwell’s The Night Tour with Joe and Anthony Hamilton late Wednesday night March 30, 2022.
Sadly, I missed Joe. I thought the show began at 8 pm. It started at 7:30. He’s the only one of the three acts I’ve never seen perform live. Damn shame. I would’ve loved to hear him croon I Wanna Know, More and More, and All The Things.
I saw Anthony Hamilton headline at Beacon Theater in 2012. His opening act was Estelle, whom I also saw perform at the now-gone B.B. King’s in Times Square. I wish Hamilton’s set last night were longer. I wanted to hear Cornbread, Fish & Collard Greens. I thought he would’ve slipped it in after singing Sista Big Bones which he set to Biggie’s Hypnotize, of course, because we were in Brooklyn. He knows he wouldn’t have gotten away with omitting Charlene. He introduced the track by telling the crowd he was sick of people asking him where she is. He peppered the song with ad-libs asking Charlene, whom he jokingly said might be in the audience if her new man had a house and money like he does. He did dare–and slay–Luther Vandross’ Superstar.
Maxwell left me with a Fistful of Tears by not singing This Woman’s Work. I did indeed see what them knees do, but I happened to stop recording before he dropped low like Meg thee Stallion. He didn’t do all that at the taping of the BET Soul Train Awards a few months ago, or during the joint tour with Mary J. Blige in 2016. The hair of the late 90s made a triumphant return. A humorous part of the show is when he gave a shout-out to age groups born from the 50s through the 80s by decade. When he got to the 90s and there was a surprising, decent audible roar, he asked what they were doing there and how did they know about him. He answered his own question by saying “oh, you were made to me.” At the end of the night, as people were filing out “to make love and make babies” he reminded folks to love and love on those babies. Sweet.
The DJ (can’t remember his name!) between sets understood the assignment. He tapped every genre and obeyed the law by playing Tevin Campbell’s Can We Talk. I have never been to a Black concert where the house DJ didn’t play that song. Never.
My #SherDate ended with me buying and making a box of Annie’s mac & white cheddar cheese, like Marie (Zendaya’s character) did in Netflix’s Malcolm & Marie. The bodega wouldn’t make me a delicious grilled cheese sandwich cut diagonally just because it was nearly midnight. Then why was someone standing at the grill?! Such a tease.
It was nice to end the month the same way I started it: at a concert. I went home to Boston for the New Edition Concert. I stayed masked the whole night. I miss physical tickets. We went from ripping ticket stubs to scanning to e-tickets. A screenshot just isn’t the same. I have boxes with some that are decades old. I usually do year-end wrap-ups by spreading them all out on the floor and posting on social media. It’s usual a good physical representation and reminder about how much fun I had.
‘Twas a good night. Concerts are my happy place.
Just Sherring 
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