Alicia Keys

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Band Summary

Average User Rating 9.43
Total Reviews 2
Last Reviewed August 20th, 2006
 
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Keyes is Great Live
Venue/Date: Foxwoods Resort Casino (Mashantucket, CT)
Concert Date:  April 13th, 1995
Reviewer: admin

      Venue Parking  
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      Opening Band  
      Opening Song  
      Set List  
      Band Connection  
      Band Energy/Intensity/Showmanship  
      ConcertGoer Energy/Intensity  
      Sound Quality  
      Set and Lighting Design (SLD)  
      The Finish/Encore  
9.81
Keys Works It Out
April 15, 2005
By ERIC R. DANTON, Courant Rock Critic

She finally figured it out.

Alicia Keys, once among the most somnolent of live performers, overcame her competing instincts to present an energetic, entertaining show Wednesday night at Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Those instincts - sultry piano prodigy on one side and wannabe hip-hop pin-up on the other - had made her gigs dreary affairs that never seemed to have a focus. It's tough being all things to all people when you're not even sure what you want to be.

Well, here's what she wants to be: a jazz-era diva.

Keys' "Saturday Night Uptown" stage set was done up to look like a music club in 1931. Her eight-piece band played on platforms draped in white cloth, and the musicians wore matching white suits. The singer sauntered out in a slinky black leisure-suit thing that looked like workout gear for strippers.

Work out was exactly what Keys did. She sang, danced and played to the crowd, while her ace band chugged through tunes reworked into sleek, fast-paced bits of musical theater. She roamed the stage on "Karma," stopping once in a while to add accents on a small electric piano off to the side. The song flowed right into "Gangsta Lovin'," and Keys engaged the audience over a fabulous funk bass line and punchy horns.

She sat down at the white baby grand piano for "If I Was Your Woman/Walk On By," which turned into "A Woman's Worth." She kept to the '30s conceit throughout, running through a modified version of "Minnie the Moocher" and singing a slow, indigo-hued scorcher of a ballad. Along with her biggest hits - "My Boo," "You Don't Know My Name" and a bold, vivid rendition of "Fallin'" - Keys covered the Screamin' Jay Hawkins classic "I Put a Spell on You." Her version was less manic and creepy than the original, but she sang it with intensity and zeal.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Keys is Hot: On stage and off!
Venue/Date: Agganis Arena at Boston University (Boston, MA)
Concert Date:  May 5th, 2005
Reviewer: admin

      Venue Parking  
      Venue Security  
      Opening Band  
      Opening Song  
      Set List  
      Band Connection  
      Band Energy/Intensity/Showmanship  
      ConcertGoer Energy/Intensity  
      Sound Quality  
      Set and Lighting Design (SLD)  
      The Finish/Encore  
9.04
Magnificent Alicia Keys pours heart and neo-soul into concert
By Christopher Blagg
Thursday, May 5, 2005 - Updated: 12:35 AM EST

Labels such as ``throwback,'' ``old-school'' and ``retro'' don't do Alicia Keys justice. Where the Maxwells and Musiq Soulchilds of pop music fall over themselves to sound vintage, Alicia Keys recalls the majesty of Aretha and Stevie by the mere power of her melodies and the tightness of her arrangements. Her performance last night at the Agganis Arena further demonstrated her reign over the neo-soul pack.
A 1930s Harlem Cotton Club theme set the tone of the evening, the set designed in all white, with the band sporting vintage swing-era costumes. But the nostalgia theme wasn't reserved for the visuals: The arrangement of the opening tune, the current r & b single ``Karma,'' was given a big-band jazz makeover.
Standing out from the period dress of her band, Keys pranced around the stage in a flesh-baring turquoise bodysuit, not exactly a garment Ella Fitzgerald would have chosen, but eye-popping nonetheless. The band soon shifted from the '30s to the '70s for a double shot of blaxploitation-styled uptempo funk on ``Rock Wit U'' and ``Heartburn,'' before settling down with the groovy piano ballad, ``If I Was Your Woman.''
The most engaging parts of the show were not the fancy swing-era skits or the period costumes. When Keys sat down at her piano and let her magnificent voice shine, as on the r & b bump and grind of ``How Come You Don't Call Me?'' and the spare solo piano shout of ``Wake Up,'' the fans were at their most rabid.
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