Review: R. Kelly at Sprint Center

R. Kelly serenades a small but rowdy crowd at Sprint Center on Friday. Photos by Keith Myers/The Star

The people who manage Sprint Center have brought a variety of music entertainment to the arena in a brief span of eight weeks. Most of it, however, has been geared toward a predominantly white audience: Elton John, Garth Brooks, Billy Joel, Rascal Flatts, Van Halen.

Friday night, the Sprint Center presented its first urban-music show. R. Kelly, one of the most decorated recording artists of the past 17 years, was the headliner. Depending on your perspective, that was either: unfortunate, given his sordid legal troubles; or irrelevant - it was good to hear some contemporary R&B and see performers (openers J. Holiday and Keyshia Cole) who are younger than 35.

Friday's show and another recent concert announcement ought to put to rest, at least for now, grumblings that Sprint Center was only bringing in rock and country shows - music for suburbia. In January, the arena has booked Chris Brown with BowWow and Omarion. That show could end up being among its biggest show so far (and attract a chunk of the crowd that went to see Hannah Montana).

And speaking of children, Kelly, 40, is facing more than a dozen child pornography charges that go back to 2002. Despite the seedy news and sordid details surrounding his trial and the charges brought against him, he has managed to sustain a very successful career.

His "Double Up" album, released this year, is bound for platinum status, and on Thursday, he was nominated for two Grammy awards.

If the attendance on Friday was a referendum on Kelly's character, the election results were mixed. The arena was way less than half-full. But the crowd that showed up - roughly 7,500 people - was there to sing along, dance, party and judge nothing more than his performance, which was wild and weird and spectacular and unpredictable. For example, his finale included the choruses to the theme songs from "The Love Boat" and "Welcome Back, Kotter."

If his legal troubles are weighing heavily on him, Kelly buries his burdens in his music. In fact he seems defiant about it all. His show lasted slightly more than two hours, but he spent 80 percent of the time singing - sometimes graphically - about sex or sexual acts. He hauled out hits and favorites like "Bump and Grind," "Strip for You" and "TP-2," an explicit description of seduction. He also sang a song about one of his tongue's favorite activities and dedicated another song to women with big asses.

And given the content of a video that allegedly incriminates him, you'd think he'd put away a song like "Make It Rain." Instead, he sang it like a victory anthem.

The show opened with two entertaining performers: J. Holiday, who played a 20-minute set to nearly empty arena (the price of starting exactly on time). He was followed by Keyshia Cole, who showed during her 30-minute set that she could end up being as big a star as her own heroine, Mary J. Blige.

Kelly christened his set with a rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner," then launched into two outlandish hours of music and entertainment. The crowd that showed up came not to bury Kelly in mud and slime; they came to celebrate his music, which is exhilarating at times, perplexing at others. He's also funny and oddly charming.

Musically, he can be a brilliant mix of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Prince. You can also hear how he has influenced performers like OutKast, Nelly and Akon.

The show was a spectacle that included dancers and soft-core strippers, flash pots and fireworks, a bizarre skit featuring tribal music and pre-historic babes in animal skins (and the rhyme "rain forest" with "sex-a-saurus"). He resorted several times to medleys or just several measures of songs. Between his main set and his encore, the three huge screens at the back of the stage broadcast a medley of his videos.

Several times during the night Kelly joked to the crowd: "What happens in this building stays in this building." Well, there are much bigger cats-out-of-the-bag for Kelly to worry about than a few graphic innuendoes in concert.

And anyway, as they filed dutifully out of the arena, lots of people couldn't help but talk about what they'd just seen and heard inside, like they do at nearly every show.

| Timothy Finn, The Star

Comments

[logtar]

Great review and great pics. I am not sure if the legal troubles are that big of news now but I guess that is what the media is talking about.

[cialis online]

R. Kelly is Amazing I like how he moves over the stage and jump because he likes to encourage people to screaming and singing, and his style is perfect.m10m