Review of Usher at The O2, Dublin on February 26th 2011
Review by Aidan Cuffe
As I took my seat during the last few songs from Tinchy Stryder (missing the start due to some parking issues) I was sitting down looking around and feeling rather out of place. Tinchy seems to have gone down a storm finishing with ‘Number 1‘ and the crowd singing it with him word for word. Not bad for a support act!. The reason I felt out of place was the massively youthful nature of the crowd, so very young, under-dressed for their ages (IMHO). Aside from this feeling of being slightly too old I was ready to take in a show I wouldn’t normally attend and was very interested to see how this show would pan out as a spectacle.
As we are all aware, Usher is dance and RnB and pop fused into one of the worlds most established artists. The show kicks off with a heavily dance orientated showpiece which shows off not only Ushers dancing skills but the equally adept skills of his backup dance crew who each played their part in the choreographic stories inbuilt in the lyrics of each song.
At two songs in, Usher kick starts an Ole,Ole Ole Ole. The crowd doesn’t need much leading into this and stamp and chant into a frenzy, Usher then turns his back to the crowd, holds up his left hand as if to signal STOP. The ole’s cease and Usher unbuttoned and removes the glove on his left hand to hysterics from the crowd, then the right hand followed by his jacket to leave him just in a vest much to the approval of the female spectators.
No sooner had the ladies voiced their approval of Ushers physique he kicks straight in with “Peace Up, A Town Down” which of course is the prelude to ‘Yeah!‘ which goes down a bomb, a so early in the set I started to think, I don’t know many Usher songs, this is one of the big ones, will the rest of the show be a largely dull affair for me.
The answer to that question is a resounding NO!. I had no idea or had forgotten that this guy has so many hits that I sometimes had forgotten he had released. He followed up ‘Yeah!’ with a montage of himself (which would become common place throughout the night for costume changes) followed by ‘U Remind Me‘ which had a great storyline danced out by the ladies with Usher playing the playboy protagonist.
Usher knows his crowd and tells his adoring crowd that ‘Maybe he’s better off single, that there’s plenty of women out there’ which receives rapturous approval from the crowd. A spotlight hits a briefcase on the stage and he opens it to show his U symbol necklace and kicks into ‘U Don’t Have To Call‘ and ‘You Make Me Wanna‘ followed by Usher ripping off his vest in what was fast becoming a massively sexually charged show.
The next three songs I believe were ‘Mar .vs. Venus‘, ‘Nice And Slow‘ and ‘Love Em All‘ which were really good show pieces with brilliant choreography and amazing use of travelators. The sexual tension of the show was cranked up to 11 as Usher plays the crowd saying he wants one lady from Dublin to join him on stage tonight, after some working the crowd he picks a lovely looking lady to join him on stage where he places her on a wavy style couch and sang ‘Trading Places‘ to her whilst engaging in what can only be described as light foreplay as he stroked her up and down, spread her legs and placed himself suggestively on the couch between them. After some gyrating and pulling her up for some close up dancing they “traded places” and Usher invites her to straddle him as he lay on the couch. Some parents may have been extremely uncomfortable at this stage (judging by the age of the crowd) but no doubt the of legal age ladies were loving it, not least the lucky gal on stage who for her part at times looked like she had forgotten there was 10,000 people watching her and indulged in the event.
One of his more recent hits ‘Love In This Club‘ is belted out next followed by ‘Hot Tottie‘ and ‘There Goes My Baby‘ and he then gets rid of the dancers and performs my favourite of his songs ‘Burn‘ and for me on his own he absolutely nails it, recognising the song needs no gimmicks and he just gave a heartfelt rendition of the song as he gave the crowd a solo vocal and dancing masterclass. What has really impressed me over the last few songs has been the range of his vocal, he really can smash those high notes.
Following on from Burn he just stands back to the crowd arm out and just laps up the applause and rapture from the crowd. This cheering invariably turns to Ole’s before Usher returns from the ego stroking from the crowd and belts out ‘Bad Girl‘ and ‘Hey Daddy‘. Usher once again clears the stage and asks the crowd if it’s ok for him to perform a tribute to a man who is the reason he does what he does now and made him want to be the best dancer, singer and entertainer he could possibly be. Indeed he wanted to pay tribute to the ‘King Of Pop’ Michael Jackson and a medley of Jacko’s well-known tunes are blasted out by DJ Pretty Boy Fresh as Usher dons some diamond shoes and cracks out some of Michael’s famous dance moves with a few of Ushers own thrown in including an imperious moonwalk.
DJ Pretty Boy Fresh takes over now and calls for people to bounce their hands as ‘Confessions Part II‘ gets the crowd going only to be followed by a medley of Ushers own songs pouring a massively spotlight for me at the extensive catalogue Usher has under his belt when he can create a medley out of some of his hits which included songs like ‘My Boo‘, ‘I Need A Girl‘ and ‘Pop Ya Collar‘ all of which he easily could have done as part of the full set.
As we draw towards the end of the show the depth of his material carries him and his adoring crowd right through with ‘Caught Up‘ getting everyone up dancing followed by a video of Fat Man Scoop playing us into ‘DJ Got Us Falling In Love Again‘ and then ‘More‘ played us out finish his main set. A very short break is followed by a one song encore which is the title of the tour ‘OMG (Oh My Gosh)‘ plays us out to a completely on their feet O2.
I started this show massively sceptical that I wouldn’t be overly impressed and left completely eating my words. It was a choreographically perfect show piece with Chip N Dales moments to an amazing catalogue of RnB and pop hits. The show is structured to give the washboard abs dancers centre stage alongside Usher showing their ripped physique where possible, knowing their crowd inside out and mixing this with four amazingly gorgeous ladies dancing their hearts out and providing the eye candy for the minority males in the crowd. This show ticks all the boxes, If sex sells, and good music sells and amazing choreography sells then this show combines all three into a knockout blow.
