Fantasia Is More Than Enough At Her Baltimore Concert
This past Saturday night was one full of love, funk and a lil bit of “stank”, as the queen of Rock Soul Fantasia and the goddaughter of soul Leela James blew out the walls of the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena at yet another sold out concert.
Pulling up to the venue grounds and seeing the lines and lines of eager concert goers standing outside waiting to get into the arena doors, I already knew that this was going to be a good one! What else can you expect though with this pairing?
Leela James opened up the show, but it was more of a heating up of the crowd than just a basic “opening”. It’s been a while since we’ve seen her in concert and it appears that time and space have done her well. She looked incredible in her all black number with long black hair to follow. Her allure was definitely giving that of a modern day strong black female freedom fighter leader!
Aside from her look, it was the voice that helped pull folks who entered the arena doors immediately to their seats to be enamored by that unique southern growl. Ms. James gave a performance that seemed right out of the church house, including some of our favorite songs from her “Don’t Want You Back,” “Fall For You,” “Complicated,” and “Set Me Free.”
Throughout her set she wanted to remind folks that she’s an artist that doesn’t rely on technology to enhance your vocals and gives you real music that “sticks to your ribs” It’s not everyday you get a concert with zero autotune over the vocals. She said when you can sang, you don’t need no music behind you as she quieted the band…she’s the real deal!
Before she got off stage, she took us down to the juke joint and played a few classic soul music numbers that even had the grannies get up out their chairs and cut a little step.
A brief intermission took place to allow for a change out of the set and then it was Fantasia’s turn to do her thing. Kicking off her set with her up-tempo banger “So Much To Prove,” she immediately had to rest on the motto of the song, for there were technical difficulties taking place which caused her mic to go out. Barrino walked over to the side of the stage with her mic held high and told the sound man “don’t you play with me tonight!” then proceeded to her screaming audience that she wanted to be real cute for the evening, but the anger from the issues was going to make her tear the stage DOWN.
Being the consummate professional that she appears to be, that little setback didn’t slow her down one bit as she started rolling into the bops. With the show taking place in BMore, “Hood Boy” hit just a little different, “Without Me” was a moment for her to get rachet and put those on blast who forgot where they came from, while “Free Yourself” and “Truth Is” acted as a group therapy session for all the ladies.
What I appreciated the most was how Tasia creates this universe of cohesion, and what I mean by that is that she was one with the band, who was one with the music. Each and every performing artist on stage in charge for making the music come to life earned their check that night. A live band is generally my favorite part of any concert that I attend, and to hear their live spins on “Bittersweet” and a stripped down, gospel-esqe version of “Bad Girl” were spine tingling.
We’ve all seen Fantasia grow over the years into her full performing powers, but we also have noticed that she’s borrowed a little bit of this and a little bit of that from past legendary women in the music industry to help cultivate her own stage show. She’s a secure woman to embrace that, and used it to her advantage when she included a section of cover songs from some of her musical heroines. It takes either a brave soul or one just confident enough to sing Whitney Houston’s “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” Chaka Khan’s “Tell Me Something Good,” or Patti LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade” completely live, and without breaking a sweat.
We were all locked in when she began to sing “When I See You,” as it’s the gold standard of a sing-a-long at any event these days, but when we left the show, she had us asking the question when will we get to see her again?
