It Felt More Like Joy Than Pain at Frankie Beverly’s Last DC Concert
It was a bitter sweet moment knowing that walking into the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC on Friday, June 14, 2024 would be one of the last times that we would be privy to seeing the legendary Frankie Beverly grace a microphone, or a stage for that matter. Albeit we were in attendance for a “sad” occasion, witnessing the sea of people dressed in their all white flowing through the doors was actually beautiful to see.
R&B group After 7 took the duty of opening up the concert. Best known for their dynamic stage presence and smooth R&B sound, members Kevon Edmonds, Keith Mitchell, and Will Robinson transported us back to the early 90’s with such classic songs as “Heat of the Moment,” “I Care About You,” and “Nights Like This.” Observing how they worked the stage and how their vocal ability is still intact, it was rather hard for me to believe that two of the original members are over 60 years young.
After 40 minutes of tearing up the stage, they broke out into their biggest hit “Ready or Not” which had all the women singing to the top of the lungs.
Host for the evening, comedian Damon Williams came out in between sets telling jokes to help “mask” the transition between sets, as the backline was preparing for the second act of the night. It was time that we were being taken to the Sweat Hotel, as Mr. Keith Sweat immediately got the party started and helped induce some sweat with a few of his New Jack Swing party anthems “Make You Sweat,” “Don’t Stop Your Love,” and “I Want Her.”
Throughout his hour long set, he and his music took me on a trip that followed the timeline of my childhood years, and what made the moment even more special is that I was at the show with my mom, so it was an INSTANT flashback to when I went everywhere with her. He mentioned that he was “under the clock” and had to stay within a certain amount of time and couldn’t perform all of his hits, but in the allotted time he still gave us “Make It Last Forever,” “Get Up On It,” “My Body” and “Twisted.” When the beat to his last song of the night dropped, women jumped up on their feet. “Nobody” is still very much a hit amongst music lovers today, as it was when it was released back in 1996.
After a brief intermission, the baddest band in the land Maze broke out into a Go-Go instrumental selection that would get this D.C. crowd even more in their feels, before the legendary Frankie Beverly walked out onto the stage. Kicking things off with “You“, the concert shifted from your standard “show”, to more of a family reunion. Folks in the audience were holding hands, hugging one another and swaying back and forth getting lost in the groove and just enjoy good ole’ music, you know, the stuff that makes you feel good deep down in your soul.
This was a masterclass in how music SHOULD BE! I’m really big on live music for instrumentation and iterations of how a band plays songs, and to hear the way that Maze literally retained the integrity of each of their wax classics, but upgraded it with a purely LIVE feeling, was just surreal to me. Listening to “We Are One,” “Can’t Get Over You,” “Back In Stride” and “Golden Time of Day” almost had me emotional.
For Mr. Beverly to be 77 years young, he is still as Smoove and suave as he was back in his heyday. Although we could notice that his voice was strained a bit, that didn’t take too much away from the performance because we were singing all of the words for him anyway! The 8-minute version of “Joy and Pain” wasn’t long enough for me…the song could have went on another 5 minutes and I would have been perfectly fine with that.
The last song of the night was everyone’s favorite, the cemented cookout classic “Before I Let Go“, which without prior preparation or planning, kicked off a massive Electric Slide all around the bowl of the venue. When that song comes on, we JUST KNOW what to do! The very end of the show was a special moment indeed, a proclamation was given to the band, citing that June 14, 2024 would now be known as Frankie Beverly and Maze Day in Washington, DC, an honor that is well deserved.
If you have the chance to see this man before he fully retires, PLEASE DO SO. You’ll be doing yourself a huge disservice if you did not.
