Maxwell is the new universal love language that all of Baltimore can agree on
If you’re a person who has fully reached your “grown and sexy” stage of life, when you think of love music, one particular artist immediately comes to mind…Maxwell. Saturday night, he came mind, body and spirit as he brought his latest musical extravaganza, “The Serenade Tour” to the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore.
Due to several events happening at once in the downtown area, it was a bit of a mess trying to get to this concert, but that didn’t deter the determined avid music lovers away from experiencing this show, as per my social media feeds, more than half of Baltimore was in attendance.
To talk about the proportions that this show was, the bill also features Jazmine Sullivan and October London, who are both notable R&B acts on their own merit, so to bundle them on a bill along with music veteran Maxwell, you already knew that this was going to be an event of epic proportions.
Officially getting started at around 7:55 PM, October London would be the first act to hit the stage. This would have been the third time this year that I’ve seen the “rebirth of Marvin” perform in concert, so it’s safe to say that I’m a fan at this point, but this time things were noticeably different. He solely appeared on stage alongside his guitarist Robert Jones (instead of a full band) and he only performed five songs, which I guess that would be expected since he is the opening act. Nonetheless, he still knocked it out of the park with the time that he had, opening up with “You Look Better” before rolling through to his current feel-good hit “Mulholland Drive“, giving us a new song, and then eventually closing with the track that put him on the map, “Back To Your Place.”
The energy was up for the only lady on this show, and for good reason. If you know anything about Ms. Jazmine Sullivan, you’ll know that she commands ANY stage that she steps on, and this was no different. Kicking things off with a rendition of “10 Seconds“, Sullivan stood alone in the middle of the stage in a burgundy outfit that looked like it gave her superpowers. She raised her arms in the air as she sang the lyrics “So listen I’m giving you only ten seconds to go, One, two, three” and as she dropped them on “four” a curtain also dropped, revealing the rest of her stage and band.
The crashing down of the curtain was a seamless transition into her femme fatale hit “Bust Your Windows” where literally every woman in the audience sang in unison, as if it were a universal anthem. For the next forty-five minutes, she would flip through the pages of her music catalog that everyone could relate to. With a voice as powerful as the one she possesses, it’s amazing to see that she’s been able to preserve it and keep it in such pristine condition, while performing such vocally demanding songs “In Love With Another Man,” “Need You Bad,” “On It,” “Let It Burn” and “Hurt Me So Good.”
After JS, there was nowhere we could go but up! All eyes were on the main stage as Maxwell’s band began to take their place while an instrumental track played, and then the lights went down. Unbeknownst to anyone, Max would appear on a B-stage in the back of the arena to smoothly slide into his introductory song, a heartfelt cover of the Al Green classic, “Simply Beautiful.”
Fans had a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with the crooner, as he took a leisure stroll through the crowd singing “Get to Know Ya”. Once he made his way back to the front, the showman in him really shined through on all the ladies favorite song “Lake By The Ocean,” when he let his Caribbean influence take over and seductively danced back and forth, that grooved into a little “Sumthin’ Sumthin‘.”
Saturday’s show was my umpteenth Maxwell concert, and what I have to point out is how tack sharp his band always is. Anchored by his longtime supporting background vocalist La Tina Webb, the seven-piece band brought a refreshed vibe to many of the classic hits “Fortunate,” “Lifetime,” and “Bad Habits.”
One thing that’s evident is how the focus of the evening was on love, and not just the general terms of love and how we see it. Maxwell’s personality exudes love, for his band, for his music, for his fans, and most importantly…for himself. When an artist truly loves what they do, they tend to put their all into it. We even got treated to a fan favorite tune “For Lovers Only.”
Since this WAS called the serenade tour, you would only expect to be wooed in song, and he did so with a stripped-down versions of “Downdeep: Hula” and “Whenever Wherever Whatever.” The melodic bliss didn’t stop there because the strings to the intricately put together “Pretty Wings” came not too long after.
Being so wrapped up in our feelings and lost in the music, before we knew it the end of the night had arrived and a building-wide sing-a-long had ensued along to “Ascension.”
With this being only the fifth stop on the tour itinerary, we can bet that everyone on the tour is going to further set into the groove of their respective sets and get that much better, so we highly advise you to go get yourself a ticket to one of the other tour dates.
