Alicia Keys: As I Am Tour Review

June 6th, 2008

Image from Flickr user cheezus69

Ok, I’m an idiot. I’ve learned my lesson. Even though she’s one of my top fave artists and my number two girl crush, I didn’t buy tickets to Alicia Keys’ show at the Air Canada Centre. What was with me?!

Retardedness, that’s what. I was all, “I’ve seen her twice before in smaller venues. Stadium shows are bogus. I don’t want to spend $100. Blah blah blah-de-freakin-blah.” Omg, I’m such a snob. I should have known – the three best shows I’ve seen this year (Kanye, Jay-Z and Spice Girls) have all been in a stadium setting. If the performer is grandiose enough, they can pull it off – and then some. And holy crap, did Alicia ever pull it off. I know, because thanks to my hero Celine I got a second chance!

Listen: if you heart something, don’t ever deny it. The show was fierce. It was phenomenal. It was fire. You get the drift!

It started off choppy – there was an overlong opening video, the first few songs were just ok and I wasn’t sure if I believed her doing the whole performer thing. You know, posing, canned chatter with the audience, too many costume changes (six in all, even though her jeans and killer silver heels stayed the same). But then Alicia found her groove – and I’m gonna go all cliche on you here – and she never looked back.

The turning point came when she first sat at the piano for some stripped-down powerhousing, including one of my favourites – her cover of Prince’s “How Come You Don’t Call Me”. Whereas the original has her saying, “you know it’s just one lousy quarter”, she changed it up with “why don’t you find some sort of pre-paid cell phone plan!?” and “find a computer and email me, baby” and “send a text message!” She also broke out one of her first songs ever written – I believe when she was 14 – “Butterflyz” and then she dedicated her outstanding performance of “Superwoman” to me. I know because she said “this goes out to you.”

Once she hit her stride, Alicia was fire when the 10-piece band and dancers re-emerged on stage for more struttin’ and dancin’ and mad beatzzzz. She blazed through songs like “Teenage Love Affair”, “Karma”, “Heartburn” and even her verse in “My Boo”. Her dancers and back-up singers were on point, and the crowd was eating it up. From here, everything was gravy – from the up-tempo jams to more piano breaks (at one point she hopped on top of the piano, lay on her stomach and played a bar upsidedown), to the intense cover of Force MD’s “Tender Love” with her back-up singer Jermaine.

After a brilliant encore performance of “No One”, Alicia walked off stage and some people started to exit – but NO! There was a white piano coming up through the end of the catwalk and besides guys, SHE STILL HAD TO SING “IF I AIN’T GOT YOU”!! Which she did. And a stadium full of people sang along. This is one of those songs that is actually better live than on the album (I wussed out and shed a tear the first time I saw it live)!

Dudes, I’m trying to keep this short, but it ain’t workin. In conclusion, once again, I’m a loser for almost having not gone to this show. She looked and sounded amazing, the set was super cool (see the light wall in the photo – constantly changing colours and looked awesome in wide shots on the big screens), I had wonderful seats and not only was the place packed, but Alicia can totally hold down a stadium. I’ve always wanted to see her in a small club with just a piano, but this was killer – of the three times I’ve seen her, this was by far the best.

PS: I missed Jordin Sparks opening; Ne-Yo was totally charming, although not ready to hold fort in a stadium. But he sang my guilty pleasures, so yay!

Set List, But In No Particular Order But Loosely Ordered Properly:

As I Am (Intro)
Ghetto Story
Where Do We Go From Here
U Don’t Know My Name
Waiting For Your Love
How Come You Don’t Call Me
Butterflyz
Superwoman
Go Ahead
I Need You
Wreckless Love
Thing About Love
Like You’ll Never See Me Again
Prelude To A Kiss
“Tender Love” (Force MD cover)
Teenage Love Affair
Heartburn
My Boo
Unbreakable
Karma
Diary
A Woman’s Worth
Sure Looks Good To Me
Fallin’
No One
If I Ain’t Got You