Wednesday, January 30, 2008

John Legend. Because I can't let the most recent entry be about the Used for too long.

It's really hit me recently how spoiled I've been over the past few years in terms of always having a computer. Now that my only computer is completely riddled with viruses and spyware (damn you, free porno sites), I'm basically confined to on-campus computer labs. So I guess I'm still more spoiled than most. It astounds me that I once attended a school where the cost of one class was greater than the tuition for an entire semester at my current school, yet the computers at this school are much nicer (Fuck you Seton Hall, thumbs up CUNY system).

But I digress.

Anyways, a couple nights ago, a friend invited me to a free open bar. She works at z100, so she was able to snag tickets to an event at Pascha sponsored by Pepsi. I'm never one to poo-poo some free drinks, and we hadn't hung out in a while, so I said, "sure thing." Once I met her, I find out that John Legend is scheduled to perform. Awesome.



I've always liked John Legend, so that was a pretty cool thing to hear. But before I get into his performance, let's talk about how great the open bar was. It was pretty difficult getting service, but I'm no club rat, so I'm just not used to that. It's hard to complain when you're waiting to be served free shit. I'm thinking it's going to be an open bar of beers or all bottom shelf, limited selection, that sort of thing. Nope. They were popping bottles of champagne, pouring Hennessey and pepsi, grey goose, energy drinks, any kinds of beer, all sorts of things you wouldn't expect from an open bar. They weren't serving shots, but they WERE serving triple shots on the rocks. At one point I was wandering around with a highball glass completely full of patron in one hand and a corona in the other. I was living the life, let me tell you. Now, back to the music.



Before Legend went on there was a female vocalist named Estelle. She seemed to have a British accent, and she seemed pretty good, but unfortunately I have no interest in any Estelles that aren't Estelle Getty. So that's all the time I'm going to spend on her set.



When I described John Legend to my roommate who was unfamiliar with him, I said, "he's a contemporary R&B singer who works with a lot of popular acts like Kanye West, but he's a little bit more WPLG than Hot97," and it's true. For whatever reason, all the middle aged ladies at my old job loved John Legend and I feel like he's totally under appreciated by folks my age. You wouldn't have known it from being at Pascha that night, though. The crowd was wild for the man, and he delivered a hell of a show. I'd always considered "Heaven" to be my jam, but seeing everything live really brought me around on the song "Slow Dance". It didn't hurt that he brought a lady of the thicker variety up on stage to dance with him, something I tend to admire.


Here's him performing the song at Albert Hall.

I was already a fan of the man before the show, but his live presence really showed a depth to him as a musician that I was not entirely aware of. I implore anyone reading this to give him a good deep listen, and if you have the chance, to see him live. He only gets better the more you listen.

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