The Soulcialista: ::RECAP:: Its Usher Baby...and so much more

On Friday, December 17^th CD Enterprises hosted the
Usher OMG Tour
in DC at the Verizon Center.
We know that its not always easy providing access to the media and we appreciate CD Enterprises for the hospitality they have continued to send our way.

I was inexplicably over excited to get the chance to review the Usher OMG show. I’ve liked Usher’s music for the most part, but you could never label me a fanatic and even after this exciting performance I can’t take that label but you can crown me a bona fide fan. Playing to a packed house that was damn near sold out if not sold out completely, the arena was filled with diversity: black, white, Asian, Latino; females and males, young, older and the young at heart were all entertained. But before I delve into Ushers offering let us devour the appetizers provided by Miguel and Trey Songz.

The Appetizer:

The consequence of a packed out show is traffic. By the time I was parked, got my tickets and made my way to the floor of the venue to my seats Miguel was on his last song, the signature “All I Want Is You”. I expected this clean cut, bald, suave dude but Miguel was in this futuristic getup sportin a faux-hawk. He had plenty energy, dude did the splits mind you…he was hype. One song certainly didn’t have me singing his praises but am I curious enough to want to catch his show again if I can? You betcha!

Trey Songz was up next and if there was ever a good time to invest in ear plugs THIS was the time. The screams were deafening as the women around me squealed, screamed, and shrieked with excitement. Trey Songz performed crowd favorites like “Love Faces”, "Bottoms Up”, “Can’t Be Friends”, “Invented Sex” and my personal fav “Say Aah”. The visual set up added a good deal to his show, providing screens on the sides of the stage, on stage, and at the bottom of the stage. For me this helped enhanced his performance since he didn’t have dancers or extra entertainment elements …but hey when the ladies almost fall out at the sight of your abs and the LL Cool J lip licking move I guess I wouldn’t hire dancers either…

**PAUSE**

So from the time I sat my bum in my seat, me and my Gypsy co-hort were very aware of this man sitting across the isle from us. He was decked out in purple…pin striped purple hat with small feather in it, purple suit, purple accented scarf…can you see where Im goin here? Being from Illinois pimp culture is not foreign to me and apparently because of the genius of television the world is now hip to it as well so I wasn’t surprised when the whispers around us was that this man MUST be a pimp…not to mention the TWO women he had on his arm who I assume have a bomb health plan because they had hardly any clothes on and what they did have on they clearly had nothing underneath. So out the blue in between Trey and Usher these three white women approach him and asks for his picture. Now we are really confused! Do they just want a picture to say they saw and took a picture with this dude who was overtly flaunting his pimpdom in front of us or was it something else? Flocks…AND I MEAN FLOCKS of girls start flowing to him…DAMN is his purple that powerful? Then DUDES start grinning and gawkin and askin for pics and the two ladies with him are hiding their faces from the cameras (don’t think they wanted to be on Media Take Out *chuckle*). LOL come to find out its Clinton Portis of the Redskins. *Maybe I should watch more football?* The great thing was that he was very gracious and took loads of pictures until the security came and made the uh fans go back to their seats. He didn’t play VIP and that was cool. He had his seat, enjoyed the show, and gave us one in the process.

The Entrée:

One of the major scores of this show was that the turn over time between acts was very short and the artists didn’t keep us waiting. The lights dimmed and the screams erupted once again. I was feeling it to, oh I was ready! Smoke came from the stage, the music started and then heads started turning towards the back as Usher began to rise on this floating platform…I could tell the fans in the Verizon Center would not be disappointed!

His show was filled with pyrotechnics, smoke, videos and more. But he had plenty substance with intricate dance moves executed with a team of male and female dancers. He sang and sounded good. He had something for the original fans and for the newcomers while taking us on a musical journey of his career with tracks like “My Way”,"You Make Me Wanna", "Nice & Slow", "You Remind Me", "You Dont Have To Call", of course newer hits like "Hot Tottie", "Lil Freak", "Hey Daddy" and the smash hit "OMG".

*The funniest part of the show...the young lady he brought on stage for "Trading Places"...I thought this was a joke at first and realized this chick was just EXTRA! She almost kicks him in the face, falls off the couch...LAWD I was in shock, mouth wide open as this farce played out. WATCH THE VIDEO!