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Concert reviews Music

Usher at the Air Canada Centre

USHER at the Air Canada Centre, Sunday, November 1. Rating: NNNN


Would you rather hear Usher sing his hit catalogue perfectly? Or would you rather see Usher, twenty years into his R&B career, keeping step with an extremely athletic troupe of backup dancers at least a decade younger than him? You can have both, if not at the same time.

He’s not technically promoting anything new, but over the course of nearly two hours, on a slick-but-functional, multi-tiered, diamond-shaped stage, the singer reminded us just how many hit singles he’s cranked out since You Make Me Wanna… cracked him into the mainstream in 1997. He wasn’t shy about using backing vocals for the songs that required fancy footwork (often exposing his crutch by turning the mic on the audience). But where initially the focus was on his moves and the 13-piece band ( which included an incredible four-piece horn section), his pipes warmed up as the show went on, carrying songs like Climax and DJ Got Us Falling In Love on their own strength. Slower, turned-down jams at the mic like You Got It Bad and Burn saw the singer at peak vocal prowess and inspired many in the crowd to sing along theatrically with their eyes closed.

There was plenty of his best album – 2004’s Confessions – though he cheated us with the title track (only singing part of it) and I’m on the fence about whether he should retire his onstage-serenading-of-ladies-from-the-crowd schtick, as he did to Bad Girl, also from that album. 

Near the end of the show, he paid homage to Stevie Wonder when he rose up out of the set, banging away on a set of drums – like the legend used to do at the end of his shows. Maybe it’s time to start thinking of Usher as one of the greats, too. 

julial@nowtoronto.com | @julialeconte

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