She stopped trying to look untouchable and bounced around the stage with abandon. The songs got fuller, faster, and funkier. And the show kept building and building and building. Instead of dipping out early, she hung her hat up-literally, letting her full length of hair fly-and stayed. That turned out to be only about a quarter of the way through the set. About half an hour in, she announced she didn’t have much more time, so she “wasn’t going to waste it.” She spent most of the first part of her set on arty numbers like “ Out My Mind, Just In Time,” which didn’t do much to unclench the teeth of people who’d come for “ Tyrone.” She spent minutes between songs fucking around on a drum pad, and when she flipped the crowd off during “Me” and declared that you had to see her live to get what she’s about (she hasn’t made an album since 2010), it seemed as if the audience was totally outside her sphere of concern. Still, a whiff of discontent lingered around the room. It was a good trick, but she seemed to be testing us, as if asking if another minute was gonna kill us. The band was clearly trying to kill time while harried venue goons searched frantically for the singer.Īt around 10pm, Badu drifted out from the corner of the stage, face hidden behind Klingon-length hair and an oversized gold hat, each footstep illustrated by the plod of the drummer’s tom, as if she were shaking the earth with the weight of her footfall like Godzilla. A lot of people went apeshit, but I could see others who weren’t buying it. The instrumentalists took showy solos someone had to dazzle the audience. The band appeared and went into a lite funk groove as the keyboardist worked the crowd. Then someone came onstage to absent-mindedly cue up a few more songs. Eventually came the sinking feeling that the singer might not show up. People had been there for hours and were grumbling loudly, some evacuating their seats perhaps for good. Though the billing advertised “doors at 7, show at 8,” there was no word on an opener, and we arrived to find a DJ holding the crowd over. ALL EARS Things were not looking good at the Warfield on Friday as we waited for Erykah Badu.
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