Usher on fatherhood, new talent and new tour
Before resuming his new tour, Usher spoke to USA TODAY in Atlanta about fatherhood, discovering new talent and K-pop.
In a concert season full of nostalgia for the 1990s and 2000s, Usher arrived in Detroit on Thursday night as one of the most interesting retro acts of the moment.
Ten years after his last U.S. tour — and seven months after a Super Bowl halftime performance that thrust him back into the national spotlight — the stylish, award-winning R&B superstar kicked off a two-night run at Little Caesars Arena as part of his Past Present Future tour.
The packed house was geared up for an evening dedicated to singing and dancing talent, but as it turned out, it wasn’t just Usher’s night: Detroit rapper Big Sean earned thunderous applause from the home crowd when he took the stage 70 minutes into the show and capped Usher’s performance of “Superstar” with his own new song, which sampled the 2004 single “Who You Are (Superstar)” from his just-released album “Better Me Than You.”
In fact, Usher handed his show over to the rapper for another 10 minutes as the two made their way through the LCA crowd to a satellite stage with a cocktail bar while Usher poured drinks and Big Sean served up a six-song set of career classics like “Blessings” and “Bounce Back.”
For Big Sean, it was already his second show on Thursday night: hours earlier, he had played a 30-minute lager house set in support of cryptocurrency advocacy group Stand with Crypto. At LCA, he called Usher a “national treasure,” thanked him for licensing the “Superstar” sample, and said the two had vowed to make new music together.
More: During a visit to Detroit, Usher praises the Boys & Girls Club’s extracurricular programs
It certainly wasn’t hard to convince this audience of Usher’s status as a highly esteemed musician. In his heyday, Usher performed concerts that were known for filling rapt, estrogen-fueled audiences with breathless chaos. And while Thursday’s show may not have drawn quite as frenetic a response, Usher managed to elicit screams with every flash of his abs or athletic dance move.
The Past Present Future Tour is a hit-packed show that spans all of Usher’s musical eras – from his pure R&B days to his dance-oriented years to his latest record, “Coming Home,” his first new work in eight years.
The first half of the 1 hour and 45 minute set was oddly disjointed and lacking momentum, made worse by a confusing sound mix that made the vocals muddy and left most of the singing to the audience. It was also clear that many of these old-school fans weren’t all that familiar with Usher’s new material.
Playing with the tour’s “Past Present Future” branding, he used a retrospective approach, including date stamps on the video screen behind him, as he revisited milestones in his career, accompanied by a dance troupe and live band flanking the stage. Early on, he went “all the way back to 1993,” dancing to a young version of himself projected on the screen to the sounds of “Call Me a Mack.”
The show got more exciting every time. The stage turned into a roller skating rink as Usher, in a sequined outfit and on roller skates, performed “Don’t Waste My Time” and “Love in this Club.” Then it went into the bedroom with “Nice & Slow” and later into the club with dance-pop songs from 2010 like “OMG” and “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love.”
Like Usher’s recent Las Vegas performances, the show’s setlist included much of the material from “Confessions,” the blockbuster 2004 album that remains his crowning achievement. At LCA, he had his best moments when he embraced that early 2000s era, often standing alone onstage and letting his smooth voice do the talking. Few singers in the last quarter century of pop music could sell a song like Usher — and Thursday’s concert featured an audience that eagerly bought but got too little for much of the evening.
Detroit is the seventh city on a transatlantic tour that will continue through next spring, and Usher, 45, entered LCA with a seasoned stage presence, apparently recovered from the neck injury that delayed the tour’s start in August.
The show at Little Caesars Arena, which ended with a celebratory performance of “Yeah!”, capped off a busy day for the veteran singer: His concert film “Usher: Rendezvous in Paris” began a weekend-long worldwide cinema tour, including in cinemas in the Detroit area. An official release date of June 20 was announced in the morning.th-Anniversary edition of “Confessions”, published on November 1st.
And he spent Thursday afternoon on Detroit’s west side supporting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan and talking about the value of after-school programs.
Usher will perform one more time at Little Caesars Arena on Friday night. Remaining seats and resale tickets are available through Ticketmaster. (Note: Usher took the stage at the LCA shortly after 9pm on Thursday)
Contact music writer Brian McCollum of the Detroit Free Press: 313-223-4450 or [email protected].
