Lionel Richie is one of those artists who's music I enjoyed, and I always had the utmost respect for the music that he did, yet I had never seen him in concert.
Until this past Friday night, when I saw that he was coming around. Honestly, I was not even intending to go, until I just checked the ticket prices. Figured, ""What the hell?"
And the tickets were just under $20. With the so-called convenience fees, it wound up being just over $20 a ticket, which was really surprisingly cheap!
So, as you already surely surmised, I went ahead with it. That is, only after my girlfriend agreed, of course. She did not know Lionel Richie too well, and like me, she did not care much for Mariah Carey. Also, she was very tired.
However, she was a good sport, and decided to go ahead. So I got the tickets, and we went to Newark's Prudential Center, a place that I had not actually been to for quite some time now. It was strange, because even though the forecast called for rain, it literally did not rain until just after we got to Newark. And, of course, it started to really pour down hard just as we pulled into the parking space and were about to get out of the car.
Sigh.
Anyway, we were there, and we walked into the arena. My girlfriend is not especially fond of big, huge places like this with big, huge crowds, and she let me know it. Also, once we got to our seats, she seemed almost to get vertigo. The heights proved dizzying, and she told me that she could not go through with it. She could not sit up there.
Uh-oh!
We went back out into the main hallway, wondering what to do. She said I should go back and wait for the concert to start, and I was figuring that we would have to cut the concert short. So, we went back to take a look when the opening act was done, and the house lights went back on. Still too much for her, so she stood by the side of the entrance. After a while, I asked the nearby attendant if it would be okay to stand there, and she made clear that it would not be okay once the show starts. However, she recommended that we go to guest services.
I had never really been to guest services in any event that I could remember, and was skeptical of just how helpful they would be. As it turns out, I should not have been. They were willing to accommodate, and our cheap and crappy seats were replaced with lower levels. The woman asked my girlfriend if she could deal with the stairs, and when she noticed her reluctance, she gave us still lower seats, facing the stage. We were not super close, yet these seats were far better than what we had before!
Frankly, I could tell that the woman did not really believe us, or rather, me. I was the one doing the talking, since she is a bit self-conscious about talking to people, since she has a strong accent. And the woman's demeanor was just skeptical on many levels. Still, we had these new, better tickets, and she really did feel dizzy and uncomfortable. So, we took the tickets and ran, so to speak.
Now, it was time for the concert. Mariah Carey came on, and again, I am not all that familiar with her work, and have never been a big fan. However, I was surprised with how many in attendance were apparently there mostly for her. The response was solid, and she sounded like she was actually singing, and not just lip-syncing, although I could be wrong.
Finally, at around 9:15 pm, Lionel Richie came on. Obviously, he was the main guy that we had come to see, and it was exciting. The lights went out, and this was followed by an interesting and dramatic light display that got the whole arena fired up, just before he came out, opening with Easy, sitting at the piano.
He was surprisingly social, interacting with the crowd in between every song. It seemed like he was in a legitimately good mood, and it was understandable, really. After all, this guy obviously made a comfortable living doing exactly what he loved to do, and when he performs live, he clearly brings a great amount of job to thousands of people each night. Not a bad gig, and it is easy to see why he would be in a good mood.
Richie talked about a few things, including memories, such as working with other great artists, like Michael Jackson, whom he worked with to write "We Are the World," a famous song in the 1980's meant to help the starving children in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia. Richie introduced "We Are the World" by saying that this was a song that he wrote with Michael Jackson, and he suggested that, back then, musicians like him, like Jackson, like Prince, and others, still believed in something, still felt optimistic that a better future could be had, with work. This was a popular anthem during the 1980's.
Richie genuinely seemed upbeat throughout, talking in a tone that would suggest that he was talking to a very small group of people, or perhaps individual crowd members, as opposed to an arena of well over 10,000 people! He talked about how we had been through a lot together over the years. At the end of one song, he suggested to the fellas that if that song does not seal the deal and get a woman to bed, nothing will. It just will not happen.
My favorite song from Richie is "Hello," and he played that, not surprisingly, towards the end of his set. It was an unbelievable performance of that song, which is one of his most iconic ones, and the lighting was quite impressive (see the first picture from the show posted below):
Uh-oh!
We went back out into the main hallway, wondering what to do. She said I should go back and wait for the concert to start, and I was figuring that we would have to cut the concert short. So, we went back to take a look when the opening act was done, and the house lights went back on. Still too much for her, so she stood by the side of the entrance. After a while, I asked the nearby attendant if it would be okay to stand there, and she made clear that it would not be okay once the show starts. However, she recommended that we go to guest services.
I had never really been to guest services in any event that I could remember, and was skeptical of just how helpful they would be. As it turns out, I should not have been. They were willing to accommodate, and our cheap and crappy seats were replaced with lower levels. The woman asked my girlfriend if she could deal with the stairs, and when she noticed her reluctance, she gave us still lower seats, facing the stage. We were not super close, yet these seats were far better than what we had before!
Frankly, I could tell that the woman did not really believe us, or rather, me. I was the one doing the talking, since she is a bit self-conscious about talking to people, since she has a strong accent. And the woman's demeanor was just skeptical on many levels. Still, we had these new, better tickets, and she really did feel dizzy and uncomfortable. So, we took the tickets and ran, so to speak.
Now, it was time for the concert. Mariah Carey came on, and again, I am not all that familiar with her work, and have never been a big fan. However, I was surprised with how many in attendance were apparently there mostly for her. The response was solid, and she sounded like she was actually singing, and not just lip-syncing, although I could be wrong.
Finally, at around 9:15 pm, Lionel Richie came on. Obviously, he was the main guy that we had come to see, and it was exciting. The lights went out, and this was followed by an interesting and dramatic light display that got the whole arena fired up, just before he came out, opening with Easy, sitting at the piano.
He was surprisingly social, interacting with the crowd in between every song. It seemed like he was in a legitimately good mood, and it was understandable, really. After all, this guy obviously made a comfortable living doing exactly what he loved to do, and when he performs live, he clearly brings a great amount of job to thousands of people each night. Not a bad gig, and it is easy to see why he would be in a good mood.
Richie talked about a few things, including memories, such as working with other great artists, like Michael Jackson, whom he worked with to write "We Are the World," a famous song in the 1980's meant to help the starving children in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia. Richie introduced "We Are the World" by saying that this was a song that he wrote with Michael Jackson, and he suggested that, back then, musicians like him, like Jackson, like Prince, and others, still believed in something, still felt optimistic that a better future could be had, with work. This was a popular anthem during the 1980's.
Richie genuinely seemed upbeat throughout, talking in a tone that would suggest that he was talking to a very small group of people, or perhaps individual crowd members, as opposed to an arena of well over 10,000 people! He talked about how we had been through a lot together over the years. At the end of one song, he suggested to the fellas that if that song does not seal the deal and get a woman to bed, nothing will. It just will not happen.
My favorite song from Richie is "Hello," and he played that, not surprisingly, towards the end of his set. It was an unbelievable performance of that song, which is one of his most iconic ones, and the lighting was quite impressive (see the first picture from the show posted below):
Lionel Richie's set list:
"Easy" / "My Love" (Commodores song)
"Running With the Night"
"Penny Lover"
"Truly"
"You Are"
"Stuck on You"
"Dancing on the Ceiling"
"Three Times a Lady" (Commodores song)
"Sail On" (Commodores song)
"Fancy Dancer"
"Sweet Love"
"Lady" (You Bring Me Up)
"Just to be Close to You" (Commodores song)
"Brick House" / "Fire" (Commodores song)
"Hello"
"Say You, Say Me"
"We Are the World" (U.S.A. for Africa cover)
Encore:
"All Night Long (All Night)"
Mariah Carey's set list
"I'm That Chick"
"Love Hangover" /
"Heartbreaker"
"Touch My Body"
"I Know What You Want" (Busta Rhymes and Mariah Carey cover)
"My All"
"Always Be My Baby"
"Don't Forget About Us"
"One Sweet Day" (Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men cover)
"It's Like That"
"Vision of Love"
"We Belong Together"
Encore: "Hero"
Mariah Carey can still sing, Lionel Richie is still funky, everything is gonna be okay by Bobby Olivier, August 19, 2017:
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