FROM EAST BAY EXPRESS -- Maxwell Live Show Review!!! By Rachel Swan Only one pair of panties were thrown at last night's Maxwell
show, and it looked like they hadn't been broken in, yet. The panties
were extra large and white, styled like floppy little-boy briefs. A
phrase stamped across the back became legible when Maxwell stretched
out the elastic with his fingers: "I Heart Maxwell." Granted, panties are expensive, and we're in a recession. They might
not have been as expensive as the black brassiere that came flying from
another adoring fan. But they're expensive enough to justify not
wanting to adulterate your favorite Victoria's Secret G-string and hurl
it at the Paramount Theatre
stage. No matter how much you love thirty-five-year-old, edgily
handsome, multi-platinum-selling Maxwell. No matter what he promised
earlier in the evening. (In the middle of his set, Maxwell asked if
someone in the audience was planning to lie on top of him later that
night. He also dry-humped the floor and said "I'm gonna chop you up
like vegetables and eat you like you've never been eaten before."). It
didn't even matter that he dedicated "the next song to the future
panties that will be on this stage." Maxwell's fans — the ones in attendance at Wednesday's Paramount
show, at least — are a delightful mix of chic, single women with good
jobs and gay men, and like, five or six straight men, but they're the
most sensitive straight men in the world. They filled up only about
half the theater, owing to the fact that Wednesday's show was a
hastily-added (and thus under-publicized) addition to the Tuesday show
that probably sold out months ago. It was a sexy and unctuous show,
given that Brooklyn-born Maxwell (whose mixed Puerto Rican and Haitian
heritage may account for his dusky good looks) is a born sex symbol.
That night he wore a silky designer suit with a tie draped around his
neck, and had all the members in his eleven-piece band dressed to the
9s. Ten band members wore tuxes, while one percussionist opted for a
solid black ensemble. His background singer Latina wore a sumptuous
evening gown. Opener Jazmine Sullivan
kicked the show off right at 8 p.m. by singing her album in its
entirety, starting with the famous "Busting Windows" song — plastic
crowbar and all. Her set reached an apotheosis with "In Love with
Another Man," which sounds more like a gospel tune, even though its
lyrics center on a broken relationship, and getting seduced by someone
who's no good for you. Sullivan also struck a high note with her most
popular radio hit, "Need U Bad" which closed off the set — she ended by
improvising over a long vamp that allowed her to improvise on the
melody. Twenty-one-year-old Sullivan is being merchandized in the same
mold as such raspy-voiced, tough R&B singers as Keisha Cole and
Lauryn Hill, though she clearly has more talent, and a wider range than
both predecessors. She has the hard-bitten vulnerability of Mary J.
Blige, and could eventually work a crowd as well as Blige does, though
the comparison is still flattering to Sullivan. Obviously this young
woman's gospel and jazz background has helped solidify her pop career.
She knows what she's doing, looks comfortable on stage (even in
poorly-chosen Capri pants and what must have been six inch stilettos),
and her band — a rhythm section and two background singers who could
easily be the same ones on the album, had I a set of liner notes in
front of me -- sounds clean as day to boot. (Some even say Sullivan was
trumped by her background singers, though I couldn't agree with
certainty).Maxwell was fabulous. Clocking in at roughly an hour (even with two
encores), his set featured all the hit songs of his career
("Ascension", "Sumthin' Sumthin'", "Lifetime", "This Woman's Work"),
which were all so massively popular that even if you don't own a single
Maxwell album, you'd enjoy this show. Already known for his engaging
stage presence (he always wears designer suits, strangles the
microphone, and dances with the kind of elasticky body movements that
you'd expect from less-talented crooners like Usher and Chris Brown),
Maxwell showed he's also a competent band leader. He showcased several
members of the band, including the two bass players (whose names now
elude me), saxophonist Kenneth Weber III, and trumpeter Keyon Harold, a
New School grad who also plays with Jill Scott and Jay-Z. Maxwell has a
few fidgety stage movements that can be distracting — his right hand
trembles when he's not using it to grab the microphone stand — but his
falsetto is so powerful that it more than compensates. He closed out
last night with the ballad "Whenever, Wherever, Whatever," sung over an
acoustic guitar and drum mallets. Then he had the whole band come
center-stage and introduce themselves, which seemed like a chivalrous
gesture. Jazmine Sullivan, take note. SOURCE:EAST BAY EXPRESS