CLEVELAND, Ohio – Nostalgia is good business. In weird times, many relish the chance to retreat to the safety and rose-colored memories of their salad days and revel in the sounds, songs and dances that moved them in simpler times.
The Black Promoter’s Collective and New Edition clearly understand that concept and Sunday night at Rocket Arena, The “New Edition Way Tour” combined the triumvirate of late 20th century R&B and pop stars.
New Edition, Boyz II Men and Toni Braxton took a near-full and ready-to-party arena into the Musical Wayback Machine with a uniquely staged, three-hour show that reminded everyone that while you can’t turn back the proverbial clock, you can ignore it for a few hours and have a good time.
Rather than have perform separate sets, the three middle-aged acts (B2M’s Wanya Morris is the tour baby at 52) and their spin-offs, Bell Biv DeVoe, solo tunes from Johnny Gill, Bobby Brown and Ralph Tresvant staged the show as a kind of very era and band-specific audio/visual mixtape with numerous wardrobe changes.
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Following the requisite opening montage reminding the crowd of each group’s storied histories, the opener, “We’re Going out Tonight,’ a new song written by N.E.’s Ricky Bell set the stage and tone for the evening.
No old school, “we want to blow the competition off the stage” style performances, each group alternated playing a few hits before giving way to or joining forces with another act to keep the show moving and interesting.
After the uptempo group opener, Boyz II Men kept the already hyped crowd going with their initial hit “Motownphilly,” followed quickly by Braxton who had all the ladies in the house (there were many) singing and rolling their necks to “He Wasn’t Man Enough For Me.”
Braxton, who would later thank the crowd, her tourmates and “the man upstairs” for supporting her and encouraging her to take the tour. Despite her 15-year battle with lupus, she looked and sounded great.
She and her dancers stuck to mainly hit ballads including a sparsely acoustic, string-laden and dramatic reading of “Unbreak My Heart,” featuring Braxton on a riser wearing large white wings as a Pegasus chilled next to a stream on the screen.
Braxton applied her quavering contralto to several other hits, including “Just Be A Man About It,” a singalong “Breathe Again,” and the funky “You Make Me High.”
The quintet version of New Edition (minus Bobby Brown, in black trenchcoats and leather pants) offered a first set of hits from their double-platinum, 1988 album “Heart Break.”
Tracks “If It Isn’t Love and “You’re Not My Kind of Girl” led to the group’s prodigal son rising from under the stage like the coolest unc at every cookout. Cheers for the group’s reunion track “Hit Me Off” came next.
All the acts are bound by the era and memories of the fans who grew up with the groups. DeVoe acknowledged this midway, “This whole night is about remembering. Just remember where you were, what you were doing and who you were doing it with,” he said.
New Edition and Boyz II Men are, of course, further connected because N.E.’s Michael Bivins discovered and mentored the group, and the love and camaraderie between them was palpable when they were together on stage.
And the hits kept coming.
N.E.’s Ronnie DeVoe asked who’d been rocking with them for “40 plus years” before the group took the crowd all the way back to the early 80s with “Candy Girl” “Cool It Now,” and “Mr. Telephone Man” and though their dance moves aren’t quite as smooth, and their was no attempt to hide the added backing vocal tracks, everyone lead vocals were still strong.
During his solo sets Johnny Gill’s applied his churchified baritone to the expected hits, “Rub You The Right Way,” the LSG tune, “My Body” and dramatically dragged out his hit ballad “My, My, My” with an extended coda of vocal acrobatics and walking into the crowd causing grown-ass moms, grandmas and aunties to behave like teenyboppers (“Gimme a kiss!” one woman pleaded as he walked by her on his way back to the stage).
Brown, sporting the purest dad bod of the evening, didn’t do much dancing during his solo tunes. But when he did, such as during “Every Little Step,” with a little vocal help from his groupmates, the crowd ate it up, chanting “Go Bobby!” Brown also hit most of the notes and all of the attitude of “My Prerogative,” “Roni,” and “Don’t Be Cruel.”
Tresvant, always N.E.’s suave loverman, cooed his way through “Sensitivity” and “Do What I Gotta Do,” and BBD had everyone doing the running man to “Do Me!” and swaying with “When Will I See You Again.”
Boyz II Men led an extended string of ballads that included “I’ll Make Love To You,” “End of the Road,” and “On Bended Knee,” with tenor Wanya Morris reaching into the rafters with his vocal ad-libs.
The show ended with everyone on stage for BBD’s eternal 1990 new jack swing party staple “Poison,” with folks singing along and breaking out their best Roger Rabbit and Cabbage Patch dances and deftly bringing the musical nostalgia trip to a fun and funky close.