To be perfectly honest, it’s a minor miracle this review got written at all.
Last night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, I forgot there was job to do and, like the other 1500 people in the crowd, spent a sensational evening trying to imitate Janelle Monae’s every shuffle, shake and swing. Visits to the chiropractor and several days of bed rest beckon for all of us, but it was totally worth it because the pain of overexertion could never top the pleasure of seeing her perform.
Monae’s latest album “The Electric Lady” is a wildly eclectic and eccentric collection that has taken R & B into new territory. But when it comes to playing live, the many musical subtleties take a back seat and the 27-year-old simply floors it.
Arriving on the all white stage strapped to a hand truck Hannibal Lector-style, Monae cast herself an asylum resident while one of her orderlies gravely told the crowd “she is here to funk you up.”
It was no idle warning either. Unleashing opener “Given ‘Em What They Love” and the bubblegum soul “Dance Apocalyptic,” it was all anyone could do to just hold on. Underneath the chaos, her vocal talents could also be picked out. Although she almost never stopped moving, Monae rarely missed a note and when it came time to perform the fierce rap on “Q.U.E.E.N.,” she laid down the rhymes as though breathing was something humans needed to do only if they choose.
But replicating the album note for note is easy. Having a crowd eating out of your hand is not, and everything Monae and her extended band did was designed to generate excitement. Only the most exuberant songs such as “Tightrope” and “Cold War” seemed to get picked out for the show, she audaciously tossed in a mid-set cover of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” as though it were merely filler, and of course, she danced. Oh my, how she danced.
Sure, her moves are not original. They’ve been seen before on this very stage thanks to Michael Jackson and James Brown (to name but two of her obvious influences). But the thrill they create never gets old. During a marathon encore of “Come Alive (War Of The Roses),” Monae exercised her power over the audience by creeping through the venue and ordering everyone to sit down before demonstrating her lightning footwork to a spurts of drumming. As the song erupted to its finale and everyone leapt to their feet, her movements reached warp speed and for those astonishing few minutes, there was simply nothing else in the world worth caring about.
After over an hour and a half, the numerous copycat pompadours spotted across the crowd looked pretty limp and soggy. But for her part, Monae looked like she could go all night. It was just as well, because she has a glorious career ahead of her. It’s going to take all the energy and elasticity we have to keep up.