Rapt crowd welcomes back Blige

A week and a halfafter her performance during the final night of the Democratic NationalConvention, Mary J. Blige returned to Charlotte for the final night of her LiberationTour with D’Angelo. Much of the crowd wasfashionably late to Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Saturday. Hundreds, havingcrawled from I-485 for an hour, still streamed through the gate as D’Angelofinished his set at 9 p.m. But it may have well been the best concert crowd of theyear meeting Blige’s intensity and enthusiasm note for note. Following D’Angelo’s set, which highlighted his swoon-worthy falsetto, balanced funkiermaterial with piano crooning, and ignited the crowd with tracks like “Lady” and “Untitled(How Does It Feel),” Blige began her nearly hour and a half set at 9:30 with amotivational voiceover about how far she and herfans have come. That theme extended throughout an emotional evening thatbegan with Blige leading the blissful crowd through Chaka Khan and Rufus’ “Ain’t Nobody” in nearly thigh high leather boots and a short redjumpsuit with sequined lapels that gleamed like Christmas candy. She and hereight-piece band immediately hopped into “Family Affair” (which she’d playedfor the DNC crowd), quickly segued into the newer track “Feel Inside” (from herlatest album “My Life II”), and on into “Enough Cryin’.” Blige has become such amodel of maturity, class and fashion it’s almost easy to forget her streetwisebeginnings until she breaks into a rap during “Enough Cryin’,” unleashes dancemoves to cries of “Go Mary!” for “Love No Limit,” and tugs at her rising shortsfollowing the workout that is “Real Love.” To women, sheremains "one of us." Her continued relatability - matched with her tirelessperformance and killer pipes - is part of the reason she can still pack an amphitheater with well over 10,000 people 20 years into her career. Having hit on anextended medley of seven songs in only twenty minutes, Blige stopped for someof that relating encouraging the women in the audience (while acknowledging themen) to pursue education and employment as she introduced the female empowermentanthem “Good Woman Down.” That theme continued through “Everything,” whichproceeded a quick change from red short suit to black evening gown and barefeet.“Not Gon’ Cry” beganan emotional roller coaster with Blige shedding a few tears. “RealWoman,” “Mr. Wrong,” and “I’m Goin' Down” seem to represent a journey that mostof the crowd could relate to - in and out of a bad relationship and the self-acceptancethat follows. Blige appeared blown away by the crowd’s response during thissegment. At times she stepped away from the microphone as tears dotted hercheeks and let the crowd take over. Even the men sang handsraised in the air in support as if moved by a church service. The crowd proved morethan once that it knew every single word (and could actually sing!). There were times she let them sailright through the first verse and chorus before stepping in. While lesser singers sometimesrely on a crowd to cover for their vocal shortcomings, Blige is no lazy singer.In fact she was flawless, but the crowd seem to revel in offering its lyrical support. Although I would’ve liked to hear more Mary, especially during the encore of “BeWithout You” for instance, which was practically all crowd.The last portion ofthe show began with an intense rendition of “No More Drama” and found Blige ina formfitting white jumpsuit with leopard print boots (pictured above) that hit over the knee. She hit on “Sweet Thing,” “Be Happy,” and “You Bring Me Joy” before introducing “Midnight Drive” and closing with “Just Fine” and “Be Without You.”   “Peoplewant to remember the worst thing about you,” she preached, summing up her message before inviting themassive crowd to an after party at 5th Element. “You gotta remember the bestthing about you…thank you for never leaving me.”