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My Review Of En Vogue At The Global Fusion Festival [Post a Comment]
The Funky Divas: En Vogue in Philly at the Global Fusion Festival, 2010

I made it to Penns Landing in Philadelphia, PA yesterday for the Global Fusion Festival. The headliner act was En Vogue and I was not disappointed — for the most part. Why do I say that? Read on.

Okay, first thing’s first. The festival started at noon but I got off to a late start and did not get there until 2:30. The festival was truly a multicultural event which was represented by various Philadelphia radio stations and TV stations including Univision, WRNB 107.9, The Beat 100.3, Praise 103.9, and cable station VH1. There were Latino performers, Hawaiian dancers, reggae performers, gospel performers, and R&B performers.

I knew that En Vogue would be the last to go on because they were the headliners so everyone else served as opening acts for them. I passed the time by walking around to the various tables and booths at the festival, then took advantage of a cruise ship ride across the Delaware River to enjoy the water. Incidentally, it turned out that on the other side of the river was another music event.

This one was from Philadelphia’s rock station WXPN 88.5, which I only listen to on Fridays from 5 to 7 PM EST for their Funky Friday show. Unlike the Global Fusion Festival, the rock program was not free so even if I wanted to idle a few more minutes by checking them out, I couldn’t without paying so I didn’t.

I then caught the next cruise ship back over to Penns Landing and back to the festival, where I caught the last part of neosoul singer Lyfe Jennings’ performance and he sounded good. Now my energy level began to waver a bit as the day wore on and I waited with bated breath for En Vogue to come on. Finally, at 8 PM, Dyana Williams of WRNB 107.9 introduced Maxine Jones, Cindy Herron-Bragg, Terry Ellis, and Dawn Robinson — the original ladies of En Vogue. Here is where my review begins.

The ladies came onto the stage looking beautiful — all four of them. They were dressed in shiny silver and black sleeveless tops, black tight legging pants, and above-the-knee black boots and they looked hot! They opened up with the song Love Don’t Love You, from their 1992 album Funky Divas and from the first words out of their mouths you knew that these ladies still have it. Talk about being transported back to twenty years ago when they burst onto the music scene with the best girl group harmonies since The Supremes.

They followed this with the classic My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It), also from that 1992 album. Pure heaven, listening to them sing and watching them move on stage. Now it’s time to talk about a misstep, which was in no way the ladies’ fault.

All day, we had been listening to various acts — mostly Hispanic/Latino acts, surprisingly. No technical glitches whatsoever. Now when the main headliners, En Vogue, finally take the stage, the audio people decide to flub up! En Vogue began singing Whatta Man, the 1993 classic collaboration that they originally did with Salt-n-Pepa (a remake of a 1968 Stax classic by White southern soul singer Linda Lydell). En Vogue were sounding great but what happens next? The audio for the track stutters out on the ladies while in mid-song.

Now, the audience is still completely behind the ladies because the technical crash was not their fault and they sound great so the audience applauded the women while they waited for the audio people to get it together. Then they give it a second go. They start singing the song again and what happens? The audio crashes again on the song. The ladies are very apologetic to the audience and the audience shout out their support to the ladies, saying it’t not their fault, it’s the audio people who need to get their act together. Then someone in the audience says why not sing a capella. The ladies heard the shout and they decide to do just that.

While the damn audio people struggle to get it together, the ladies prove just why they were “supreme” as a vocal group in the nineties by launching into one of their old a capella songs, their remake of the Andrew Sisters classic Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, done new jack style from their 1990 debut album Born To Sing. They sounded GREAT! No flaws whatsoever in their singing.

At this point I hear a woman behind me telling, apparently, a young person with her that that is when you had real singers — singers who didn’t need all of these technical gimmicks to carry a tune. And I agree. En Vogue were the kind of singers who could, and would, literally on cue be able to grab a microphone and belt out a song without musical accompaniment and without rehearsal. They were, and still are, that good.

Next, while the wonderfully skilled audio technicians continue to get their act together, En Vogue launch into another a capella song. Most people know this as the intro to their #1 hit Hold On. However, older listeners know that it is in fact a song itself — the Smokey Robinson-penned Jackson Five classic Who’s Lovin’ You. Again, the ladies of En Vogue brought the house down with their true and genuine singing talent, garnering thunderous applause. Maxine then joked that this is normally where the beat comes in, referring to the fact that they would have launched right into Hold On if the audio people had their thing together.

Finally, the audio is back and working again and the ladies then launch into Hold On (obviously they’ve given up on trying to make it through the song Whatta Man — thaaaaanks, audio people). Hold On — flawless just like the rest of their singing. Next, they launch into another classic of their (and another remake, by the way) — Giving Him Something He Can Feel. This was one that Dawn was lead on and she sounded great. A beautiful performance from the women.

Afterward, they asked the audience if they could do a song about prejudice. Here we go — it was time to, as George Clinton originally said back in 1970, Free Your Mind. They launched into the song full throttle and, again, another flawless performance from the women as they rocked/funked out on this 1992 classic.

Their next performance was the song Don’t Let Go (Love), from the movie Set It Off starring Queen Latifah and Vivica A. Fox. It was also the final song that the four women recorded together before Dawn Robinson left the group and, incidentally, featured Dawn herself on lead vocals so it had served as her swan song in the group before leaving to be in the group Lucy Pearl for all of one album before putting out a little known eponymous solo release. Wonderfully done song and another crowd pleaser.

Now for my disappointment: that was it. After waiting all day for them, they were on stage for only a half hour. A half hour! We didn’t get to hear their classic Lies. We didn’t get to hear Runaway Love. We didn’t get to hear Don’t Go. We didn’t get to hear You Don’t Have To Worry or Time Goes On or Give It Up, Turn It Loose. And, of course, we were cheated out of hearing Whatta Man all the way through, thanks to the audio engineers messing up. I, and the rest of the audience, were left wanting more. Unfortunately, that was it as they genuinely thanked the audience.

Sigh. My grade for their performance: a perfect 5 out of 5 for the ladies themselves, a 3 for the audio people. Dawn, Maxine, Cindy, and Terry were great. I look forward to their new project coming up.