As a proud graduate of the Mary J. Blige School of Empowerment and Resiliency, the last thing Keyshia Cole wants is unsolicited relationship advice, but nonetheless she should probably DTMFA. Cole's perspective on love hasn't brightened any since her dispiriting 2005 hit "I Should Have Cheated," where she unloaded on her domineering partner, "As much as you accused me of cheatin', I should have cheated," and her aerobic, high-production concert Thursday night featured countless similarly tense, tear-soaked numbers about romantic strife. Some time alone might do her well. Watching Cole dance her way up a steep, seemingly unstable set of stage stairs in a pair of four-inch heels, I feared the crappy boyfriend she's always singing about might have taken out a life insurance policy on the R&B star.
Cole's co-headliners kept the mood much lighter. Songwriter to the stars The-Dream wisely avoided the more turbulent moments from his recent headphone masterpiece, Love vs. Money, a record that does for commercial R&B what Pet Sounds did for '60s pop, in favor of escapist summer jams, including his luminous hit "Rockin' That Thang" (as it's known in its clean radio edit). His cherubic features and dulcet falsetto undermining his would-be swagger, The-Dream is too good-natured to pull off his blustery R. Kelly impression, but that he attempts it anyway is part of his odd charm.
After years of working the major-label mailroom, Timbaland protégé Keri Hilson, like The-Dream a songwriter by trade, finally released her debut album this spring, In a Perfect World…, an agreeable if overcooked record that doesn't quite capture her effervescent stage presence. With her star-like poise and above-it-all smile, she's suited for some of Cole's loftier material, but makes the most of the fluff she's given.
B-list beefcake Bobby Valentino opened the night with a fraction of the budget but all of the energy of his headliners, performing sans band, with just a DJ and two backing dancers to everyone else's three or four. Capitalizing on his turn as the sexy police siren on Lil Wayne's hit "Mrs. Officer," Valentino's latest single "Beep" again mines hooks from car-themed onomatopoeias (it's better than it sounds on paper). Valentino sang it shirtless, exposing his slightly puffy six-pack.
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