Photo credit: Emanuel Rios/The Rave
Erykah Badu’s band was roughly 20 minutes into their opening jam session, and it seemed as though much of the audience had begun to grow impatient. There was hardly anyone dancing anymore. The sea of outstretched arms, phones in hand and ready to hit record for the return of the elusive neo-soul legend, had dwindled down to a few hopefuls scattered here and there, eager to get a shot of her as she makes her way to the stage. Badu’s highly anticipated show at The Rave’s Eagles Ballroom Friday night marked her first appearance in Milwaukee in more than a decade, and even the raging snowstorm outside didn’t stop the venue from filling up to near capacity.
The Dallas native finally emerged, clad in an orange puffer robe, oversized gold top hat and her now famous futuristic L’Enchanteur eyewear. She led the band into “Hello,” the mellow opener of 2015’s But You Can’t Use My Phone and followed it up with an abridged version of “Out My Mind, Just in Time,” her signature slightly raspy and ultra-ethereal delivery capturing the audience’s undivided attention. The last of the tension in the air dissipated once she kicked into her breakthrough debut single “On & On,” as she playfully teased the crowd, ad-libbing to the beat of the song (“All my people up top, c’mon you don’t stop!/To all the people in the back, what the fuck you looking at?”)
Badu is the epitome of an enigma, someone sent to us from the year 3000 with a trademark timbre reminiscent of some of the most famous ’50s jazz singers of all time. In between songs, she tapped away at a drum machine under a rotating laser beam-outlined pyramid. “I just came here to rock your mind and stimulate your world,” she said (or something to that effect) before delving into some of the material off of Mama’s Gun, what she described as an album inspired by the music of the ’70s.
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The setlist spanned all of Badu’s discography and included everything from longtime crowd favorites like “Appletree” and “Time’s a Wastin’” to deeper cuts like “Kiss Me on My Neck” and “Danger,” along with some covers (“Liberation” by Outkast; “Ain’t No Fun” by Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and Warren G). The songstress performed with utmost precision, crooning and perfectly harmonizing with her background singers and remaining stationed (for the most part) at her mic stand throughout the performance.
She remained quiet on all things R. Kelly, a stark contrast from her concert the following night at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom, where her comment on putting up a “prayer for R” was met with significant backlash from fans. Badu closed the set out with “Tyrone,” the infamous ode directed at the best friend of a ne’er-do-well partner and their bromance, which takes precedence over the couple’s relationship.
