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Applause comes easy to Usher. Wednesday night he earned mostof his cheers through his demanding footwork, but ovationsfollowed him pretty much no matter what he did. Banter with the crowd? That’s acheer. Hump the mic stand? Even bigger cheer. Flash his abs? Those ensuingshrieks from that move must have turned heads at Summerfest’s neighboringclassic rock stage.
But perhaps the most memorable cheer of the night was the oneUsher received for doing literally nothing. Between songs, the 31-year-oldsinger took an extended pause, standing motionless as he gazed over the crowd.Fans roared with unadulterated joy, their cheers soon hitting a fever pitch asthey cherished the chance to bask in Usher’s presence without the distractionof all that pesky singing and dancing.
The freeze was a well-calculated display of showmanship in a brisk, 90-minuteset that otherwise frowned upon breathers. “I see everybody’s still standingup, so that’s a good sign,” Usher grinned halfway through the show, knowingfull well he hadn’t afforded the audience the chance to sit down, and didn’t planto.
Even the night’s slow jams weren’t particularly slow. Theband punched the tempo of “Confessions” up a notch or two, which eased some ofits tension. On record, Usher croons that tale of an imperiled marriage withanguished repentance, but on stage he zipped through it with almost comicalresignation, narrating its high drama with an occasional wry headshake and a knowing, “ain’t it a bitch?” smirk.
Other hits were heavily abridged. “My Boo” was shortened by half, while “U GotIt Bad” appeared only as a brief crowd sing-along, and “Lil Freak,” a moderatehit from this spring, was reduced to an unceremonious instrumental snippet usedto introduce Usher’s backing dancers.
Tellingly, the lovely divorce lament “Papers” was skippedentirely. That song would have felt out of place at a concert dominated bydeliriously carefree fare like “Love in This Club,” “Daddy’s Home,” “CaughtUp,” “Yeah!” and the amphitheater-rumbling “OMG,” the current radio smash Usherreserved for his sole encore number. With its incessant, Euro-house thump andsports-arena chanting, “OMG” is a curious throwback to the Jock Jams of the ’90s,but it ended the night fittingly, giving the crowd a final, extendedopportunity to purge themselves of any cheers they had left.
But perhaps the most memorable cheer of the night was the oneUsher received for doing literally nothing. Between songs, the 31-year-oldsinger took an extended pause, standing motionless as he gazed over the crowd.Fans roared with unadulterated joy, their cheers soon hitting a fever pitch asthey cherished the chance to bask in Usher’s presence without the distractionof all that pesky singing and dancing.
The freeze was a well-calculated display of showmanship in a brisk, 90-minuteset that otherwise frowned upon breathers. “I see everybody’s still standingup, so that’s a good sign,” Usher grinned halfway through the show, knowingfull well he hadn’t afforded the audience the chance to sit down, and didn’t planto.
Even the night’s slow jams weren’t particularly slow. Theband punched the tempo of “Confessions” up a notch or two, which eased some ofits tension. On record, Usher croons that tale of an imperiled marriage withanguished repentance, but on stage he zipped through it with almost comicalresignation, narrating its high drama with an occasional wry headshake and a knowing, “ain’t it a bitch?” smirk.
Other hits were heavily abridged. “My Boo” was shortened by half, while “U GotIt Bad” appeared only as a brief crowd sing-along, and “Lil Freak,” a moderatehit from this spring, was reduced to an unceremonious instrumental snippet usedto introduce Usher’s backing dancers.
Tellingly, the lovely divorce lament “Papers” was skippedentirely. That song would have felt out of place at a concert dominated bydeliriously carefree fare like “Love in This Club,” “Daddy’s Home,” “CaughtUp,” “Yeah!” and the amphitheater-rumbling “OMG,” the current radio smash Usherreserved for his sole encore number. With its incessant, Euro-house thump andsports-arena chanting, “OMG” is a curious throwback to the Jock Jams of the ’90s,but it ended the night fittingly, giving the crowd a final, extendedopportunity to purge themselves of any cheers they had left.
