I was one of the thousands who attended Ne-Yo’s sold out concert last night. Ever since “So Sexy” was released summer of 2006, I have already been a fan of this guy. And to think, I discovered this song in London ! So much so that it became some kind of theme song of my baby and me, at that time, of course. Anyway, the energy at the Araneta Coliseum was impressive, loved it and I’m sure Ne-yo fed on the energy. The good thing was there were a lot of cuties, ooohhh…ohhhhh… ..ooohhhh! Well, they had babes with them, but who cares, a cutie is a cutie, straight or gay! (BIG SMILE!)
I was able to spot three celebrity hunks, Will Devaughn, Marc Pingris and Andrew Wolfe, all with their respective wives or dates, but of course, I did not care to look at the women. There was just too much hot male candy around. Well, as for Ne-yo, not much for an eye candy, but he has a good voice and he did try his best to put on a decent show. I know his two albums, inside out, so I was pretty impressed with the way he sang most of those songs. My personal favorites, well, So Sexy, which he sang in the beginning of the show, and his last funky instrumental number, so reminiscent of Prince. Even the female dancers wore purple and brought guitars with them. Definitely an homage to the genius! Well, Ne-yo is still young, and still has a lot to learn in the live concert department. It was a good thing his fans just loved him too much. Otherwise, so concert veterans like me, he really needed some more improvements. Like, don’t cut a song or shorten it. Lengthen it maybe, but to cut it, tsk…tsk…shows laziness. There wasn’t much choreography. Another sign of laziness. He only danced, maybe once, in Because of You. And he can dance, that’s why, I’m harping on this. The women do much harder work in their live shows (Beyonce, Madonna, Janet), that’s why I’m disappointed that the men don’t even shimmy (Akon, Ne-yo).
The concert was disappointingly short too. ONE HOUR!!!???? C’mon, you have two full albums. Please don’t be lazy Ne-yo. And well, congratulations to your Grammy but your fellow Grammy winners like Norah Jones or Gwen Stefani do two hours of live shows. Lazy, lazy, lazy. Sad, because he has a good voice, strong writing skills, but he’s too lazy to do a decent, value for money live show for his fans. He should see a live rock show for a change, and check out the energy that the lead singers give. His work here pales ever so badly. But I don’t think the very young Manila crowd minded. But for a concert veteran like me, I do mind, I spent my own hard-earned money, not Daddy or Mommy (like 90% of that crowd that night surely did).
