OUT 1017-- STAGE VIEWZ--THE LOVE LETTER TOUR WITH R KELLY, KEYSHIA COLE and MARSHA AMBROSIUS @THE CHAIFETZ ARENA June 17

R& B(roadway) Mixin At R Kelly’s ‘Letter’ Concert

Thousands pack Chaifetz Arena for R&B superstar

By Ma’at Atkins (photos by Ma'atology's cell phone)

It’s been two years since R&B superstar R Kelly graced the stages of St. Louis and from the crowd attendance last Friday at The Chaifetz Arena, it seemed as though he wasn’t gone that long.

Opener Marsha Ambrosius wowed the crowd with just her voice and keys.

The controversial Grammy Award winning Chicago native brought his latest tour, The Love Letter to fans who witnessed a half-music retrospective and half-Broadwayesque show that wa stopped off with a mini movie mimicking the 1930s classic “Cascablanca” with Kelly as a Bogart type and a black actress imitating her best Mae West in a blond wig ).

Set up with an elaborate set and colorful signage ( e.g. The Double Up Bar in blinking lights), his set chronicled his music life of well over 20 years. With the abundance of hits in his repertoire (too many to even put a number on), when one attends an R Kelly concert, one gets his greatest hits performed abbreviated style—And the show Friday was no exception.

Second act Keyshia Cole's performance wasn't much to be applauded but most of the ladies seemed to love her set.

The only songs that were performed in its entirety were “Step In the Name of Love (which opened and closed his set), “My Body’s Callin,” “Ignition,”(including a rock remix) and “Strip for you.” (the latter caused a blush fest when R Kelly pointed to specific women in the crowd on a dare to strip--but with no success) Oddly and ironically enough he didn’t perform any songs from his latest CD, “Love Letter;” which was baffling. Yet he even performed snippets of songs that weren’t in the repertoire (eg. “Hey Mr DJ” from his days heading up Public Announcement) which became more of an a capella sing-a-long fest with the crowd, one of the many highlights of his set.

There was also a diva moment briefly with the R&B star when one of the lights on stage was shot out but he played it off by singing his request for the lighting guy to come fix it. Then replied, “I’m a perfectionist and people paid money for this show,”resulting in the crowd cheering and applauding profusely.

Headliner R Kelly early on in his set.

Disappointingly, when he performed his hits with his created character Mr Biggs aka Ron Isley (“Contagious,” “Down Low”), the man himself did not join him on stage (who was in attendance ), but stayed in the audience as he grinned excitingly and was strangely not acknowledged by Kelly.

There was also a diva moment briefly with the R&B star when one of the lights on stage was shot out but he played it off by singing his request for the lighting guy to come fix it. Then replied, “I’m a perfectionist and people paid money for this show,”resulting in the crowd cheering and applauding profusely.

R Kelly gave the crowd a smorgasbord of all the hits in his 20 plus year career.


A somewhat strange moment occurred during the last video montage with pics of Kelly growing up in Chicago and of his late mother. It happened when there was a love letter that appeared on screen (as Gladys Knight’s classic song, :Te Makings of You: played under) with words scribbled line by line coming to life on page written by his mother from Heaven about how much of a genius her son was and that she was watching him from Heaven.

R Kelly's elaborate set.

But the sentiment turned back into party mode as white confetti and multicolored streamers fell from the ceiling onto the crowd making it into a New Years Day celebration.

Overall this was one of R Kelly’s best St Louis stops since his concert at the Fox Theatre in 2002 (and that showstopping run around inside a gigantic cage in silk red pajamas LOL)

Prior to Kelly was R&B diva in training Keyshia Cole who’s hour set was a bit of a mish mash as far as her vocals were concerned. There were several times on her set where she seemed to be out of breath or pushing way too hard to sing the difficult notes. Case in point was before performing “Love” she demanded for the ladies to stand up to sing the song with her masking the fact that she couldn’t do the difficult runs of the song. She also attempted to perform the Mary J Blige version of her cover of Rose Royce’s: “I’m Goin Down” that fell flat. The Huh moment occurred when she told the crowd, “I ‘ve been singing all this time, now I want you ladies to sing with me.”

From the ladies perspective, Cole could do no wrong and they gladly obliged her smug requests . Throughout her set (which comprised of a backdrop of a brownstone neighborhood and am actual pay phone) , she sang all of her hits from her four albums (“I Shoulda Cheated,” “I Remember,” “Let it go”, etc) but when she got to her latest single, “ Take Me Away” midway in her set the crowd seemed to be not as interested. As an added note her new hubby Cleveland Caveliers’ player Daniel Gibson and son, Jr., were sitting nearby the corridor of backstage watching.

Opener Marsha Ambrosius however was on point vocal wise and she did it without the theatrics of the two artists that followed her, . with a stand up keyboard and a mic. Although she performed with tracks, her voice and playing of the keys were definitely on spotlight showcasing her acrobatic songbird style vocals and musicianship. She sang mostly covers (including Chaka Khan’s “Sweet Thing”), and her former band Floetry’s slow jam :”Say Yes”: (in a surprisingly more suggestive manner), as well as her latest hit, “Far Away,..” She ended her 30 minute set with a conical cover of The “Let Your Soul Glo” commercial that is heard and seen on Edde Murphy’s film, “Coming to America.”

(BELOW IS A CROWD SHOT)