Last night i crossed one item off my bucket list--seeing Stevie Wonder live. The show was the entire Songs In the Key of Life album, including the extra tracks on the EP that came with the original vinyl. It was a pretty amazing show--three hours of the man! Seven piece horn section, six backup singers, one was his daughter and one dude who sounds just like Stevie, several duets with India Arie, I think a nine piece sting section, two drummers, percussionists, two keyboardists including Greg Phillinganes, Nathan Watts on bass, and two brilliant guitarists. I loved how engaged he was with the audience, funny (he talked about the triplets tabloids said he was supposedly having), and it wouldnt be Stevie Wonder without him sharing lots of his spiritual and political ideas. A couple of times lyrics escaped him--one time, during Village Ghetto Land, leading him to replace a line and sing, I forgot my own words. then he laughed, Fire me! Sue me! The show at the Garden was the first of this tour. Clearly this was a big deal for him. Several times he got choked up in the middle of songs and couldnt sing. During Miss October, the lone male backup singer (amazing) just picked up and finished most of the song until Stevie got his shit together and continued to the roar of the crowd. He closed out the show with a non-Key of Life song, Superstition, which had the Garden rocking.This video was shot by someone else at the show but it is a great sample of the energy of the night. Ill post some of my photos later in the day. youtu.be/9YCzw4gwiNY
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 17:45:14 +0000