Live Review: Alicia Keys, John Legend

The luminescent lights of Perth Arena played host to a rare twin Grammy Award-winning double-header on Thursday night as soulful superstars Alicia Keys and John Legend arrived at the first stop on the final leg of her Set The World On Fire Tour. Channelling a Vandrossian smoothness, John Legend kicked off with an hour-long set featuring tracks from across the breadth of his award-winning career. Legend's huge voice shocked the arena into an awestruck silence as the dulcet tones rang out with that rare crystalline clarity of which only a true musician is capable. Save Room and Ordinary People were the traditional fan favourites and indeed caressed the ear canals as they were intended; however the addition of a calibre backing band allowed the traditional Legend arrangement to reach new heights with powerful beats and bluesy guitar riffs that took tracks such as Let's Get Lifted to the next level. The show reached a pinnacle with Legend's outstanding cover of Bruce 'The Boss' Springsteen's Dancing In The Dark worked to suit the perfection of a baby grand and Legend's rare ability. All Of Me rocked the encore and as the Legend left the building it was tough to imagine a following act with the capacity to top that performance.

John Legend. Pic by Rhys Machell.

Fortunately, and to the immense benefit of the audience, the headlining act was none other than an on-fire Alicia Keys as the stadium feel of the Arena shrank to a smoky Manhattan jazz bar, filled with the downtrodden and shattered remnants of humanity, the unbelievable Keys voice providing the lone shred of hope. Belting out a few bars of Empire State Of Mind as a warm-up, Keys drifted into a demure Karma shifting from the baby grand to pop mode effortlessly. The sheer power of Keys filled the rafters as she unleashed in key moments in If I Ain't Got You and Murder She Wrote. It's without a doubt that Fallin' is one of the greatest songs of our generation and the live performance served only to reinforce its magnificence, the talented backing band adding nuance and power that recordings are simply unable to capture, further evidenced in a power-packed rendition of the usually svelte track, A Woman's Worth. Keys returned to finish what she started with the full Empire State Of Mind, followed by Girl On Fire. True musicianship is rare in a world of remixes and digital tinkering, so to experience the feelings and emotions forged in the depths of Hell's Kitchen was truly, truly special.