Live Review: RNB Fridays Live

R&B lovers of all ages descended upon HBF Park on a balmy 35 degree day as RNB Fridays Live returned to Perth for 2019. Hosted by Fatman Scoop with resident DJ's Horizon and Yo! Mafia setting the tone in between sets of a killer line up.

J-Kwon played a brief set opening up RNB Fridays Live as concertgoers began to fill HBF Park, including 2004 hit Tipsy, shortly followed by Keri Hilson who delivered a high energy and saucy performance of a slew of her hits, including her feature on Timbland’s The Way I Are.

Continuing the journey on the #nostalgia train was Sisqo, who true R&B fans would know from his Dru Hill days. He kept the crowd going with his strong vocal delivery and dance moves, eventually giving what the majority of the fans there came to see, four-time Grammy-nominated hit of the year 2000, Thong Song.

Next up was quintessential voice of the '90s Brandy who, given the demographic of the crowd, might have seemed like a lesser known artist but for those who grew up in the '90s, casually slayed with her hits including Baby, In My Room, Almost Doesn’t Count, Have You Ever and What About Us. Towards the end of her set she graciously sang Happy Birthday to a concertgoer giving the audience a small taste of why she is known as “The Vocal Bible” – also, happy birthday, Sam. Despite a lackluster audience and her vocals sitting quite low in the mix, she kept the vibes high with one of her biggest (and most recognizable) hits shared with Monica, Boy Is Mine.

Sisquo

Brandy

Jason Derulo (sung) came through with guns blazing as the sun went down with three back-up dancers and a guitarist and some pyrotechnics. Derulo danced and sang his arse off as he gradually undressed performing songs like It Girl, My Head, Marry Me, Talk Dirty and Swalla. However, sound issues were noticeable throughout his performance with his voice not forward enough in the mix and the couple of guitar solos pretty much being inaudible.

Then it was time for the hip hop fans to assemble as 50 Cent took to the stage along with a live band, DJ and members of G-Unit. Two words: Sound. Issues. Overall, the mix was questionable at best and strangely inconsistent with his vocals sounding muddy for the first half, finally corrected somewhat through PIMP and was finally audible during Magic Stick.. half way through his one-hour set. 50 Cent’s band and DJ were slamming but were let down by the poor and bizarrely imbalanced and muddy sounding mix, it was difficult to make out anything coming from his microphone as it was being overpowered by everything else, and again, the guitar solo was inaudible. Despite this, highlights included This Is How We Do, In Da Club, Best Friend and the one tune where the sound finally came through, Window Shopper.

Jason Derulo

50 Cent

Second headliner on this all-star line-up and who drew the largest crowd were Black Eyed Peas joined by J Reysoul (stepping in on all of the Fergie parts) and a full band. BEP began tearing it up with Let’s Get It Started and made their way through their large catalogue of bangers including My Humps, Boom Boom Pow and Pump It. Will.i.am worked the crowd and brought it down a couple of times to interact with them during some musical interludes into tunes like Where Is The Love and wrapping up their electrifying set with crowd favourite I Got A Feeling.

Black Eyed Peas

It was then time for the main headline act who has a surname that needs no introduction to take to the stage. London and Fatman Scoop returned to hype up the crowd to welcome the pop icon that is Janet Jackson. However, as the 100-second countdown drew to a close to absolute silence, it was off to a shaky start. For what seemed like an eternity (but in reality most probably about five minutes of silence) after the countdown had ended, still no sign of Jackson. Cue the DJ to play some of her songs to fill in what had become a confusing and awkward experience. Finally, Jackson appeared but as the first song began, her vocals and/or microphone were not on at all for the first half of the tune. This became a recurring theme throughout her set, the vocals strangely inconsistent where times you could either not hear her singing but could hear her speaking to the crowd and then vice versa, a slight lag in the video being played on the big screens meant the vocals and music didn’t sync up with the visuals being projected onto the screens, leaving the crowd bewildered and confused starting murmurs from members of the audience suggested she was lip-synching. Bizarre sound issues aside, the production, band and dance routines were fire and there is not a shred of doubt that Jackson is a PERFORMER as she got to work with crowd pleasers Together Again, That’s The Way Love Goes and All For You – the latter being her best performance vocally. Special mention for her performance of her duet with the King of Pop and her brother Michael Jackson as she came through with that rasp and really sang with Scream.

Janet Jackson