Of the three big popstars of the 1980s, Lionel Richie came in third and worse, a middle of the road pop crooner for middle ground pop fans raised on AM radio. But when Lionel says, over and over and over again, “songs, we’ve got songs, songs songs,” he isn’t lying. Between the Commodores and his solo career, Richie is telling the truth when he claims “We’ve got songs that you remember”.
However, with the upper deck at Barclay Center closed, and Richie’s claim of 8,000 people in the audience that can fit 20,000 if you wanna include behind the stage, , even a string of hits that dates from “Brick House” to last year’s smash Tuskagee, couln’t interest New Yorkers, apparently Brooklyn need their popstars cooler than Lionel.
Like Diana Ross, who Lionel invited to reprise “Endless Love” with him and turned him down flat, New York didn’t make it this night and unfortunately,all the naysayers may have had a point. Effortlessly out of fashion, with a straight up pop band behind him, keyboards, drums, bass, guitar and piano played by Lionel himself, and a minimal to non-existent stage set, Lionel brought a knife to a gun fight and got slaughtered.
For one thing, the band were too loud, or maybe Barclay has the worst sound system in the world, but what we want from Richie is the warmth of melody and strings and what we got was brittle bass beyond belief. Whatever the song, even the straight up love songs, sounded harsh and it was kind of sad because in theory at least his set was strong enough to work.
In 2013, Lionel comes out and does some hits, some deep cuts, and wraps it up with some more hits, but the songs we really wanna hear, he is careful with. The audience response very well to “Dancing On The Ceiling” though the sound made me cringe, and they respond well when he is just on piano, as he is for a three song explanation as to why “we” have written a song, which plunges like a stone into schtick till a concert highlight “Stuck On You” saves it. But he keeps three big hits and the Live AID abomination to close the show.
Nothing, not even “Brick House” saves an extended Commodores mini-set, and by the time you reach the last lap, it is getting a little desperate. Lionel looks great for 64 years old, trim, healthy, hair and ‘tache in tact, jawline, energetic, but he won’t play the loverboy any more and he can’t dance for toffee. The entire band are more rock than soul or funk oriented (and whatever happened to the country sound???) and he gets just about none of his ballads, “Easy” and “Endless Love” being specifically atrocious. Like, atrocious, what was he thinking of? The singalong to “Easy” wasn’t merely embarrassing it was ridiculous. And “Endless Love” where we were meant to take Ross’ part was… well, the best you can say is it was over quick.
Richie needed a string section and a better band, and he needed to turn the volume down. This wasn’t the funk he was playing on the sound system before the set, this was a certain sublime pop moment, and to cream it into dust is just plain dumb.
When they woke themselves up for the hits, the audience seemed to enjoy it well enough and I guess he gave the people what they wanted and what he could, but this was a hugely disappointing performance from a man who should have gotten a full orchestra behind him and moved from funk to country to pop.
Instead, it was a shoddy product by the third biggest pop act of the 1980s. Frankly, I am surprised.
Grade: C-