A mature crowd mostly aged 40+ and up, styled and profiled in the sharpest and most sophisticated threads they could find for “The R&B Kickback” featuring Brian McKnight, SWV, and Lyfe Jennings on Saturday, August 13 at Stifel Theatre.
90s heartthrob McKnight’s approached the stage aged to perfection in his 50s with no hair and a fully gray beard—a much different look from his musical debut.
While he’s always won the ladies over for his tall, dark, and handsome appearance, it was his chart-topping vocals that kept the crowd enticed and showcased why he was the selected headliner.
A cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” set the tone for McKnight’s soundtracks of love and heartbreak.
Following, he commanded the room with a mixture of his uptempo and slower hits, including “Find Myself in You,” “Anytime,” “The Only One For Me,” and “You Should Be Mine (Don’t Waste Your Time).”
After he playfully joked about how he was not coming out into the audience to interact with fans due to the spread of COVID-19, he journeyed everyone to what he considers the “greatest decade in the history of music” on the 1992 track “The Way Love Goes.”
As he sang “Still In Love” and “Forever,” he reiterated the same sentiments from an interview with The St. Louis American about how while he’s written classic love songs, he didn’t find out its true meaning until he met his wife, Leilani.
“I’ve been a professional songwriter since I was 17, and of my 20 albums, I wrote about 98.7432% of the songs I recorded,” McKnight said. “I never believed love could exist how it’s seen in movies and heard in songs until ten years ago I met a young lady who changed the way I think, walk, talk, write, and sing.”
Beautifully transitioning from his love declaration to his wife, footage from their wedding day was displayed while he sang “Everything.” He teared up at the song’s end and stood still for a few minutes until he could compose himself again.
Once he pulled it together, he hilariously devised a “Sad Song Medley” for the folks having a rougher time with their love life. The medley included “After the Love,” “Lonely,” and “6 Months, 8 Days, 12 Hours.”
In honor of the fallen legends we’ve lost through the years, he embraced their artistry with tributes to “Never Too Much,” Luther Vandross, “Remember the Time,” Michael Jackson, “Beautiful Ones,” Prince and the Revolution, and “I Have Nothing” Whitney Houston.
He sang other songs both old and new including “Only One For Me.” It was certainly a show as he stated in an interview with The St. Louis American that “people would’ve wished they paid more money for.”
Fellow 30-year music veterans with McKnight, the sassy and harmonious trio SWV performed their timeless records many produced and written by Brian Alexander Morgan including “Anything,” (which they opened with), “You’re Always On My Mind,” “I’m So Into You,” and more.
“We recently found out our first album [“It’s About Time”] was just certified 7x platinum and our second album [“New Beginning”] is 3 or 4x platinum,” said Taj George of SWV.
LeLee Lyons of SWV thanked fans for supporting the group’s longstanding career.
“We thank you guys so much, and we thank the people who are seeing us for the very first time,” Lyons said. “We are so blessed and so thankful to be here.”
Unanimous fan-favorite “Weak,” served as the group’s finale song with a standing ovation from every person in the building and every cellphone flashlight waving side-to-side while fans sang it word-for-word in unison.
Jennings who opened the show struggled to keep the audience entertained with his gritty, hood philosophy records touching on life’s adversities and relationship woes. It’s clear the majority of the crowd which was composed of an older demographic wasn’t too keen and familiar with his music as he sang “Stick Up Kid,” “Boomerang,” “My Life, and more.”
He ended his performance with “Must Be Nice,” the obvious record majority of the audience knew verbatim.
He was an out-of-place pairing for the bill, he would’ve been better suited with any other R&B artist with a deep early 00s catalog like Jaheim. Overall, the night dignified the love and appreciation for the rhythm and blues genre.
Jess Live and DJ Quinn of 96.3 R&B for the Lou hosted and DJed prior to and in between intermissions.
