I was all prepared to title this “What in the El?” and give y’all a mishap-filled rundown of the El DeBarge makeup concert. Especially after I peeped that promotional video. But I must say that things went off mostly without a hitch. The folks came out in droves to The Ambassador Saturday night. And aside from him not knowing the city where he was performing – or what band he was originally in – everything was great! The opening act seemed to give the folks life with his blues covers… Christopher Williams was in the building and gave the folks a taste of his best Marvin Sapp. But El DeBarge and sounded great. But I have NEVER seen him put on a bad performance. EVER. That being said, when he announced “Feels good to be back in Detroit,” I didn’t know what to expect, especially considering how sensitive we are about our city. But only El could bounce right back. I thought the boos would echo, but he’s so charming that the folks got over it quickly – I think his silky hair and angelic voice secret weapons had everything to do with that. Then I quietly believe he thought he spent a short stint in the Commodores, because he made the band carry on with “Brick House” for at least 10 minutes – at least. I was like “this ain’t Switch.” But other than that and his abrupt end, it was great. Now I know (because he made a point to tell someone to pass it along) that promoter Lamont George is still hot with me about what I said about the DeBarge replacement debacle that went down. While I don’t take any of it back, I must give him props for being a man of his word as he gave the people an opportunity to enjoy the DeBarge they actually paid to see. And to do it so quickly also deserves a pat on the back as well.