Ok, I have to squeeze this in between my Berlin Bread&Butter story. But please stay tuned for Day 2 of that story shortly.

When D’angelo did that, now legendary, show at Cirkus the summer of 2000 – backed up by the Soultronics, with ?estlove on drums and all that…. I missed out. Why? To me D’angelo was that smooth and soft soul/rnb dude. He was very good, and I had bought both his records (yes kids, before MP3 they actually made records that you had to buy) Brown Sugar and Voodoo. And I also picked up that Angie Stone record. But, again – he was kind of a softy to me and I was not that keen on the idea of looking at a naked dude moving in slow motion for two hours on stage.

You live and learn I guess… I now know that Album D’angelo is nothing like live D’angelo. Ok, he is something like that, but still way, way more funky.

And as I never was at Cirkus (listen to that legendary show) I will not try to compare that to what went down on in Filadelfiakyrkan on the 26th of January. I had very low expectations on this show. My first guess was that he would cancel last minute. You know, on the way out of the country they discover that he cannot leave since he was arrested for something at some point. Or something like that. My second guess was that he would be like Alexander O’neal in Stockholm, who fell a sleep on a chair on stage leaving the audience listening to his albums from a CD, as it was playback anyways. To give Alexander O’neal some credit, I went to his show in Malmö and that was great. And I think the audience in Malmö wouldn’t even had noticed if he fell asleep there. In Malmö, Alexander O’neal is bigger than Tomas Ledin (national hero) – and everyone knows his songs.

But D’angelo did none of the above. He came out, after 11 years of not doing music – and BOOM! Rocked the house. Or church if you will. I had seats in the nosebleed section (but I was lucky to have seats at all). And walking in to the venue was like some sort of highschool reunion. Everyone I have known or known of since the 90’s was there. Or the other way around. Everyone that was there was someone I have known or known of since the 90’s. The show was supposed to start 19.30, but of course our kids didn’t want to go to bed, so me and Katty were late. But once we were there (around 20.00) we were met by concert arranger Harry Burns who was a bit stressed out and yelling ”two more minutes and we are closing the doors, so get to your fucking seats if you have tickets”.

Once in our seats, we had to wait for another 30 minutes. But I heard he was 2 hours late at Cirkus so… In any case, it was all beyond worth it. Turns out worldpress was there. Jill Scott and her husband had flew in just for the world premier of D’angelo’s comeback. And the Lauren Hill show two days earlier at that same venue was a total flop. So no wonder Harry was stressed out.

But wow. He came out and did his thing. And more. I know this is going out on a limb, but I would say he was James Brown, Al Green and Prince all rolled into one. And perhaps it was my low expectations – but I was blown away!

So, for the next generation (I am talking to you now J Bawls) – do not miss out next time D’angelo is in town. Trust me. Or ask anybody I’ve known since the 90’s.