i thought you were screaming cuz you knew i was gonna poke you in the butt

last night, Chris & I saw Raphael Saadiq in concert, and he was AMAZING! Admittedly, I had my initial qualms going in. I'm only somewhat familiar with his music, to the point where I enjoy it, but I don't know it well enough to go out of my way to see him in concert. But, Chris got us the tickets (Ray is his homeboy), so I figured, why not? He performed so well in his yellow suit and his little motown dance numbers. He sang the classics, like "Pillow", as well as some of the new stuff off The Way I See It. The best part: we were at the very front! There were so many times Raphael danced toward our corner, and he even shook our hands. At the end of the performance, we managed to steal one of the song lists from the stage:

1. Aquarius INTRO
2. Keep Marching
3. Love That Girl
4. 100 Yard Dash
5. Dance Tonight/La La
6. Just One Kiss
7. Oh Girl
8. Medley
9. Be Here
10. Sure Hope You Mean It
11. Charlie Ray
12. Walk
13. Staying in Love
14. Outro
15. ENCORE / Still Ray
16. ENCORE / Sky
17. ENCORE / Big Easy

I'm glad I ended up going to the show. Unfortunately, it coincided with wine&pasta night at Tracy's, which I'm sure I would've had fun and I was sad to miss it, but this show was just so great! Chris & I had so much fun, and it was really quite sweet how he brought it up to me. He told me it was a one-year anniversary kinda thing, reminiscent of how we started (our first official "date" was the Kanye West concert about a year ago) ^_^, but in the end, it was decided that whatever one-year type of anniversary we'd celebrate wouldn't be until the time I had come back from Taiwan.

anyway, I digress. Raphael Saadiq was just so smooth, and he's got such great control over his voice. I thought the venue was just the right size for him to interact with his audience. He was really engaging and friendly, and he involved the audience in some of his songs. I'd definitely say it was one of the best shows I've seen, and I'd recommend him to anyone!