Off to see Diana Ross at the Chicago Theater tonight!! Great venue; can't wait.
Review from last nights show:
By Kevin McKeough, Special to the Tribune9:27 a.m. CDT, April 30, 2014
There were all the costume changes you would expect, nearly, if not all, the hits you could want, some fine singing and a terrific band in Diana Ross' concert at the Chicago Theatre Tuesday, the first show of a two-night stand. What ultimately was most noteworthy, though, was the celebratory, communal spirit of the evening.
Packing 18 songs into a brisk 80-minute set, Ross covered her career from her mid-1960s hits with the Supremes ("Baby Love," "You Can't Hurry Love," "Stop! In the Name of Love") through "More Today Than Yesterday," from her last studio album, 2007's "I Love You." With dozens of hits to her name, omissions were unavoidable, but it's hard to justify Ross leaving out the majority of the Supremes' classics in favor of songs popularized by Gloria Gaynor and Dusty Springfield.
Age inevitably has taken away the girlishness that marked Ross' early singing, and her voice has become harder and brassier, which diminished the pop effervescence of some songs. On the other hand, it suited the jazz ballad "Don't Explain," a selection from the 1972 Billie Holiday biopic "Lady Sings the Blues," in which Ross starred and which featured her best singing of the evening.
Three backing vocalists swathed her refrains in cheerful harmonies, and a four-part horn section nearly stole the show with their rambunctious fanfares. Ross showcased them and the other members of her 12-person band in extended instrumental passages that allowed her to leave the stage for quick costume changes.
In all, she donned five brightly colored, heavily sequined gowns, plus opulent coats and wraps, but the show wasn't all glitz and glamour. Ross weaved messages of personal strength through then show, including the narrator's account of a painful upbringing and insistence on abstinence in "Love Child" and the gay empowerment implicit in "I'm Coming Out."
The audience she drew was the most powerful statement of all, as the show brought together gay and straight, black and white, old and, well, middle aged. It was a reminder that music at times can break down boundaries between people, but begged the question of which acts can achieve similarly widespread appeal in today's fragmented music marketplace.
Ross often drew more attention to those fans than herself during the show, as the house lights repeatedly were raised to let her see the crowd. No doubt, their adoration helped account for her beaming smile throughout the night, but she seemed to be genuinely enjoying herself as she walked the length of the stage, shimmying, bobbing and pointing with the music.
With the lights up again for her encore, "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)," Ross gushed with gratitude to the crowd, handed her microphone to fans to let them sing and borrowed another one's phone to record a selfie, all while leading the crowd in an arm-waving anthem of connection and compassion.