I Just Wanna Go Back: D'Angelo and The Vanguard Live at Club Nokia 6/8/15
D’Angelo and The Vanguard: Live At Club Nokia, June 8th, 2015
(originally Published on Okayplayer.com as Bombastic on June 9, 2015)
I found out about an hour before show time that a dear friend of 35 years had passed away. One of three brothers that grew up down the street from me in South Jersey that I've known since age 3, from a family I spend Christmas Eve with after church every year to this day and whose family house is the perfect buzzed-up trudge home in the snow around the time Christmas Eve is turning into Christmas morning.
Maintenance found our friend inside his hotel room in Brooklyn while out there on business. No one is really sure what happened but even if we did, what difference would it make anyway? Bottom line is he's suddenly gone leaving the rest of us have to somehow keep on.
That news shook me to the core, couldn't eat, didn't know what to do with myself from there, wasn't even sure who to talk with since no need to start calling east-coast people with horrific news at 11 PM EST on a Monday evening. Sitting on the edge of my bed in my apartment in Santa Monica, driving myself crazy, thinking maybe I needed to just try going to bed or lay down to watch a movie. Instead, just finally said "F this, I’m gonna go see D".
Seemed like the only thing that might soothe the soul at that point was some musical deliverance, altho tickets had long been sold out online.
Ticket apps weren’t showing any love either so I just went to the liquor store up the street from me, copped a power bar, a lemonade and the $80 dollar max cash-back from the register then hopped in my car playing Black Messiah figuring I would rely on concert karma....aka: if you go there, you will find your way in.
Parked at LA Live just shy of 9:30, went to the Will Call booth downstairs, asked the people working it if any seats had been late-released for sale. They said no.
Asked if D was on yet, they said yes, for a half hour. Okay, thanks anyway, started walking to find a scalper, when someone overhearing said "no, he's actually about to go on now and there’s a few GA seats released at the box office".
Bet.
Booked upstairs, copped a GA floor seat for $75, walked in just as the band began their intro, found space by Kendra Foster stage left just as D emerged to open with "Ain't That Easy".
This was where I needed to be last night. The band was so fucking incredible and my own sober-but-shocked headspace was in such a strange is-this-shit-all-real state that this music had me levitating.
Little chunks of lyrics started taking on different tones its authors probably hadn't intended considering the context:
"you can't leave me, it ain't that easy, to walk away, when I want you to stay"
"I just wanna go back, back to the way it was now-now-nah"
Then of course "Another Life" which I had no idea had been added to the set but is my favorite song on the album.
It would have been the perfect date-night D set considering most of the songs on the menu were the ones mostly related to some form of love and/or lust.....but as for me making a last minute decision to go solo, the music was companionship in its own right while the spirit of the material showed thru, culminating in the "Untitled" finale which took on its own thing.
D looked so alive and present, he might even be getting that video frame back a bit, not that I was really checking.
At one point he was rocking some Black-Moses/George-Clinton type of church robe while directing traffic up front and it felt like witnessing an artist harnessing the full command of his powers.
This did not feel like a knock-off act.
This band doesn’t feel like they’re putting themselves thru paces of recreating JB's Tami Show or P's Parade Tour.
This was their thing, while it was all of ours there sharing it with them too.
At times I musta looked half-crazy for anyone dumb enough to be paying attention to me instead of D, while I was definitely shedding tears during "Another Life" but with a smile on my face.
Jesse was of course great, Pino was Pino, but to me the standout besides the obvious was Kendra Foster.
That girl is a star.
Maybe it was slightly affected by her being the closest one to me but it was hard to take my eyes off her and she never stopped moving the entire night.
Much thanks to D and the whole Vanguard for not only one of the best shows I've seen in years but one of the most crucial on a personal level in the wake of some horrible shit.
RIP RGD
I Just Wanna Go Back.
-Bomb
Set List:
Aint That Easy
Vanguard Theme
Betray My Heart
Spanish Joint
Really Love
The Charade
Brown Sugar
Sugah Daddy
First Encore:
Star Of The Story (Heatwave Cover)
Another Life
Back To The Future
Left & Right
Chicken Grease
Encore #2:
‘Til It’s Done (Tutu)
Untitled (How Does It Feel)
