While Scott was chilling with Larry Anderson at the Festival Pier at Penn's Landing on Saturday night to hear moe. and the Allman Brothers, I was at the Electric Factory for the John Legend show featuring Common and De La Soul.
You may be saying to yourself John who? The BBC Website has this to say about John Legend:
His name may not be familiar, but John
Legend is not new to the game. He's been making hits with big names
since 1988. Did you know that he was on Encore by Jay Z and has worked
with Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill, Est'elle and most recently Kanye West?
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I admittedly hadn't heard much of John Legend and wasn't extremely familiar with Common's material either, but after seeing these two performers live I am definitely going to be giving their latest albums a listen on Rhapsody.
I missed the De La Soul and other openers but got there just in time to catch Common coming out to excite the crowd. He had great stage presence when he wasn't chilling on his stool. One of the most exciting parts of the evening had to be when Common took his sweater off and did some old school break dancing. The crowd ate it up, myself included. One of the other most impressive performances of the night had to be when Common left his DJ alone on the stage. This guy did some crazy things with his wheels of steel, truly impressive sounds. In my opinion Common was the more energetic of the two main acts and could have easily performed after John Legend.
John Legend, who attended the University of Penn, is regarded as a neo-soul/R&B singer. The only artist who I have ever seen live that I could compare him to would be Stevie Wonder. They both sing soulfully and play the piano. Legend can see just fine. I recognized a few of his tune's including the title track to his first studio album Get Lifted as well as a great slower song Ordinary People. It was a very good show and I remember thinking "That guy has some pipes." He can sing.