Alicia Keys 'Freedom' Tour Chicago Concert Recap

As reported by Greg Kot at the Chicago Tribune

At Allstate (Wednesday, March 3), the singer wasn’t content to stay in one place, let alone one style, for very long. Her 100-minute, 22-song set was a jumble of ideas that didn’t quite jell into a consistently powerful performance. When (Alicia) Keys stripped things down and gave her voice and fingers room to move, she was riveting.

She was never better than during her all-too-brief piano interludes. Keys sounds best when she’s at a keyboard, setting up natural call-and-response patterns that were further accentuated by three excellent backing singers.

The singer went to church on “Prayer for Forgiveness,” “Diary” and especially the slow-build secular gospel of “Like You’ll Never See Me Again.” It was almost a relief to see Keys sit down and explore the songs rather than shaking and shimmying through them.

The concert began with a gimmick: Keys singing from inside a cage before breaking free, the better to hammer home the night’s themes of self-empowerment and self-determination. She started “Fallin’ ” on a toy keyboard, then built to a big show-biz finish. She vamped it up with wailing electric guitar on “Another Way to Die,” the James Bond theme song she cowrote with the White Stripes’ Jack White. She tossed in a snippet of the Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” during “Karma,” and stepped with her dancers during “Heartburn.” Throw in a series of go-get-'em video graphics, everything from Martin Luther King quotes to images of Gandhi, John F. Kennedy and Princess Diana (huh?), and you had a concert that sometimes resembled an over-stuffed video game more than a showcase for a gifted artist.

On “Like the Sea” and “I Need You,” she blended electric piano and thick Moog chords to create mini-symphonies of longing and obsession. Even a malfunctioning keytar couldn’t stop her from kicking out some Prince-style funk on “Go Ahead” with her band.

The last portion of the show was devoted to big anthems, designed to rock the arena U2-style. But the Allstate was only half full, and big production numbers such as “Put it in a Love Song” and “No One” strained to make an impact. Keys wanted it all, but her piano knew better.

Photos:
Film Magic
Wire Image
WENN Photo
Getty Images

Alicia Keys’ set list Wednesday at Allstate Arena:

1 Caged Bird
2 Love is Blind
3 Trouble
4 You Don't Know My Name
5 Fallin’
6 Another Way to Die
7 Karma
8 Heartburn
9 Like the Sea
10 I Need You
11 Prayer for Forgiveness
12 Diary
13 Like You’ll Never See Me Again
14 Wait Til You See Me Smile
15 Go Ahead
16 Put it in a Love Song
17 Unthinkable (I’m Ready)
Backup singer interlude: Feeling Good
18 Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart
19 Superwoman
20 If I Ain’t Got You
21 No One

Encore
22 Empire State of Mind

More fan shot footage below.







(video courtesy of ZalandLex)

Alicia Keys 2010 Element of Freedom Tour Dates:

3/5 - Detroit, MI - Fox Theatre
3/6 - Detroit, MI - Fox Theatre
3/8 - London, ON - John Labatt Centre
3/10 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre
3/11 - Verona, NY - Turning Stone
3/13 - Mashantucket, CT - Foxwoods Casino
3/14 - Mashantucket, CT - Foxwoods Casino
3/17 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
3/19 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Centre
3/20 - Atlantic City, NJ - Mark Etess Arena
3/22 - Boston, MA - Agganis Arena
3/24 - Baltimore, MD - 1st Mariner Arena
3/25 - Washington, DC - Verizon Center
3/27 - Miami, FL - American Airlines Arena
3/28 - Tampa, FL - St. Pete Times-Forum
3/30 - Atlanta, GA - Philips Arena
4/2 - Dallas, TX - Nokia Theater (Grand Prairie)
4/3 - Houston, TX - Toyota Center
4/6 - Los Angeles, CA - Staples Center
4/7 - Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl
4/9 - Las Vegas, NV - Mandalay Bay
4/10 - Oakland, CA - Oracle Coliseum