Midway through a bright set from Gnarls Barkley at the Wilbur Theatre last night, stout vocaliser Cee-Lo apologized for a scratchy throat.
Really Cee-Lo, it�s OK. If that was a slightly under-the-weather performance, it would be borderline frightening to see you at top of the inning speed.
Cee-Lo began his professional music career not as a isaac Merrit Singer, but as a rapper in the Atlanta chemical group Goodie Mob before hook up with Danger Mouse to shape Gnarls Barkley. Nevertheless, his vocal power is like harnessing the power of a gospel choir and adding rock, unpredictability and cigarettes to the mix.
Danger Mouse left the audience interaction up to Cee-Lo during the hour-plus arrange and stayed busy singing backup vocals while acting the organ, what appeared to be a xylophone, and on the high-powered �Run,� a whistle.
Clearly you have to be a multi-tasker to work for Gnarls Barkley. Most of the band members (dressed in what appeared to be preparatory school uniforms) played multiple instruments, sometimes at the same time, while the set meandered all over the position and still made sense.
From the organ-heavy opener �Can�t You See,� the group segued into the heavily �60s-influenced �Surprise,� the first display of Cee-Lo�s full-on vocal major power. There was the party starter �Gone Daddy Gone,� the �good old-fashioned rock �n� roll� of �Whatever� and the group�s love life song, �Blind Mary.�
But even when things weren�t quite as electrifying, they were no less interesting. �Transformer� - when Cee-Lo transformed into a man eroding a tank car top - and �Neighbors� were both subdued tracks that place the spot on his weathered, soul-stirring vocals.
Smash single �Crazy� was a requirement inclusion on the set list and had a great deal of the sold-out crowd bopping aside, but it was the encore �Who�s Gonna Save My Soul� that was the nearly compelling. Slower and darker than the album version, it began with only a programmed drum beat and Danger Mouse on the organ, and complete with a quasi-possessed Cee-Lo smoking a cigarette and wailing as guitars and synths trembled around him.
Hercules and Love Affair provided a, shall we say, muscular opening effort. The eight-piece outfit that somehow crammed themselves onstage in front of the Gnarls setup was eclectic both visually and musically, combining elements of disco, funk and electronic and featuring a clustering of geeky guys on instruments and a modelesque lead vocalist. The New York-based radical had audience members disco-clapping happily before Gnarls took to the stage.
Gnarls Barkley, with Hercules And Love Affair
At the Wilbur Theatre, last night.
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