{"id":162070,"date":"2026-02-03T16:09:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/162070\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T16:09:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:09:22","slug":"the-start-of-the-road-new-edition-boyz-ii-men-toni-braxton-open-30-city-tour-at-oakland-arena-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/162070\/","title":{"rendered":"The Start Of The Road: New Edition, Boyz II Men, Toni Braxton Open 30-City Tour\u00a0At Oakland Arena (Review)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NE1New-ish Jack Swing: New Edition on the opening night of their \u201cNew Edition Way Tour\u201d at Oakland Arena on Jan. 28 in Oakland, CA. (Photos by Chloe Catajan for Oakland Arena)<\/p>\n

Significantly, Oakland Arena in the Bay Area on Jan. 28 was selected as the opening city for the 30-stop \u201cNew Edition Way Tour,\u201d which co-stars their prot\u00e9g\u00e9s and now longtime friends Boyz II Men and Toni Braxton and concludes on Mar. 20 at Nashville\u2019s Bridgestone Arena. New Edition previously performed four other times at Northern California\u2019s 20K-cap mixed use venue, and always receive loud love from the locals. Here, seemingly sipping from the fountain of youth, New Editions\u2019 Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Bobby Brown, Ronnie DeVoe, Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant pack unwavering lead vocals and strong steps.<\/p>\n

Presented by the Black Promoters Collective, \u201cThe New Edition Way Tour,\u201d in honor of a street in their hometown of Boston recently renamed New Edition Way, offers a creatively-arranged, high-value show drawing on a mix of the best ballads and uptempo dancefloor shakers from these beloved Platinum performers\u2019catalogs. Instead of each act playing full successive sets, the set list is arranged as a DJ would to build up energy and drop constant surprises as they collaborate and come on and offstage. For example, New Edition joined Boyz II Men (Nathan Morris, Wany\u00e0 Morris, and Shawn Stockman) for the latter\u2019s blockbuster \u201cMotownphilly\u201d and later appeared together at the beginning for a new jam \u201cWe Going Out Tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Edition has long carried on the sharp sartorial, choreographic and vocal traditions of predecessors like The Temptations and Four Tops. More than a few audience members knew the steps to classics like \u201cIf It Isn\u2019t Love\u201d and all the vocal inflections of \u201cMr. Telephone Man\u201d and \u201cCandy Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two screens were juxtaposed smartly showing nostalgic video footage of each act alongside what was happening live. The artists are now all in their fifties and continue to draw multiple generations, though the 30 and under demographic wasn\u2019t quite as loud as the 60 and over crowd, when the congenial tour DJ Shakim asked for our ages. Shakim and the band performed from the pit beneath the stage.<\/p>\n

\"B2MStart of The Road: Boyz II Men at Oakland Arena on Jan. 28 in Oakland, CA on the opening of the the opening night of \u201cThe New Edition Way Tour.\u201d (Photos by Chloe Catajan for Oakland Arena)<\/p>\n

Boyz II Men were ever-gallant, bringing long-stemmed red roses to throw to ladies cheering from every angle of the 360-degree stage. Morris, Morris and Stockman have taken loving care of their vocal chords, and reminded of their consummate professionalism while singing signifiers like \u201cI\u2019ll Make Love to You,\u201d \u201cWater Runs Dry,\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday\u201d and \u201cEnd of the Road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toni Braxton revealed that doctors didn\u2019t think she\u2019d ever perform live again due to complications from having the autoimmune disease lupus and dedicated a portion of her set to her late sister Traci, who passed away from esophageal cancer in 2022. But there she was, sizzling on stage with pitch-perfect renditions of hits like \u201cYou\u2019re Making Me High\u201d and \u201cHe Wasn\u2019t Man Enough for Me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She may not have a full set\u2019s worth of energy these days, she admitted, but said, \u201cI still have a good 50 minutes in me!\u201d And she appeared to relish them all, as did the audience.<\/p>\n

\"ToniHeart Unbroken: Toni Braxton the opening night of the \u201cNew Edition Way Tour\u201d in Oakland. (Photo: Chloe Catajan for Oakland Arena)<\/p>\n

There were multiple glittering costume changes for each reappearance on stage, including a giant pair of angel wings worn to sing \u201cUn-Break My Heart.\u201d It was an otherworldly moment when this tear-streaked writer questioned if she was actually in reality.<\/p>\n

After a memoriam honoring artists who passed in the last year, including Ozzy Osbourne, the nearly 40 song set stepped on the gas of an already high-octane show to close out with the solo and side act anthems that still rock any party: Johnny Gill\u2019s \u201cRub You the Right Way,\u201d Bobby Brown\u2019s \u201cEvery Little Step\u201d and \u201cMy Prerogative\u201d and Bell Biv DeVoe\u2019s \u201cPoison.\u201d Smack it up, flip it, rub it down forever.<\/p>\n

\"BlackNEW EDITION, BOYZ II MEN & TONI BRAXTON JOIN FORCES FOR \u201cTHE NEW EDITION WAY TOUR\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New-ish Jack Swing: New Edition on the opening night of their \u201cNew Edition Way Tour\u201d at Oakland Arena…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-162070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}