Exactly 20 months after their last headlining concert in Pittsburgh, the three remaining members of R&B group Boyz II Men returned \u2014 this time to Citizens Live at the Wylie in the Hill District.<\/p>\n
In the 75-or-so minutes that they were onstage for the Friday night concert, fans who showed up for that previous tour stop at Rivers Casino might have experienced a little deja vu; the setlist was pretty much identical.<\/p>\n
The three-part group has been around, as they pointed out during the show, for 36 years. Their four original members met Philadelphia\u2019s version of CAPA High School, and after releasing their debut album in 1991, they stayed on top of the charts through much of the 1990s.<\/p>\n
Three current members Nathan Morris, Wany\u00e1 Morris and Shawn Stockman are still as charismatic as ever, waving to the crowd and doing synchronized dance moves in all-white ensembles and sunglasses. Though their use of backing tracks has become a bit more apparent, they can still harmonize as smoothly as ever. And their voices can go anywhere they want them to \u2014 for example, high and expressive in the snippet of Michael Jackson\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Stop \u2018til You Get Enough\u201d that they sang early on in the set.<\/p>\n
The busted out all of the hits, like the drum-heavy \u201cWater Runs Dry\u201d with its gentle harmonies and mournful melodies. So many of Boyz II Men\u2019s songs are ballads that they sound similar, especially with the early-90s combination of just enough bass, synthy keys and the glittery sound of chimes. That was exemplified by \u201cCan You Stand The Rain?\u201d which got the crowd singing along.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Bended Knee,\u201d another big hit for the group, finally seemed to get them in sync vocally and pushed them into a yearning, desperate fever pitch that sounded remarkably convincing. The dramatic drums helped, as did the projection of the original music video playing out on the screen behind them. The singing crowd swayed back and forth with their arms in the air, with the singers\u2019 encouragement.<\/p>\n
After a verse of more upbeat and sing-songy \u201cHey Lover,\u201d they moved to \u201cPlease Don\u2019t Go\u201d after encouraging the crowd to shake hands or \u2018trade Terrible Towels or whatever you do in Pittsburgh\u201d with their stranger neighbors; they wanted the whole show to be able celebrating each other.<\/p>\n
A countdown started on the big screen as they sang down from 10 to one for the beginning of \u201cUhh Ahh,\u201d a less depressing and more sensual song that they followed with \u201c4 Seasons of Loneliness.\u201d<\/p>\n
A segment of the show they referred to as \u201cThe Change\u201d came next, referring to a series of covers that began with a goosebumps-inducing rendition of Sam Cooke\u2019s \u201cA Change Is Gonna Come.\u201d They showed off versatility by rocking out to Lenny Kravitz\u2019s \u201cAre You Gonna Go My Way\u201d and \u201cAmerican Woman,\u201d then belting out Bruno Mars\u2019s \u201cLocked Out of Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it was the back-to-back performances of legendary songs that really charmed the crowd, with The Beatles\u2019 \u201cCome Together\u201d and an ethereal cover of Prince\u2019s \u201cPurple Rain\u201d wrapping up the mini-set.<\/p>\n
From there, it was hit after hit, from finger-snap-laden \u201cIt\u2019s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday\u201d to a Mariah Carey-less \u201cOne Sweet Day\u201d (the audience was happy to scream out the songstress\u2019s part in the Billboard Hot 100-record-setting collaboration).<\/p>\n
Their three signature songs ended the night, all for three very different moods. \u201cI\u2019ll Make Love To You\u201d was slow and smooth, and they gave out roses to the crowd to complement its romantic aura. \u201cEnd of the Road\u201d is an ode to a relationship that\u2019s run its course, with powerful vocal runs and notes that reached ever higher with the repeated chorus. And they ended the night with their most upbeat hit, the New Jack Swing classic \u201cMotownphilly.\u201d They busted out the best of their dance moves and their most impressive harmonies.<\/p>\n
And it was all over by 9:10. I know that they made plenty of jokes about their audience getting old, but the show didn\u2019t need to end that early. Still, you\u2019re getting what you want out of this trio: they perform all the hits and their voices still sound as soulful as ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exactly 20 months after their last headlining concert in Pittsburgh, the three remaining members of R&B group Boyz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-308511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}