What do Latin dance moves, sexual gestures, and a silky voice have in common? They’re all characteristics of the electric live performance of R&B powerhouse Miguel, as his stop in Berkeley expressed in abundance. Last Thursday’s sold-out performance at the Greek Theatre brought his “War & Leisure Tour,” named after his fourth studio album War & Leisure (2017), to the Bay Area, giving his devoted crowd a taste of his new material in person. Last year, Miguel made a tour stop at the much smaller Fox Theater Oakland, and Miguel noted this in his set, saying he was “losing his Greek Theatre virginity” in the process. However, he was quick to make it clear that he isn’t a Bay Area newcomer; “my favorite thing about the Bay Area is the beautiful women,” he proclaimed. This blunt sexuality remained a prominent factor throughout the whole concert (not that that was any surprise given the raunchy content of his music). It wasn’t long before he was prompting the crowd to shout “fucking” in order to finish naming off the essentials of life that he preceded with “eating, sleeping…”. He even went as far as to simulate the act of wetting a vagina with his fingers during his performance of “Pussy is Mine.” As if the dudes who brought their girlfriends weren’t insecure enough already, a sea of screaming, feminine voices filled the venue every time the guy lifted his shirt up.
How could a guy so tiny — Miguel is a spry 5’5”, if your tape measure is generous — be the sexiest and most self-assured person in the venue? Beats me, but he carried this confidence throughout his entire performance brilliantly. With the help of a solid 4-piece live band, new songs like “Come Through and Chill” and “City of Angels” (which he called one of the best songs he’s ever written) exploded to life in front of a hungry stadium full of students and non-student residents alike. As he continued dominating the mic, Miguel also wasn’t shy to reach into the deep past of his discography to pull out some of his most popular hits, like “Sure Thing” and “Adorn,” often throwing a rock’n’roll spin on the chilled-out R&B nature of their studio versions. Experimenting further, he mashed a lot of these tracks together; I recall him doing so with “Lotus Flower Bomb” and “Do You…” Besides the aforementioned eroticism, he kept the show emotionally personal by taking the time to introduce himself as Miguel Jontel Pimentel. He gave us a brief synopsis of his background: his father was born in Mexico and immigrated to Inglewood, California, where he met Miguel’s African-American mother. Dedicating this show to the spirit of his grandmother on his dad’s side who had passed not a week prior, he asked all of us to have a good time and sing in unison. After the crowd chanted for more at the end of the show, he played a 3-song encore, the last of which was his new album’s most popular song, “Sky Walker,” a perfect way to conclude the nearly 2-hour-long marathon set. Overall, even for someone who isn’t the biggest Miguel fan and who stood in a shitty spot on the side of the stage with my view blocked off by a few speakers, I felt he did a great job at being an engaging performer. Whether this was due to his stage antics or his vocal ability, or some mix of the two, is hard to tell, but a good show nonetheless.
Written by Anthony Vega