The Kool Kids Thoughts.....: Alicia Keys closes the Freedom Tour in Oakland!

Last Night 4/10/10 was the FINAL show of the US leg of the Alicia Keys Freedom Tour along with special guest Robin Thicke And Melanie Fiona. Alicia couldn't have picked a better place to close the tour than Oakland,Ca! Ofcourse I was in attendance! I bought my tickets just before going in and boy oh boy was it slim pickings! Not to mention tickets for Ms. Keys are NOT cheap! They were 50 bucks a pop and this was for the NOSE BLEEDS(sec. 204 to be exact!) The show was set for a 8:00pm start and buy 7:59 with a BARELY filled arena Canadian native Melanie Fiona took to the stage! She came out belting some song from Kill Bill according to my friend. The song was about being shot by a man, and she tied it into a song of her own titled "Bang Bang". Fiona's set was short and sweet:

Kill Bill song/Bang Bang
Give It To Me Right
Monday Morning
Sweet Thing-Chacka/Mary J cover(It must be a law for opening acts to cover a classic!)
It Kills me
AY Yo!

By 8:19 Melanie was thanking us and walking off stage. She definately proved she has VOCALS! But every two seconds she felt the need to remind that her name was MELANIE FIONA in her TWENTY minute set he must've introduced herself a good 8 times! She was good none the less. Keep in mind my seats were in the damn roof so I couldnt see shit! On top of this the screen on my side of the arena was having technical issues! All in all Melanie did her thing so Ill give her 8 on a scale on 10.

Next up was Robin Thicke. Ive never been much of a fan of his so for me his set was kinda boring. Luckily for him the arena was pretty full! He certainly is in good with the ladies becuase, they went BANANAS when he came out The only songs of his I knew were:

Shakin It For Daddy
Shooter
Sex Therapy
Lost Without You

other than those four songs I didnt know what the hell he was singing about! This was not a good thing because Robin spent most of his set singing in a high pitched airy tone(ala Lost w/out you) so it made it hard for me to even make out what he was saying! While performing Shooter Robin and his back up singers made the most saddest attempt "raise the roof" it was HILARIOUS! I think that may have been the the first time it dawned on me that Robin is in fact white! He was moving stiff as hell. Before exiting He decided rep for his Young Money homeboy Weezy by rapping the ENTIRE song of "A-Milli". This is when my night got interesting...on the right of me there was a young lady sitting next to me. She had to be about 16 y.o. She was a "big" girl and had beautiful chocolate skin, however my friend kept reffering to her as PRECIOUS! As soon as the Weezy beat dropped Precious jumped out her seat and started rapping her ass off! The ENTIRE section 204 had thier eyes glued to her and she didn't care Its like Wayne Carter was inside her, she was making facial expressions and all! Just when you thought it couldn't get any better she started channeling Nicki Minaj and making SILLY faces and shaking like she had turrets! All my friend and I could do is watch in amazement. she was rocking so hard her hair clip AND earring flew off! Once the song was over she sat back down and acted like NOTHING had happend! After the brief BET Hip Hop Awards moment my friend and I went down to the lobby to meet up with some of his friends who were also at the show. It turns out that these particular friends had a VIP suite! And they were willing to give us their tickets to get in! These suites are NICE you have no need to leave at all! You get yout own personal bathroom and TWO tv screens to watch the show on and there is even a private bar for you to use to you never have to go down to the main lobby!

After a few short minutes of waiting Alicia Keys took to the stage She had this cool BIG Introduction explaining to you via video what "The Element Of Freedom" meant. The video was made it seem as tho she was behing bars and then she emerged on stage locked up in a cage sing Caged Bird which went into Love is blind, and this where she broke free. The Big Intro set you up to believe that Keys was going to take you on a journey which is what she did NOT do! It was just a regular setlist:

Caged Bird
Love is Blind
Trouble
You Don't Know My Name
Fallin’
Another Way to Die
Karma
Heartburn
Like the Sea
I Need You
Prayer for Forgiveness
Diary
Like You’ll Never See Me Again
Wait Til You See Me Smile
Go Ahead
Put it in a Love Song
Unthinkable (I’m Ready)
Backup singer interlude: Feeling Good
Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart
Superwoman
If I Ain’t Got You
No One
Encore
Empire State of Mind

The show didnt have a story at all it was just song after song after song...Alicia However did sound good but not as good as her back up singer Whitney! She stole the show!! Alicia changed outfits twice(Lil Wayne changed more at his show!) and the second outfite wasnt until the AFTER her background singer sung. The Visuals were cool but weird at the same time. I cant remember which song it was but her backdrop was colorful images of Princess Diana, Ghandim, Bob Marley, and a few other well known ppl and but the one thing they all had in common was that they were ALL dead! It was rather eerie to me. The show was still good. She did most of my faves I never really listened to her her latest album so I didnt really know the songs that she performed off that cd except the ones that come on the radio. Alicia is a good performer. This is the second time I've seen her live but I think this may very well be my last. Her show wasn't bad but it wasnt the kind of show that made me wanna go back and watch again. I think her set on the 2004 Verizon Ladies First Tour was WAY better....I give the Freedom Tour 7/10 stars. Here are my highlights:

Give It To Me Right: