The crowd arrived early to get great seats at the sold out Boney James show at The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA.  I also arrived early, in hopes of getting a ticket, because silly me procrastinated, which, for those who know me, is really out of character!  Luckily, a few tickets were turned in and I was grateful to get a couple.  I won’t ever let THAT happen again!  Boney has played The Birchmere before, but the crowd seemed more excited than usual.  Maybe it was the anticipation of hearing new music from the very recent new release, The Beat.  Whatever the reason, everyone was primed and pumped!  And again the Gods were smiling on me when we were able to get great seats right up front and reconnect with friends we hadn’t seen in a while. 

Boney’s band hit the stage:  Mark Stephens on keys, Smitty Smith on bass, Omari Williams on drums, and Rob “Funksta” Bacon on guitar, and immediately the crowd was grooving.  It seems that everywhere that Boney plays, there’s a party!  From the first two songs, “Hypnotic” and “Nothin’ But Love,” it was evident that Boney truly knows how to work a crowd.  “Grand Central” from his Ride CD was up next followed by what Boney called a good driving song…”Sunset Blvd.”    “Into the Blue” showed everyone how Boney leaves no one in the audience untouched, as he works the stage from side-to-side.  He is an incredible talent, but a showman as well.  What I love is that Boney’s concerts never seem staged.  We all know that a lot goes into rehearsing for a tour, but it never comes across as an act or too theatrical.  It’s always an honest performance.

“Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” on soprano was a terrific tune to hear from the new CD, but one of my favorites of the night was hearing “Contact” and watching Boney strut across the stage with that “take that” attitude!  And then, when he went out into the crowd, the party really began.  The spontaneous dancing, the hollering, and Boney playing while standing on a chair had the crowd whipped into a frenzy!  Back on the stage, Boney gave us “Batucada (The Beat),” a favorite Sergio Mendez tune.  Omari Williams landed a killer drum solo that left me stunned.  “Boneyizm” and “After the Rain” were favorites that were really welcomed with cheers. 

Then came THE moment of the night.  Boney brought out DC native, Raheem DeVaughn, to sing “Maker of Love.”  Boney always has new, fresh, and interesting vocalists on every album.  Raheem had the crowd on their feet singing along with him, and while he was singing, it’s always fun to watch the always-in-motion, Boney, dancing on the stage.  Boney followed this up with “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Sweet Thing,” “Ride,” and encore of “Grazin’ in the Grass.” 

What a fantastic concert!  It was so evident that Boney and the band were having such a great time and when they do, we do.  It’s that ever present interaction and feeding off each other’s energy.  What I also enjoyed was the amount of music packed into a 90 minute show.  Boney doesn’t add “fluff.”  There is interaction with the audience, but his show doesn’t include a lot of chatter.  It’s a ton of great music...and that’s what everyone came for.  Kudos, Boney, for another great night!