The Faith Evans Experience at The House oF Blues Sunset
With all the choices of Pre-Grammy weekend events available to attend it was a no brainer
and undeniably the right choice when I made the decision to begin my nightly coverage
of Grammy Week events at The House of Blues Sunset witnessing “THE SINGERS SANGA”
Faith Evans almost effortlessly captivated an intimate crowd as she took hundreds of fans
through her 20 year arsenal of hits.
On this night the rule that lightening doesn’t strike twice didn’t apply as Kelly Price set the
House of Blues on fire with a moving rendition of the Shirley Murdock classic “AS WE LAY”
and set the bar for what the crowd could expect throughout the night.
From the moment that the “Forever First Lady of Bad Boy” and “R&B Diva” FAITH EVANS
hit the stage looking spectacular in a form fitting sequin dress and opened her set with
high-energy versions of “BURNIN’ UP” and “ALL NIGHT LONG” she reminded everyone why
they fell in love with the church girl from Brick City that helped define an era of music that
merged Hip Hop and R & B forever.
Accompanied by the Legendary DJ Battle Cat, three male background singers, and 1500
or Nothing a 10-piece band led by the super talented Lamar ‘Mars” Edwards, Ms.
Evans breezed through hit after hit performing an 18 song set and taking the audience
down memory lane with classics like “CARAMEL KISSES”, “I LOVE YOU”, “AGAIN”, “YOU
GETS NO LOVE”, “MESMERIZED”, “NEVER LET YOU GO/COME OVER”, “SOON AS I GET
HOME”, and the tribute to her late husband the Notorious B.IG “MISSING YOU” in which
to everyone’s surprise she was joined on stage by her mentor and Bad Boy Founder
Sean ‘DIDDY” Combs who in typical “DIDDY” fashion took what was already a great show to
another level .
Just when the audience felt it couldn’t get better Faith began the intro to the song that
started it all “YOU USED TO LOVE ME” which led into one of the highlights of the night when
she was joined on stage by “B-SLADE” whose flawless voice took the song to new heights
as he commenced to use his voice as an instrument and murder this song in the first the
degree with special circumstances capturing the crown to the point of them being practically
hypnotized. As Faith continued to entertain a crowd that appeared to know the words to
every song she reminded everyone in attendance why she has remained relevant twenty
years after dropping her Bad Boy Records debut.
After captivating a crowd that included her “FAITHFULS” for over an hour Faith gave us
one of the strongest vocal performances of the night when she didn’t just SING but she
“SANGGGG” the Grammy nominated “TEARS OF JOY” taking me into fan mode and making
me forget that I was supposed to be reviewing the show.
Eventually all good things must come to an end and unfortunately this night wasn’t an
exception as Faith closed the night with the same high-level energy that she came out with
having fun and getting funky while grooving and inviting her fans to join her onstage for the
club banger “LOVE LIKE THIS.” As the band played and her FAITHFULS took turns singing
the verses I knew that the FAITH EVANS experience was about to end so I began to rock
with the rest of the crowd to the DJ’s party lines which included “ALL THE CHICKEN HEADS,
BE QUIET!”)
BY Kevyn "Steady Grindin" Nelson
