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Chaka Khan : Music in the Zoo Poster Chaka Khan Setlist
Victory Setlist
Tour Dates
07/22/2018 Chicago, IL "Pitchfork Music Festival"
07/24/2018 Nashville, TN Schermerhorn Symphony 07/27/2018 Denver, CO Denver Botanic Gardens 08/05/2018 Dorset, UK Lulworth Castle "Bestival" 08/17/2018 Lancaster, CA Antelope Valley Fairgrounds 08/22/2018 Kennewick, WA Benton Franklin Fairgrounds Read More
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I feel for U, Chaka—
With temperatures nearing one hundred, a soupy rainforest-like level of humidity, and the heat index at 110, legendary funk/soul singer Chaka Khan played the Weesner Family Amphitheater at the MN Zoo in suburban Apple Valley, performing the best she could, though the elements undoubtedly affected the performance.
The evening began with a promising newcomer, Victory Boyd (stage named as just Victory), a young formerly busking folk/soul singer-songwriter from NYC (via Detroit) that impressed Jay-Z enough, that he not only signed her to his label ROCNATION, but signed her eight-sibling family (who perform as Infinity’s Song) as well. Her EP It’s a New Dawn was released last November, with debut full-length, The Broken Instrument, released just a few weeks ago.
This was Boyd’s first time in the state (the stiflingly warm weather surprising her) and she brought along her sister Thalia (“MoMo”) to play bass during her forty-minute set. The storytelling singer (think Tracy Chapman, Joni Mitchell, Corinne Bailey-Rae, with a dash of Alicia Keys and gospel) won over the crowd with a mix of originals and covers and even proved unflappable when the power briefly went out during her Nina Simone cover.
After the break and her hypeman’’s intro reminding us of her record sales and accomplishments, Chaka Khan and her five-piece band (with three additional backup singers and led by guitarist Rob “Fonksta” Bacon) took to the stage swinging, opening with a lively ‘This is my Night’ followed quickly by ‘Do You Love What You Feel’ which mixed in riffs of Prince’s ‘Erotic City’.
Khan has recently released her first single in over a decade, ‘Like Sugar’, but it didn’t find its way into the setlist, instead it was to be a mix of her own hits (culled from songs with and without original group, Rufus) and a few choice covers. “It’s flippin’ hot!” Khan said following the second song, soon needing to briefly stop the show to change out of her too warm suede high heeled boots, into something slightly more cool and comfortable.
‘Everlasting Love’ was skipped on the setlist as a vocoder growl introduced Rufus’ biggest and funkiest hit, ‘Tell Me Something Good’ which had everyone up and dancing. ‘Stay’ morphed into ‘Sweet Thing’ with Khan then leaving the stage mid-song (for what we thought might be a costume change), but it turned into a long ten-minute interval, with the band and backup singers jazz riffing and taking solo turns before Khan eventually returned, voice-scattting as her segue into a calming ‘My Funny Valentine’. The heat had likely taken some toll and Khan probably needed a breather and some kind of relief backstage, before continuing.
Tempo kicked back up with the Prince-written ‘I Feel for U’, in a somewhat rushed version, and she (unfortunately) didn’t mention anything about the song or the songwriter on this, her first proper concert in the Minneapolis area in about a decade. The ever-empowering ‘I’m Every Woman’ closed the main set, with Khan holding the mic outstretched as the crowd sang the chorus back to her.
As the band continued playing, Khan briefly left the stage only to return quickly for a one-song encore of ‘Ain’t Nobody’, then at the seventy-minute mark, the show had come to an end, with Khan herself on stage for less than an hour.
Though the songstress had tried to make the best of things (and it was great just seeing her perform a headlining set live- she last appeared locally to sing three songs at Oct 2016’s Prince Tribute Concert), this just wasn’t her night after all, against the extreme weather conditions.
Given the high humidity and triple-digit temperatures and heat index, Chaka Khan did remain the consummate professional and managed to still entertain the capacity audience in her best way possible, despite some visible (and understandable) struggles- I feel for U, Chaka…and regardless, still think we love you.
(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)
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