“Do you know where you stand in this world?” Miguel challenged a sold-out crowd at the Vic on Friday. The burgeoning singer spent the majority of his 100-minute concert providing possible answers, using cutting-edge R&B songs as conduits for personal expression and self-discovery. While scaled for mid-sized clubs, the dynamic performance indicated the Los Angeles native possesses the confidence and showmanship to command an arena.
Then again, Miguel continues to evolve into the type of misfit artist that normally doesn’t graduate to lofty commercial peaks. Adventurous, and prone to exploring eccentric boundaries and rejecting electronic aids, his work often diverges from radio fare. Having collaborated with Beyoncé and Mariah Carey—and won a Grammy for his million-selling hit “Adorn”—Miguel is no stranger to mainstream success. Yet as the vocalist made clear on several occasions when talking to the rabid audience, he’s driven by an instinctive passion to embrace creative freedom at odds with convention.
For Miguel, such ambitions involved infusing songs with hard rock, deep funk, vibrant hip-hop and dreamy psychedelia played by a backing band more concerned with the overall vibe than note-for-note perfection. Coarse tones collided with smooth textures, disorienting backdrops contrasted with anthemic settings. Percussive bursts and double-time tempo shifts permitted multiple tunes (“Waves,” “Girls Like You”) to explode with manic energy. On slow-building material (the autobiographical “What’s Normal Anyway?”), the pace-changing devices functioned as tension releases.
Altered by squealing synthesizers and sizzling guitars, the music espoused a rawness and diversity that mirrored the personality and mixed-race heritage of its creator. Initially dressed in an all-white outfit featuring a feather-accented leather jacket that revealed his washboard stomach, Miguel resembled a cross between spiritual shaman and fashion model. His savvy dance moves—a striking array of twists, glides, bends, jumps, thrusts and steps that occasionally culminated with the singer dropping to his knees—heightened the immediacy and emotion.
More Top Picks Best Peanut Balls For Therapy
As did his sensual falsetto, particularly when addressing carnal pleasures (“Quickie”). Yet rather than take a predictable route, Miguel turned even traditional themes like sexual desire into provocative art that straddled eroticism, danger and euphoria. Hissing and grinding, “The Valley” suggested a tug-of-war between pornographic lust and intense control. In Miguel’s world, extremes, and not the middle ground, count for everything.
Bob Gendron is a freelance critic.