Partial reunion of New Edition leaves fans wanting more

Tuesday, February 11, 1997

MUSIC:

Bobby Brown’s presence sorely missed Saturday at the ForumBy
Jeff Hilger

Daily Bruin Contributor

Imagine that you considered yourself the biggest Star Wars
super-fan this side of Alderon, and that the movie came back to the
big screen for one night only.

The movie begins and looks great, but you feel as if there’s
something wrong ­ a disturbance in the force.

Then comes the cantina scene, where Luke Skywalker first meets
Han Solo ­ but Han Solo never comes. Finally you realize that
every scene containing Harrison Ford has been edited out.

This is what happened Saturday night at the Forum where the New
Edition Reunion Tour hit the stage without founding member and
prime performer Bobby Brown. Despite a tremendous effort from the
other five members of the group, Brown’s absence was an
insurmountable burden to creating the powerful vibe that they had
presented just a week earlier at the Pond of Anaheim.

At the Pond, the New Edition portion of the three-act concert
(Blackstreet and Keith Sweat opened the show) lasted over two hours
and featured humorous and sentimental interactions between the six
members of an R&B supergroup that has been making records for
over 15 years. But at the Forum, the show lasted barely 90 minutes
and left almost everybody in the crowd at least slightly
disappointed.

The five members of New Edition who did show up for the concert
took to the stage at 11:45 p.m., with somewhat uninspired versions
of the first two tracks from their new "comeback" album, "Home
Again." The highly choreographed dance routines were smoothly done,
but Brown, surely the most energetic dancer in the group, was
definitely missed.

Then, the group moved into the most successful portion of the
show, where they performed a few songs from the one album they had
recorded without Brown. These songs, including "If it isn’t love"
and "Can you stand the rain?" were one of the show’s highlights.
They also gave short shrift to one of their most popular hits,
"Cool it now," with an unmotivated 90-second rendition.

At this point in the Anaheim show, Brown came out with a
super-energetic section, where he performed a few of his solo hits
(during one of which he mooned the seemingly shocked and delighted
audience). His cocky, arrogant attitude had been in strong form, as
he asked the crowd, "Who did you come to see? When I say Bobby you
say Brown. Bobby BROWN Bobby BROWN."

But at the Forum gig, there was a noticeable period where
nothing happened. The sound mixer sort of saved the moment by
playing part of "Bow Down," by Westside Connection as the entire
audience sang along in loud unison. After this, the three New
Edition members comprising Bell Biv Devoe (Ricky Bell, Michael
Bivens and Ronnie Devoe) did energetic versions of their hits
"Poison" and "Do me."

Sweet-voiced Ralph Tresvant then performed a couple of his solo
hits, followed by the soulful-voiced Johnny Gill, whose one solo
performance seemed to last longer than both of Tresvant’s. At this
point, those in the audience who hadn’t figured out that Brown
wasn’t in the building were probably expecting him to hit the
stage.

However, what they got was Bivens finally explaining what was
going on. "Despite what you’ll read in the papers tomorrow," he
warned, "Bobby is sick and in bed at the hotel." Furthermore, he
explained, their long-time manager had had a heart attack earlier
that evening and Devoe, his nephew, had left the show to be with
him at the hospital.

This limited New Edition to four performers and hindered what
was the most powerful portion of the Anaheim show. There, all six
members came out and did some acapella versions of their early
ballads. Since Brown had been an integral part of this segment, it
was again severely reduced, as Bell and Tresvant did short but
sweet renditions of "Lost in love" and "Is this the end?" They then
skipped their current single, "You don’t have to worry," and moved
into the big ballad from their new album, "I’m still in love with
you," which showcased the passionate vocal abilities of both
Tresvant and Bell.

After the audience had discovered that Brown would not be
showing up, they started to leave in droves. At the start of the
show, the Forum looked like a Laker game in the fourth quarter when
either team is up by three or four points. But by the time the
lights came on at the end of the last ballad, the crowd looked like
the Clippers had been playing the Grizzlies; the place was more
than two-thirds vacated.

While the Forum show contained some nice vocal moments and dance
routines, the sense of excitement that had been generated a week
earlier at the real reunion in Anaheim was completely absent.
Fortunately, assuming that the vast majority of the audience
members at the Forum hadn’t been at the Pond, the didn’t know what
they were missing, and they still appeared to be having a great
time.

Blackstreet, featuring well-respected producer Teddy Riley,
opened the evening’s show with a 45-minute set highlighted by Dr.
Dre’s guest appearance on their smash-hit "No Diggity." After this,
Sweat did an abridged version of his own solo show. Sweat’s segment
probably was the best part of the evening for many audience
members. His smooth singing and humorous stage theatrics combined
for a great set that culminated with his two super-hits from the
past six months, "Nobody" and "Twisted."

The evening was definitely entertaining and enjoyable for those
who had no idea what they missed out on from the real reunion in
Anaheim the previous week. But for those who attended both, the
Forum show left something ­ or someone ­ to be desired.
Bobby Brown.