August 15, 2001
R&B smoothie turns in solid -- but very brief -- performance

TORONTO -- So was he worth the wait?

After being held up for more than an hour -- apparently because of immigration hassles -- R&B singer R. Kelly finally took the stage at the Air Canada Centre's Sears Theatre last night at a little past 10 p.m.

And for those in the audience who enjoyed continuous crotch-grabbing, hip-gyrating, sexual innuendo and air-humping -- and there were a lot who did -- Kelly was indeed worth sitting through two interminable time-killing raunchy comedy sets by standup comic and host T.K. Kirkland and an all-too-brief performance by warm-up act Syleena Johnson.

But speaking of all-too-brief: Why did Kelly perform for just a little over an hour, without so much as an apology to his fans for his tardiness?

Granted, the crowd of around 3,000 didn't seem to care that Kelly's arrival was way overdue -- as soon as he appeared, his fans roared delightedly, with girls screaming, "I love you, R. Kelly!"

And Kelly did put on a solid performance, impressively mixing such diverse styles as salsa, hip-hop and contemporary rhythm and blues with remarkable ease.

He belted out several hits with gusto, including Fiesta, I Don't Mean It, R&B Thug, Seems Like You're Ready, TP-2, Bump & Grind and Half On A Baby.

But where was his biggest hit, I Believe I Can Fly, which would have been a natural for an encore, if there had been one?

Instead, after Kelly exited the stage the house lights came up, to the crowd's stunned disbelief. When it became apparent that Kelly wasn't going to come back out, the disappointed audience milled quietly out of their seats and out of the building.

With Kelly beating a hasty retreat, he seemed as though he couldn't get out of Toronto fast enough. His performance clocked in at just over an hour, which was less than the roughly hour-and-a-half Kirkland enjoyed spitting out his lewd and crude material, which featured more "motherf----ers" and "nig----" than a Quentin Tarantino script.

When Kirkland stretched his act out over an hour, from 8 to 9 p.m., everybody knew something was up. Then Johnson, the daughter of veteran bluesman Syl Johnson, took the stage and provided much-needed relief from the raunch when she performed an inspired set that lasted less than half-an-hour.

Kirkland then came back on to warm up the crowd some more before Kelly finally made his appearance.

Despite all his crotch-grabbing and sexual bravado (he threatened to unzip his pants numerous times), Kelly certainly boasts a fine singing voice and considerable stage presence. It's just too bad nobody got to see much of it.

JAM! Rating: 2 out of 5

(More on R. Kelly).