Janelle Monáe: Aviva Studios, Manchester

Janelle Monáe
The Hall, Aviva Studios, Manchester
July 2, 2024

Returning to Manchester for the first time since 2019, with a big band and a bigger wardrobe, Janelle Monáe plans to bring us full-on activism on the frontline of queer politics media as she continues her mission to launch her sound into space.

In Dostoevsky and his Creation, a psychocritical study by Janko Lavrin, he states that “A modern artist creates, as a rule, not because he has to create, but because he wants to” He then writes at length that the modern artist does not need much. to express, just a kind of selfish desire. Janelle Monáe has no such worries, the robotic funk that ensues upon the appearance of that glorious and recognizable silhouette doesn’t sound forced at all, it sounds like freedom, it sounds like liberation, and the growing noise from the packed venue seems to agree. .

There’s an abandon here tonight that’s only partly due to the music and partly to the musician. When Monáe stated “ My pronouns are the damn thing, and they/them, she/her…if they’re from God, they’re everything“In a recent interview, stating that he identifies as non-binary, trans and supportive of all queer people, this was very important to the community at a time when governments around the world are once again trying to restrict the freedoms of a large number. number of minority rights.

This is reflected in the makeup of the audience, but this is not politics on stage, it is funk, punk, R and B, Reggae, Hip Hop and a thousand other subtle derivations that make a thousand detours. The band is that brand of peak musical perfection, each beautiful soul an immaculate musician, dancer, dazzling rhythmic genius wearing a suit, all at the pinnacle of the same thing they do. Brass Section, dressed to kill, bass and drums unmatched and untamed, the crowd spontaneously dances in the aisle, as if controlled by alien forces.

At the start of the set, when she comes out dressed in flowers with a matching background, it’s stunning, as the bass drops on Float, there’s so much to see, it’s like a children’s kaleidoscope, the colors move in and out of focus . , out of sight, forming different shapes. It’s five damn minutes of opening, the shock and awe equivalent of a Metallica show. The Brass deserves awards just for the start, A Fanfare For The Uncommon Man.

Divided into sections that come in handy for narration and a costume change, and when the flowers come off and she wears a high-top, there are gasps from the crowd that clearly approve of Janelle’s fitness routine. The crown remains though, of course. The funk settles into something of a routine for Champagne Shit, the band’s supernova brilliance coming out again, one minute it sounds like Funkadelic, the next it’s Gary Numan. In a way, the set is a condensed history of the last 60 years of Black Music, from Norman Whitfield’s Temptations, Billy Paul, Janet Jackson, flashes and branches of refracted light, through the set to Django Jane and Electric Lady, a constant echo. from the past, robotic for future use.

Lipstick Lover is epic and spreads its feathery wings, every song is high quality steel, polished to perfection, full of dynamic range as Janelle sings like an airplane taking off, with power, poise and control and the occasional burst of fire to remind us who is responsible. Paid In Pleasure puts their magnificent Juggernaut on display, as a long and fabulous audience participation section begins, Janelle and the dancers choose people from the audience to let loose and be themselves, and the band hits that one, and and. Janelle’s monologues make you believe that maybe a safer and better world is out there, just waiting for the right turn of events and a little luck.

Before we know it, we’re into the encore, the crowd roaring for more, which initially settles into a well-nailed funk groove so car-like it could’ve been a sample as JM dances in silhouette, busting out every move of the Michael Jackson dance that she. they can get together for a good five minutes, glittery silver suit and all, before morphing into Make Me Feel, the wonderfully delirious Michael/Prince mash-up that still somehow, just sounds like Janelle.

The other encores turn into a Las Vegas in cyberspace, Liza Minelli taking on Betty Davis, including a Cab Calloway/Freddie Mercury call-and-response routine and a brief song review for the Fandroids. A brief return to Earth for Tightrope, still sounding perfection, before Come Alive (War of the Roses) play us out, crescendo after crescendo and peak after peak, a breathless finale, a show-stopping show-stopper it smokes like firewood. , and crack like fresh morning ice.

Unanswered questions that have to wait now (there was a Public Enemy – Flavor Fav reference, there were those Black Panther outfits, there was a shout out to author James Baldwin, there was Wu-Tangs Killah Priest mentioned in the rap lyrics). All these questions will be answered in time, but for now we walk out in a daze into the welcoming bars of Factory International, the show already becoming a legend in our heads and hearts.

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Janelle Monáe can be found online here. She is also on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

All words by MK Bennett, you can find his author archive here and his Twitter and Instagram

All photos by Melanie Smith – Louder Than War | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | portfolio