What a time to be a Bilal fan! This year alone the artist released the live album Live At Glasshaus and accompanying concert film Bilal: Live At Glasshaus, dropped his sixth album Adjust Brightness and completed the coast-to-coast Adjust Brightness Tour. The talented Mr. Oliver has had a full plate, and he’s kept his devotees well-fed. He winds down his extremely prolific year by serving up even more quality entertainment with a performance on Noochie’s Live From The Front Porch series.
A Bilal live performance is an experience like no other, and he brought that energy to the Front Porch. He pulled up to Noochie’s Washington, D.C. crib along with his full band – Joe Blaxx on drums, Tone Whitfield on bass, Randy Runyon and Simon Martinez both on guitar and Corey Bernhard on keys – ready to rock.
Instead of starting his set with more familiar material from his catalog, Bilal began with new songs from Adjust Brightness. The purveyor of progressive soul sang the album cuts “Evr Chngin Nrml” and “A2Z” like he’s been singing them for years. Bilal was in good voice and rare form. Between these two songs he joked about how good the chicken that he ate there was and his apprehension about passing gas until he realized the taping was outdoors.
Bilal made himself at home on the Front Porch and sat perched on the railing for most of his performance, even kicking his leg up. After breaking us off with the pair of new jawns, the Philly native dug in his crates to sing “Reminisce” from his debut album 1st Born Second. When Whitfield dropped the funky bass line in, Bilal smiled and said, “Yeah. Make me think about J Dilla,” one of the song’s producers who passed away in 2006.
The walk down memory lane was a short one. He jumped back to his fresh material to sing Adjust Brightness album cut “Quantum Universe.” Bilal brought the drama to this number. He stepped down onto the stairs to wail in the late afternoon sun while the musicians rocked out.
Bilal took a beat to introduce the band then segued into his final track. “Play a little soul music right here on the porch,” he ad-libbed. His ad-libs rolled right into an extended live remix of his very first single “Soul Sista.” This performance of “Soul Sista” was unlike any we’ve heard from him before. That’s the beauty of Bilal. His live shows are like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get but you better believe it’s gonna be good.
Get into Bilal doing what he does best and commanding the Live From The Front Porch stage right here. Stick around and keep watching to see him answer a few questions on his edition of Front Porch Talk, too.
