Inevitably a complete sell-out, and one of only three UK dates on CODY CHESNUTT'S whistle-stop European tour, tonight's show also has to rank as one of the best ever seen in this city in recent years.
Played out to an audience whose enthusiasm knew no bounds, ChesnuTT cranked up the feelgood factor right from the get-go, as the crowd did their level best to raise the roof during what proved to be a five-star showcase of the hat-trick studio album he released towards the end of last year.
Kicking off with a stellar rendition of the title track 'Landing on A Hundred', the Atlanta/Georgia soul sensation, aided and abetted by a top drawer band, simply never looked back.
A sordid trip down memory lane offered us a brutally honest reminder of ChestnuTT's once-obsessive grip on the crack pipe:
“Just gimme bout fiiiive seconds to catch my breath” he smiled to delighted cheers from the front row.
With his powerful and hypnotic vocal power swerving seamlessly from soulful singing to a game-tight hip-hop flow, ChesnuTT's stagecraft reached the dizzy heights to turn “Love Is More Than Just A Wedding Day”, into a joyous celebration of two forthcoming weddings amongst the audience, before the sublime electricity of 'What Kind of Cool?' fair brought the house down.
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Jumping offstage at one point to sing the end of 'Til I Met Thee' from amongst the bodies gathered stage front, 'Where Is All The Money Going?' then saw our R&B hero prowling the stage in order to highlight the question with arms wide outstretched.
Such was the excellence of the group, I didn't realise that ChestnuTT had gotten this far without picking up an instrument until the three-song encore that saw him sign off by mesmerising the appreciative crowd with automatic-fire bursts of that trademark-lethal jazz guitar style.
Stunning from start to finish, what an absolutely brilliant night this was!
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