Entertainment: Overnight/Reviews

R&B artists share the love at Nokia show

11:42 PM CDT on Sunday, October 10, 2004

By LORRIE IRBY / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

It was titled the "Silk and Sandpaper" tour, but for fans attending Saturday night's show at Nokia Theatre, it was all about love. For more than three hours, R&B newcomer Toshi and co-headliners Angie Stone and Anthony Hamilton fed the crowd of 3,100 succulent platters of confessional soul.

Toshi, an R&B artist of Japanese descent, soothed his skeptics with an earnest tenor and occasionally self-depreciating strut. The obvious question – "Why do you sing soul music and you're Japanese?" – was met with honesty: "Soul is the only music that taught me to live and to love." His two songs, including "Shadows of Your Love," co-written with Ms. Stone, only reiterated that truth.

With her earthy everywoman persona and buttery alto, Angie Stone earned an instant ovation. Her songs about relationship drama, "Pissed Off," and "No More Rain (In This Cloud)" brought the women to their feet echoing every verse.

"It's not easy in this industry to be thick and chocolate," she said to thunderous applause, "but I'm a voice for the women and the full-figured sisters. Where my girls at?"

She commanded them to "show us what you're working with" during the sensual "Touch It," accompanying her background singers to bring the number to a fever pitch. "Wish I Didn't Miss You" sent bodies dipping and swaying in unison, and before ending with a Maze medley, her love letter to the black man, "Brotha," closed her set with energy and pride.

Anthony Hamilton had a slow start.

"Since I Seen't You" and "Cornbread, Fish & Collard Greens" and "Charlene" earned screams around the venue, but the dim lights actually lulled some listeners to sleep. That changed with the blues-soaked "I Tried," when he leapt from the stage and, while sandwiched by security, choked out the testimonial among his ecstatic fans.

Like Ms. Stone, he also espoused self-love mantras, even speaking to the bisexual "down-low" brothers in the midst; "We're not trying to tell you how to drive, but pick one lane or the other. Sisters are dying out here."

Not that he offended anyone; in fact, his words only lent authenticity to the hard-knock finale "Comin' From Where I'm From," transforming Mr. Hamilton into a whirling dervish across the stage as he lamented the man he had been and gave thanks for the one he had become.

E-mail lorrieirby@dallasnews.com