Joss Stone

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend the Joss Stone concert at the Fillmore in Detroit. This was my first time at the Fillmore, formerly the State Theater. The concert was mostly standing room only, with some balcony and mezzanine seats. The crowd was a wide mixture of ages, and races, what I would find typical for a Joss concert.

Javier was the first act and I was surprised when he just walked out on stage with no introduction at all and just started playing. His voice is very song and his songs seems to tame the restless crowd. One of his songs, “Ok Here’s the Truth”, an almost country sounding ballad is definitely worth listening to and is available on his myspace site.

After Javier finished, there was a set change and then Ryan Shaw came out. Ryan’s energy was much stronger then Javier’s as he got the crowd up and excited. His uptempo love songs had the crowd hyped. His song “Do The 45”, had the crowd dancing right along with him. He also did an acoustic version of the Beatle’s “Let it Be”, that was amazing.

Finally it was time for Joss, the theater had finally started to fill up.

Joss was introduced by Michael Baisden of Mix 92.3, a local radio station. He called her a soul sensation. He said he also likes to call her “White Chocolate”.

Joss’s background singers and band came out first and played a bit as we waited for Joss. The stage backdrop was a light purple and the stage lights were also softened to a lavender tone. Joss finally came out in a short purple dress, her hair full of curls in what now is almost becoming her trademark red shade.

She opened with “Girl they won’t believe it”, her energy got the crowd up and excited. She was her giggly self, easily distracted between songs by the crowds whistles and shouts of “I love you Joss” . She mentioned she was nervous being in Detroit for the first time since it is the home of Motown. Her voice was strong and the venue was great for Joss as it was small and intimate. She then played “Tell Me What we gonna do now”.
She continued on playing “Music”, which she said is one of the few things you can love unconditionally and 20 years from now you can still like the same song.
She spent most of the night dancing from one corner of the stage to the other, making sure the crowd didn’t feel left out.
She got the crowded involved with the song “Diggin on You”. Having them do the “Yeahs”
She then told the story about how Bruised but not broken was written for her when she was going through a rough time, and then sang the song with all of her heart.

She asked girls to grab their guys and guys their girls as she sang the song “ Put your Hands on Me.

She then took a request from a young girl in the front of the crowd and played her hit, “Baby, Baby, Baby” .

This was the last concert for Joss in the United States this fall, but you should definitely check her out in your town if you have the chance.