Cee Lo @ Club Nokia

Photo via Neon Tommy

I enjoyed listening to The Lady Killer, a mix of motown and r&b with a film noir theme, and loved Forget You, so I thought it'd be fun to enter The Scenestar's contest for free tickets to Cee Lo's show.  To be honest, I didn't start listening to Cee Lo's latest album, The Lady Killer, until I heard Gwyneth Paltrow covering Forget You on Glee (which is probably the only reason anyone even knows she can sing because, really, who even watches the Country Music Awards?  Glee is also the only reason she got to do an entertaining, colorful duet with Cee Lo at The Grammys).  That's not to say Cee Lo isn't talented (he has a great, soulful voice and put on a good show when I saw him at ACL), he just wasn't really on my radar after Gnarls Barkley.

The day of the show, I found out I won.  Because I had forgotten about the show, up until I won, I had already made dinner plans that night (I couldn't miss out on Kokekokko's chef's 3-day stewed ox tail curry, which is awesome BTW), so I had to miss Big Boi's performance, which I'm now a little disappointed at because I found out later that Janelle Monae was a guest.

When we got there, Cee Lo was finishing up his opening set with Goodie Mob.  He had some issues with sound after his all female band (which reminded me of Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love music video) set up to play his first song, but he kept the crowd entertained while it was being resolved.  He had a slow start, but ended strong with his two biggest hits Crazy and F- You.  He was a ball of energy, getting the crowd to dance, chatting at high speeds, and having fun dancing to his own songs.  I love watching Cee Lo perform because he always seems to be enjoying himself. 


More:

• Photos from L.A. Record and LA Weekly
• Another review from Neon Tommy

High Note - Glee's "Silly Love Songs" Ep: P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)

I wasn't too excited about Glee covering Michael Jackson's Thriller in the previous episode even if it was a mashup because really, that song has been covered to death.  And I'm not a Katy Perry fan, so I'm getting tired of hearing her songs.  So I enjoyed The Warblers cover of Teenage Dream.  It was good enough for me to enjoy the song even though I despise the original, but enough already with California Gurls and Fireworks.

One of the few redeeming songs of this episode was Artie (one of my fav characters on the show) singing P.Y.T.  That song is so rarely covered, I wonder if many people have even heard of it.  It was terrific and I loved the whole dance number with Mike Chang. 

Matthew Morrison @ The Grove

When I arrived at The Grove, I could hear Matthew Morrison rapping to Gold Digger, which I was surprised he was doing, but I'm sure the Gleeks loved it.  I missed half the concert thanks to a PR snafu with Kraft, but what I did see was just like watching Will Schuester perform on Glee.  He was full of energy and got the crowd really excited.  He sang mostly covers and the one original song above, My Name, which fell into the adult contemporary category and sounded like something you'd hear on KBIG.  I was hoping to hear more original songs, but his album does drop in May, so he's probably still working on it. 

“When I started the process, I had a vision of what I wanted it to be, and it’s now completely different,” he says. “I went into it wanting a Justin Timberlake-meets-Michael Buble kind of feel, but what came out of it was something more raw.” [Hollywood Reporter]  When I read Morrison's above statement I thought his upcoming album could be interesting if it was an update of oldies like what Glee did with Singing in the Rain / Umbrella.  Before hearing that mashup, I never thought Singing in the Rain could be turned into a good pop song.  But then I read this "Mercury Records president David Massey, who signed Morrison soon after Glee premiered in 2009, says he hears a little Jason Mraz, too." [Hollywood Reporter]  which worries me.  Anything that sounds like Jason Mraz is so overplayed.  I'm just tired of it.  I'm hoping Morrison will be more original on his record.  He's very talented and I look forward to hearing what he puts out. 


More:

• Photo coverage from GleeHab and Broadway World
• Video of the concert and interview