CONCERT REVIEW – Love and Laughter: Marcia Ambrosius and Keke Wyatt + Comedians 12/10 @Keswick Theater

On Saturday evening Laff Out Loud Ent presented a show with the theme of love and laughter. The co-headliners were Keke Wyatt and Marcia Ambrosius. The show opened with 4 comedians. Keef From Up Da Block, Malcolm Hill, Teddy Carpenter and internet/YouTube sensation Daphne Springs

*Disclaimer – This was a track show yet nothing on the advertisement provides this information.

Personally, I believe ‘track shows’ (ESPECIALLY unannounced/unadvertised) – are a disservice both to the artist as well as the audience.  People pay their hard-earned money to enjoy their favorite artists as a concert experience as opposed to empty, unfeeling warbling to lifeless music tracks. I might as well have stayed home and watched the video

In this case it was particularly poignant because both ladies are excellent singers although Ms. Wyatt was a bit under the weather.

The show started promptly at 7pm. Running time was about 3hrs with the comedians utilizing about 2 hrs to themselves. This left a relatively paltry 30 min set per artist.

Having said all of that this particular crowd repping the Hip-Hop grows up set (40-55) as well as a sizable portion of ‘Bloomers’ (Black Baby Boomers) seemed to enjoy it all just fine.

Marcia Ambrosius

Ms. Ambrosius was introduced to warm applause by WDAS FM radio icon and personality Ms. Patty Jackson.

Marcia Ambrosius was born in England and there with Natalie Stewart formed the duo Floetry.

Itself a play on the words Flow and Poetry which best described their sound of soulful singing coupled with spoken word.

This was in the heyday of what is known as Neo Soul and included the likes of The Roots, Bilal, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Musiq Soulchild and Jazzy Fatnastees to name a few. You could catch any or all these acts at the old Black Lily in Old City Philly in the mid to late 90’s

Ms. Ambrosius covered Michael Jackson’s, I Can’t Help It and another MJ tune which I don’t recall.

She then went into some Floetry music.

Say Yes

I Hope She Cheat On You.

Then her and her DJ went into a combination oldies Hip Hop set where Marcia more sang along than ‘to’ the tracks being played.

And like that her set was over.

We hardly knew ye.

As is the tradition with many Gen X’ers and Millennials between sets there’s always a lively DJ set consisting of all those early Hip Hop classics, some Classic Soul, R&B and Funk…but mostly old Hip Hop.

Hell, these sets for me are as good or better than some of these artists.

Keke Wyatt

I think Ms. Wyatt had a cold or something as her voice was rough in spots but that really didn’t matter. She belted out quite a few covers.

I’m Going Down, My First Love, a tune which sounded like Id Rather Go Blind which was entitled Tennessee Whiskey.

She also covered Patti’s If Only You Knew.

Lots of holding the mic out to the audience for THEM to sing which helped her get through her set.

In truth back in another time Ms. Wyatt would’ve been perfect in a James Brown Revue or any show which had a traditional Soul/ Blues/ R&B female singer.

She sings really well but again I just couldn’t quite feel what she was doing her best to put across.

I’d pay to see either or both ladies again but most definitely under different circumstances.