Janet ...Miss Jackson If You're Nasty

Miss Jackson hit DC last night on her Number Ones Tour and rocked DAR Hall last night. Thanks to a last minute ticket swoop by Stephanie, as of 3pm I had it locked into my calender.

Having the concert in a smaller venue like DAR Constitution Hall put us close enough to see her dripping sweat off her silver plastic suit. (She was quite zipped in) But her Louboutin boots had nothing on Steph's neon high tops she picked up in Atlantic city, or my super stylish Havaianas and yoga pants.

The 45-year-old Jackson rocked it like she was 19 again and the house followed suit. I thought I was a fan, having the lyrics memorized from the womb, but the guys one row ahead of us, had every song choreographed, compete with turns and fist pumps, damn near knocking their neighbors off the terrace. Both the show, and the subsequent fan-induced sideshows were a perfect end to a long day.

Viva La ColdPlay

(August 4) A good friend of mine, Kate, studied abroad in Spain. While she was backpacking Europe on a shoe string budget, she splurged and bought last minute tickets to see Coldplay. I will never forget her description; "Seeing Coldplay is sooo German." Although the band is English, she was absolutely right. The sound, the lights, the crowd screams European rock!

So when my mentor Carol asked if I wanted to go with her to see the Euro-pop sensations - of course I said yes.

Touring for their new album, Viva La Vida, the band rocked the Verizon Center with their new artsy beat. David from the Washington Post summed it up perfectly:

The only Coldplay bashing at the sold-out Verizon Center on Sunday night was when band member Will Champion attacked a giant drum with an oversize mallet during "Viva la Vida." The fans were truly, madly in love. They ecstatically clapped in time from the first notes of "Violet Hill." They tenderly sang along with Martin, often with more sincerity than the singer himself. And they took pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. So many pictures that Flickr might crash. One fan was even seen snapping away while the stage was cloaked in darkness. (The best description of a Coldplay crowd is this: Think of "Heavy Metal Parking Lot," the 1986 documentary of pre-show partying at a Judas Priest concert. The exact opposite would be "Coldplay Metro Car.")

The photography overload was understandable, though. Coldplay designed a nice visual feast for this tour, the main component being six giant spheres that descended from the rafters to show live video of the band from all angles. Of course, the perfectly scruffy Martin -- dressed in his by-now-standard 19th-century European battlefield jacket -- was the focus of most lenses, especially when he made his way out to the sides of the horseshoe-shaped stage.

As for the music, it was less a feast and more semi-filling hors d'oeuvres. There were scant surprises in the band's brand of anthemic arena rock, but that's part of Coldplay's comfortable appeal. "Yellow" still soared, thanks to Johnny Buckland's chiming guitar and Martin's trembling falsetto. "Lost" and "Lovers in Japan," both from the new album, "Viva la Vida," found the right mix of surge and sentimentality. The same could not be said for tedious piano ballads "Fix You" and "42." Another in that line, "The Hardest Part," was abandoned by Martin just after it started. "That's enough of that," he said, with knowing self-deprecation.

The main takeaway from the show was that Coldplay is no longer a band suffering from an identity crisis. Instead of following in the footsteps of its heroes and trying to pass itself off as the world's most important or biggest band, Coldplay seems content being a less adventurous but equally loved -- if not equally revered -- act. For all his sad-puppy-dog lyrics, Martin was an extremely playful frontman, hopping, prancing and skipping across the stage, thrusting his left arm into the air, goofy grin on his face.

When tens of thousands of pieces of paper came flooding from the rafters during the encore, it served as a perfect assessment of the band's current state. Coldplay is a band that will shower its fans with brightly colored, butterfly-shaped confetti while singing, "But I have no doubt/One day the sun will come out." And the band -- and especially its fans -- is just fine with that.

I’ve found Mr. Richer! Only I’m not sure he’s aware just yet. Now a good writer would build the suspense and tell you the name at the conclusion, but I am far to impatient and more than likely if you’re reading this you are well aware of my somewhat minor obsession with John Legend.

So when I got wind of his performance to support ThisDay, the Nigerian newspaper (and subsequent freedom movement behind it’s inception) I jumped at the opportunity to go.

Completely blinded by his legendary hotness and the ties to my journalist obsession – Africa – I failed to notice the other headliners that would also be performing.

Of course running late, I missed my opportunity to interview National St. Hottie (2007), which was to both our benefit (way bad hair day and caffeine overdose.) I did get to interview Chris Ayres, the famed Nigerian jewelry designer, known in the biz as the king of bling. As one of the invited designers he would feature among his pieces a dress worth $200,000. Each piece in his runway show had its own security guard.

When describing the market for his pieces he noted, “Jewelry doesn’t have to be an accessory; celebrities are getting jewelry then asking to build their clothing around the pieces.”

When asked about the prevalence of blood diamonds, a particularly hot button issue out of the continent, he said he was trying to change the industry. As a strong advocate for social responsibility, he visited Africa no less than 12 times last year. He said Americans forget that people depend on diamonds for their livelihood. Not all African diamonds are blood diamonds, so rather than boycott, ask good questions when purchasing.”

Among the other designers in house Deola Sagoe and Momo both originated from Nigeria but have been causing a real storm on the fashion scene in the last couple of years. I can see why. From Momo’s kaleidoscope of jewel tones and fabrics from the local villages she has converted them into haute-esqe designs. Deula pushes the envelope with the use of cartoons on her a-line dresses mixed in with Marie Antoinette sleeves and Spanish lace. Who would have thought of such an elegant–punk combination?

But the real treats of the evening were the performances by Jay-Z and Mr. Richer, errr I mean John Legend. We were so close, when John Legend jumped into the crowd to dance, he was right in front of me. Jay-Z rocked out a whole 3 feet away. The Kennedy Center has never rocked out as hard as we did that night!

BTW - In case you were wondering:

"Africa Rising" was first launched in 2006 under the direction of THISDAY's Editor-in-Chief, Nduka Obaigbena. Its mission is not only to reflect the culture and positive attributes of Africa's social, political, and economic progress, but also to reach out to the continent's diverse population as well as the Diaspora and international communities.