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So Atlanta is also known as Hotlanta but on Friday February 12th it was far from that as a cold front came in that brought about 2 inches of snow with it. The good part was I inside of Center Stage to see Bilal/Foreign Exchange/Jesse Boykins perform, the bad part is the snowstorms caused Foreign Exchanges flight to be cancelled. Hey you cant change the weather so the show must go on. Sean Larkin a comedian from Detroit opened the show.  The perfect intro, he is a very funny guy. After his set Jesse Boykins III hit the stage doing a cover of ATL’s own Andre 3000 “Prototype.”  Very nicely done! Then he did some tracks from his album The Beauty Created and also his debut release Dopamine. The cat has a very mature sound for a 24 yr old and can really give a great performance. He brought a nice young lady onstage for his single “Pantyhose” giving her a nice serenade.





So im thinking, 'well Bilal will hit the stage and then the show is over since Foreign Exchange couldn’t make it.' But to my surprise I see the band setting up, and a very familiar face starts to adjust the microphone.  It is Mr Anthony David who said and I quote “Im from here and I live down the street so what better reason to see the Bilal show for free than to do the gig.” And do the darn thing he did!  He performed tracks from his albums 3 Chords & the Truth and The Red Clay Chronicles, and even did a hot remix of Lil Wayne “Every Girl” putting his own twist on it stating that he “wish he could Buck every trend in the world.” That needs to be a single like yesterday!  By the time it was all said and done he really got the crowd going and wrapped us up in a frenzy.  Making me feel good that I came out in the snow.





Bilal closed the show out, and came on stage singing "For You" a track from his classic album 1st Born Second. With a great band playing he did some new material along with some old material truth be told though, his show was ok but not as great as I expected. The crowd sung along, knowing mostly every lyric to every track, so I was very surprised when he forgot the lyrics to his crowd favorite hit "Sometimes."  He just flat out forgot the lyrics to the 2nd verse, and at that point I decided to make my exit and get ready to brave the traffic and the snow. Overall it was a good night and hats off to the promoters for pulling it together with so many things going on!