My first Miguel experience was in a taxi cab in New York City a few years back. It was a moment that stuck with me partly because of the silky smooth vocals that were blasting out of the crappy speakers but probably more to do with the fact that the driver had the one song on repeat all the way from Harlem to the Lower East Side, the song in question was the slow jam to end all slow jamz, the ironically titled Quickie.
Fast forward a few years and I was lucky enough to secure an invite to an intimate showcase at the Marquee Nightclub as part of Miguel’s first Australian promo tour, now maybe not quite as intimate as my yellow cab moment but this was some seriously up close and personal biz, in fact the only way I could have been closer to the man is if I’d copped a misguided Miguel boot to the head.
He worked his way through a 40 minute showcase which for the most part consisted of tracks off last years ridiculously slept on (locally anyway) Kaleidoscope Dream album, which we were weirdly treated to the majority of while we waited for him to perform which I thought was a serious faux pas, anyway that was quickly forgotten once he took the stage and charmed the pants off the 100 or so peeps who were lucky enough to be there with a combination of smooth moves and on point vocals, he didn’t even need to resort to these tactics.
He finished with crowd favourite Adorn, complete with James Brown inspired splits and a slightly unnecessary but… nice (I guess…) guest spot from local diva Jess Mauboy… OK so it was totally unnecessary.
As I was leaving I overheard one music industry elder statesman say to another “that’s the first time I’ve ever got goosebumps on my goosebumps” Whoa! That’s a lot of goosebumps homie, but he was right… we were treated to something pretty special and seeing him in action made me really regret not buying a ticket to the Miguel/Bruno Mars double header going down next year which is guaranteed to be off the hook like your phone when you’re bumpin’ uglys.
-Maccy
