On Sunday July 9, 2023, I was in San Francisco Ca and instead of heading home, I headed out to the Concord Pavilion in Concord California. This time was for the Hot Summer Nights Tour with Shaggy, TLC, En Vogue and Sean Kingston. Due to the San Francisco Giants baseball traffic, I was a bit late but I made it. This show was a 90’s R and B dream show and I did my best to get there. When I got out of the car it was a perfect 70* and sunny so I grabbed my camera bag and left my hoodie behind. Man was that a mistake! As soon as the sun went down it was back down into the mid 50’s and windy.
First up was Sean Kingston. Unfortunately, due to the crazy traffic, I only caught the last two songs. From what I heard, it sounded pretty good.
Setlist
1). Me Love
2). Letting Go (Dutty Love)
3). Take You There
4). Replay
5). Beautiful Girls
6). Eenie Meenie (Justin Bieber cover)
7). Fire Burning
Next was En Vogue. They slayed it! From the time they hit the stage they were on point. Opening with “My Love (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” and running through their hits including covering Salt N Pepa’s “What A Man”, the ladies dominated the stage and had everyone dancing in their seats and in the aisles. In the middle of the set, they did a Cameo, Michael Jackson, Sheila E, Prince medley that was very well received. I was thoroughly impressed with the sound and stage presence start to finish.
En Vogue members are:
Setlist
1). My Lovin’ (You Never Gonna Get It)
2). You Don’t Have To Worry
3). Lies
4). Give It Up, Turn It Loose
5). Whatta Man (Salt n Pepa cover)
6). Ooh Boy
7). Candy/Workin’ Day and Night/The Glamorous Life/ Let’s Go Crazy
8). Free You Mind
9). GIving Him Something He Can Feel
10). Don’t Let Go
11) Hold On
Up next was TLC. They, by far, had the biggest stage show of the night. They came out with a full band and 4 backup dancers. It was a great stage show as they went through their hits (and they have a lot of them). After the intro, they broke right into “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg” and it was on. It may as well have been the early 1990s again. This crowd was into it and knew every word to every song. At one point, they announced that it was one of their dancer’s birthday and the crowd all screamed for him. As they worked through the set, they eventually took a short break while the DJ and the dancers did their thing. Coming back on they went right into “Digging On You”. They saved the two biggest songs for last, “No Scrubs”, which was intro’d by a video of some guys in their friend’s car trying to pick up the ladies and the ladies calling them scrubs because they got nothing to offer, and “Waterfalls” which had a beautiful digital waterfall back drop. They ended the night with a shout out to Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes and the crowd went crazy with applause.
TLC members are:
Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins – primary lead vocals, dancing, background vocals
Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas – secondary lead vocals, dancing, background vocals
Setlist
1). Intro – TLC
2). Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg
3). What About Your Friends
4). Baby-Baby-Baby
5). Red Light Special
6). Silly Ho
7). Fanmail
8). Inpretty
9). Creep
10). TLC Dancer Dance Break
11). Diggin’ On You
12). No Scrubs
13). Waterfalls
Shaggy was up next, bringing the Jamaican flavor to Concord. Coming out with “Mood” he set the pace for the rest of the set. The first of three covers was Mungo Jerry’s “In The Summertime” which was ironic because it was freezing out. SO much so that Shaggy even commented that he thought Concord California would have been warmer. I thought so too Shaggy. The crowd was really into his set as he worked through his hits including “Boombastic”, “Strength Of A Woman” and “Angel”. The next cover was “That’s Life” made famous by Frank Sinatra that he recorded with Sting a few years back. He did a great reggae version of it yet still kept the original flavor of the song. He finished off the set with “Luv Me Luv Me” and “It Wasn’t Me” and ended with a roar of the crowd. I can safely say everyone had a great time and will be talking about this show for a while.
Setlist
1). Mood
2). Boombastic
3). In The Summertime (Mungo Jerry cover)
4). That Love
5). I Need Your Love
6). Strength Of A Woman
7). Angel
8). Bulk-in-Hamm Palace
9). That’s Life (Marion Montgomery cover)
10). Hands Up
11). Go Down Deh (Spice cover)
12). Luv Me Luv Me
13). It Wasn’t Me
Follow Shaggy on social media
Follow TLC on social media
Follow En Vogue on social media
Follow Sean Kingston on social media
Photographer of about 10 years, I have been shooting concerts for about 8 of those years. I started to get serious about concert photography about 6 or 7 years ago and now try to shoot as many as I can. I shoot mostly rock but, have done some country and big band stuff. I love music and since I am nowhere close to being a musician, this is a way I can be a small part of what, in the words of Henry Rollins, “gets me through the highs, the lows and everything in between”.
