By Nate Abraham Jr.
CONCERT REVIEW
Over the past half century, I have attended many concerts. My earliest recollections were from the early 1970s at the Carolina Coliseum: watching the Jackson 5, meeting Roberta Flack backstage, and enjoying the Isley Brothers. My favorite concert of all time was witnessing George Clinton land the Holy Mothership onstage during the Take Funk to Heaven in ’77 Parliament-Funkadelic World Tour.
That concert set the standard that every concert I have attended since has been measured against. Until now.
Last Friday, I traveled to Charlotte’s Spectrum Arena to attend the “New Edition Way” 2026 tour featuring Toni Braxton, Boyz II Men and New Edition. It was the best concert I have seen in the past 50 years.
One of the things that made this concert unique was its format. Most concerts have a few opening acts before the headline performers hit the stage – with a short intermission between each performance. This concert wasn’t like that.
Every group and artist on the stage has multiple hit songs and have traditionally headlined tours. And in the case of New Edition, all six of the members have headlined shows and had multiple hit songs as individual artists or smaller groups. That is a lot of top talent for one concert, and the format of this concert made the most of it. Every artist and group got multiple chances to shine.
After New Edition and Boyz II Men hit the stage, every possible combination of the singers rotated in and out of the spotlight. Each artist performed one or two hits before conceding the stage to the next artist.
With so many artists performing so many hit songs – and no intermissions — the crowd was on their feet for well over three hours.
Individual performances included Toni Braxton wowing the crowd with hits such as “Unbreak My Heart” and “You’re Making Me Hit.” Bobby Brown rocked the house with rousing renditions of “My Perogative” and “Tenderoni.” The women in the audience lost their minds when Ralph Tresvant performed hits like “Do What I Gotta Do” and “Sensitivity.” And Johnny Gill had everyone singing along to “Rub You the Right Way” and “My My My.”
When it came to group performances, Bell Biv Devoe had everyone jamming to hits such as “Poison” and “Do Me Baby,” and Boyz II Men had the women swooning with hits such as “I’ll Make Love To You” and “On Bended Knee.”
Probably the biggest crowd reactions came every time all the members of New Edition took the stage. The group sang virtually every hit song they have had since 1984. The sold-out crowd sang along as New Edition performed songs such as “Candy Girl”, “Mr. Telephone Man”, “If It Isn’t Love”, “Cool it Now”, and “Can You Stand the Rain.”
One of the best things about the show was that you never knew who was going to be on stage at one time. New Edition sang backup for Bobby Brown, Boyz II Men sang backup for Ralph Tresvant, and members of both groups sang backup for Bell Biv Devoe.
The show ended with Boyz II Men and New Edition performing together and thanking the crowd for attending the show. But it was crowd who was truly grateful. They had witnessed the greatest show of the 21st century.
Currently, this concert is not scheduled to appear in South Carolina. However, there are two shows scheduled to appear in Atlanta on March 29 and April 2. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.com.
