Reviews: SWV Wows Crowd on Fresh Music Festival Tour

With the release of their latest album “I Missed Us” this year, the Grammy-nominated R&B trio known as SWV made (in my opinion) one of the finest albums of their careers as well as one of the best R&B albums of the year so far. In addition to the album’s release, they joined the Fresh Music Festival tour which also includes K-Ci & Jojo, GUY, Doug E. Fresh and Keith Sweat. To my amazement and delight, San Diego, California was chosen as one of the (few) West Coast dates.

As the first act to perform, SWV arrived on-time looking pretty amazing and began the show with the uptempo “All About You,” one of the tracks off their latest album. They got the crowd hyped up with great vocals and smiles, and garnered loud cheers when the girls started doing some funky dance routines. The next song on the setlist was the Human Nature remix of “Right Here” which kept the crowd moving and had some great harmonization with the three. “I’m So Into You” followed and was responded with the floor crowd dancing and a few people next to me to exclaim “Oh, that’s my jam!” In keeping up with the hits of their career and the uptempos, the Old School remix of “Anything” was next. It featured a pretty on-point Taj rapping along with the Wu-Tang Clan verses while Coko and Lelee sang and danced. However, some of the sound problems that I had read about in other reviews of the tour happened around this time, with some of the girls’ vocals being lost among an overpowering sound system.

The set’s lights and mood changed for the second half of their show, matching the feel and smoothness of the girls’ next song, “Rain.” The song still hits as much as it did when it first came out, and to hear/see it performed live was just a delight. It was followed up with their remake of the Patti LaBelle hit “If Only You Knew” in which the show’s earlier sound problems were no match for Coko’s astounding crystal-clear vocals. After wowing the audience with that song, the girls introduced their single “Co-Sign” (of which I’ve yet to hear on the radio stations in my city) and gave a wonderful performance of it. It was nice hearing Lelee sing a lead verse live, and I’m so glad to see each of the girls getting equal shine on the tour. “Weak” was the final song on their setlist, and it featured the girls letting their vocals and harmonization move the crowd to one of their biggest hits. After saying much appreciation for the fans, the girls said their farewells and left to an enthusastic and entertained audience. Thank you to Taj, Lelee and Coko for an unforgettable show, and it’s a much better world in music with SWV back on the scene.

Setlist:
All About You
Right Here (Human Nature Remix)
I’m So Into You
Anything (Old School Remix)
Rain
If Only You Knew
Co-Sign
Weak