Review: Usher Brings the Heat to Denver on Past, Present, Future Tour

Remember when some very misguided people were surprised that Usher was announced as the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show performer? Even though the R&B superstar was coming off an incredibly successful Las Vegas residency, folks seemed to forget that Usher was one of the most influential artists of the early 2000s — eight-time Grammy-winning, multi-platinum influential. (Oh, yeah, he's also won eighteen Billboard Music Awards and eight American Music Awards, and is one of the best-selling musicians of all time.)
Usher Raymond IV is now showcasing his experience and legacy of hits with his Past, Present, Future Tour, which came to Ball Arena for a two-night run that kicked off September 17. For the show, the arena has been transformed into a club-like setting, with the main stage bending in a circle around a pit of lucky fans and a two-level, cage-like backdrop; on the other end of the floor is a bar-like setup with little seats and stools, where DJ Mars was spinning hip-hop and R&B favorites before the first show, surrounded by a swarm of women dressed to the nines. Because Usher fans surely showed up and out with the best styles — towering stilettos, slick vinyl dresses, glittering jumpsuits and sexy fishnet numbers.

The legendary Atlanta DJ had been part of Usher's Vegas run, and Mars is just one part of that residency that Usher incorporated into his tour: Yes, the roller skates are back. Roller skating happens to be one of Usher's favorite pastimes, and he famously featured the rink culture at his Vegas residency and the halftime show. So why not bring the skates on tour? If you spend that much time learning to breakdance on wheels, you may as well milk the shtick for all it's worth.
On the first night at Ball Arena, the crowd was getting antsy as Usher's set approached, and the screen around the main stage became aglow and glitchy with artificial intelligence themes and images of the singer. "Prepare for an intimate ride," an AI voice said over the speakers.

Fans went into a frenzy when a silhouette of the singer appeared in the background at the top of the two-level stage. But that was just a bait-and-switch — yet another figure, dressed in the signature hat and suit, emerged on the platform behind DJ Mars...but he, too, quickly ran off. The crowd went crazier.

Then boom: Usher rose up from below the main stage on a platform, his head bowed under a wide-brim hat. Earth-shattering screams.
Usher danced with the spotlight, pushing beams of light away or appearing to grip onto them as he kicked off the set with "Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home)," soon joined by a squad of background dancers, before performing "BIG."

The two-hour set was a masterpiece in pageantry, something at which Usher excels. He's a showman first and foremost, with dance moves that rival Michael Jackson's. The vocals? Well, with so much dancing, roller skating and costume changing, Usher tended to rely on vocal tracking throughout the night, though you could definitely tell when he did belt out some numbers. ("OMG" and "You Make Me Wanna..." were perfection, but Ball Arena desperately needs to balance its audio.)

A tease of Usher's hit "Yeah!" began to play before the same AI voice announced that the "system" was "malfunctioning," leading to a conceptual portion that shot audiences to the year 2019 for "Don't Waste My Time," when Usher and his dancers darted onto the stage in roller skates. In a sparkling white suit, Usher zoomed around "singing" as the skaters began breakdancing while DJ Mars inserted an "Atlanta medley" of songs that included Ludacris's "Move Bitch."
The skates were still on for "Love in This Club" — Usher showed off his moonwalking (moonskating?) skills — until things really started to heat up with "New Flame" and "Margiela," when Usher began throwing wads of cash imprinted with his face and was joined by extraordinary pole dancers for "Lil' Freak."

Usher was briefly off the stage again toward the end of "Lovers and Friends," but there was plenty to entertain the audience: Everyone gaped at the second story of the backdrop, where silhouettes showed a man lifting up a woman until she was sitting on his face, writhing. They then collapsed on a bed before he bent her over a chair. A woman in front of me started fanning herself.

As Usher stripped down to a tank top and eventually went shirtless (nearly every camera phone immediately shot up) during "Nice & Slow" and "U Got It Bad," that same woman practically swooned, falling into her neighbor. "Oh, dear God," she yelped, breathless. Same, girl. I think everyone's mouth was open as Usher slowly put a hand down his pants, then quickly removed it. And then he started to literally hump the floor. The man has talent outside of music and dancing, that's for sure.
After similarly tantalizing performances of "Burn" and "Confessions," Usher began the second half of his set with "OMG" and "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love." After a quick exit, he took the stage in a red faux-fur coat (shirtless underneath, of course) surrounded by live musicians for "Superstar," before he walked through the audience while singing "There Goes My Baby," stopping by fans to hand them the mic or allow them to stroke his face or briefly touch his hands.

"There's a whole lot of superstars here tonight," he declared as he climbed onto the stage with DJ Mars. "You got your lashes on, you got your nails done. ... Ladies, are you thirsty?"

He then began pouring shots from the makeshift bar for some extremely lucky fans. "So we're in Denver," DJ Mars interjected. "I want to take their ass to ATL!"
"Then let's take their ass to ATL," Usher agreed. The pole dancers were back again with a rush of club beats before Usher appropriately began the song "I Don't Mind" — money was flying, shots were being poured, and Usher journeyed back to the main stage, hand-feeding Maraschino cherries to giddy audience members.

After nearly two hours of sheer heat, the night was beginning to come to a close. But no one seemed to be leaving early. We were all hooked.

Before a wild encore of "Yeah!," Usher told the audience: "The most important part is we're all together connecting. It might not always be exactly what you want, but you're going through something to get to something. And I know it might not all be 'Good Good,' but it's good enough."

Definitely enough: Usher gave us what we wanted and more. See more photos from the show below:
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