Saturday, July 12 - GM Place, Vancouver. The final stop on the “A Wonder Summer’s Night” tour, which features the fabulous Stevie Wonder and his 14 piece band and three backup singers, one of whom was his daughter Aisha Morris - more on her later.
The show starts off with Stevie talking about his fond memories of coming to Vancouver with Ray Charles when he was a young boy and how he enjoyed the city. He also took a moment to talk about the late great jazz pianist / composer Oscar Peterson and dedicated this particular show to the legend.
As he sat down at the keys, fans were eagerly anticipating which one of his soulful joints he was going to start the show off with. The wait ended when he went straight into “As If You Read My Mind.” Fans start going crazy and I have to admit that when he hit the chorus, I had chills down my spine. To hear his records a 1,000 times and then to hear him live was amazing for myself. I’m not a religious person, but this was one of those “religious moments.” He kept the vibe going by getting into “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” and then into “Did I Hear You Say You Love Me.” It was clear from then that he was doing his hits off of the 1980s album with the iconic album cover, Hotter Than July. Next off the album was “All I Do,” and the performance was powerful, moving and soulful.
From there he moved on to “Knocks Me Off My Feet,” the quintessential love song. This is a baby making jam for sure. With lines like, “There’s something ‘bout your love that makes me weak and knocks me off my feet,” what girl wouldn’t fall in love with that?
