After 25 Years, Tony! Toni! Toné! Makes Triumphant Return to Cleveland and It ‘Feels Good’
On a blustery and rainy Sunday night in Cleveland, there was a buzz in the air throughout the Playhouse Square district. The reason being that after over 25 years, Tony! Toni! Toné! was reunited and touring.
Cell phones were not allowed into the show and had to be placed in Yondr bags as concertgoers headed inside of the venue. As the lights went dark, a voice proclaimed that this was more than a concert, but rather it was the story of Tony! Toni! Toné! A video montage featuring integral moments of Oakland history from the 1960s through present day and a slew of celebrities who hail from the Northern California city was presented on a huge screen as the six-piece backing band began to play “Tonyies! In the Wrong Key” from the group’s Sons of Soul album.
The trio appeared in silhouette form and then each member made their way down a flight of steps into the spotlight. At the song’s conclusion, Rafael Saadiq announced that the group was officially here.
“We’ve been waiting,” an eager concertgoer joyously yelled as the audience erupted in laughter.
The next three songs, “Little Walter,” “Baby Doll” and “For the Love of You” were from the group’s debut album, Who?, which was released in 1988. From that point, the song selection weaves through various periods for the next few numbers with tracks like 1993’s “If I Had No Loot” and “I Couldn’t Keep It To Myself” and 1996’s “Let’s Get Down.”
The concert began to hit its stride at this point as the crowd loosened up more and actually started to get down, for lack of a better term, in the aisles of State Theatre.
While Rafael Saadiq is the de facto front man of Tony! Toni! Toné!, two of the group’s most popular songs in fact feature Dwanye Wiggins on lead vocals. Luckily for fans of the group, both of them were included in the show’s setlist.
“Whatever You Want” from 1990’s The Revival was the song that initially brought the crowd to its feet. It was followed by another favorite in “Slow Wine” while a large red, black and green animation displayed DWAYNE in all caps.
After “Lovin’ You,” Saadiq had a moment where he spoke to the crowd about how some music is fine to listen to in the car or at a club, but it doesn’t necessarily make it into his home. The show’s first half concluded with the mellow “(Lay Your Head on My) Pillow,” another crowd favorite from Sons of Soul. During the 10-minute intermission, a video played giving more insight about the six instrumentalists and three background singers.
The second half of the show opened with Saadiq by himself (with a new wardrobe) performing songs from his extensive solo catalog including three songs from his 2002 album, Instant Vintage. He played “Be Here,” “Still Ray” and “Skyy, Can You Feel Me.”
Other tunes in Saadiq’s solo set were “All I Ask” and “Dance Tonight,” the former being a single from the soundtrack to Higher Learning and the latter being a breakout single for Lucy Pearl, a supergroup Saadiq formed with Dawn Robinson from En Vogue and Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest.
The other Tonyies returned to the stage and clips of late filmmaker John Singleton were played on the large display. The audio wasn’t working for some reason but Saadiq essentially said that he was grateful for his support over the years and shared that Singleton was the first person to suggest looking into scoring films. This led into “Me and You” from the Boyz n the Hood soundtrack.
The concert began to wind down with two of the group’s biggest hits in “It Never Rains (In Southern California)” and “Anniversary.” For a moment, it seemed as if the curtain would fall after the latter’s moody violin strings but as fate would have it, the show ended on a more upbeat note via the trio’s breakout tune “Feels Good.”
After 25+ years away from the stage as a trio, this reimagining of Tony! Toni! Toné! was a welcome sight for long time fans of the group who probably never thought this moment could ever happen. There were a couple of moderately popular tunes from both the group’s and especially Saadiq’s catalog that didn’t make it to the stage.
Nonetheless, the show was very entertaining and pleasurable without the distraction of hundreds of phones in the air recording every single moment. To borrow a rap lyric from their closing song of the night: It worked out and then they worked it in, Tony! Toni! Toné! has indeed done it again.
Originally published at Cleveland Scene Magazine
