Live review: Pharrell Williams at The O2

Words by:
Bizu Yaregal
Follow @Bensue

London experienced a double-dose of happiness this week as Pharrell Williams brought his Dear G I R L tour to The O2 arena for two back to back nights, signifying the hitmaker’s first ever solo headline shows (Williams had previously toured the globe almost a decade-back during his time with N*E*R*D*).

Following support by newcomer Cris Cab, alongside Foxes (notable for her shining live performances of Glorious and Holding Onto Heaven), Pharrell appeared for a [close-to] 90-minute set, fusing his all-new material (from sophomore album G I R L, alongside a mix of some of his classic hits and production-discography (Nelly’s Hot In Herre, Gwen Stefani Hollaback Girl to name but two).

Williams used opener Come Get It Bae (sans the track’s collaborator, Miley Cyrus), as the song to introduce his plethora of backing dancers (aka, the Bae’s), but from here-on, the night seemed to go as expected.

There was a lack of the rumoured special guests, and whilst Pharrell’s talents as an overarching musician can only but be celebrated, the show did feel strained at times – whilst he may be a frontman, there’s times that vocal support was often crying out.

However, it was the vast back-catalogue that reminded us of Williams’ talents – from Frontin (no Jay Z assistance here), to Pass The Courvoisier (no Busta/Diddy either), to the aforementioned Hot In Herre and Hollaback Girl, once can’t help but applaud Pharrell – as crowd-pleasers go, he knows a thing-or-two about conjuring them up.

Meanwhile, current G I R L cuts which see the emphasis on Pharrell (ie, without any featured collaborators), continued the aforementioned trend – going down well with the crowd (Hunter and Marilyn Monroe both shining examples).

We were, however, slightly taken-aback by his dance troupe’s solo endeavour (the Bae’s gave some kind of bizarre dance-off midway through the show)… it seemed like an outcast from a warm-up act at The Superbowl in our opinion. Understandable the headline performer may need a break, but this just didn’t cut it for us, sadly. ‘Working’ their way through a medley of N*E*R*D*/Williams-produced cuts (Milkshake, I’m A Slave 4 U), we still don’t understand why ‘twerking’ is a thing… perhaps it’s our age, but if you looked at the half of the audience that were there to see ‘late-90’s Pharrell’, they didn’t seemed to get it either. It was those who came to see ‘Happy-Pharrell’ (with an average age of around 17), that seemed to resonate more with the Bae’s 4-minute performance.

We’ll call that section of the show the ‘enigma’ of the evening, as things went back uphill after. Bringing fellow band member Shae Haley onstage for In Search Of… cut, Rockstar, things became slightly unpredictable, with Pharrell inviting a multitude of male fans into the limelight, throwing themselves around the stage with their hero. Following a quick clearout of the blokes, it was down to the ladies to take control for She Wants To Move – our very own reviewer Bizu being the first to be picked by both Pharrell and security to join Williams for the hit – clearly a once-in-a-lifetime experience for both the guys and the girls.

The last 30% of the show seemed like Pharrell’s opportunity to show appreciation for the previous eighteen-months, switching into Blurred Lines (Robin Thicke), whilst also paying homage to both Daft Punk and Nile Rodgers with Get Lucky and Gust Of Wind. Amusingly, Williams performed head-to-head with Rodgers on Thursday, with the Chic-frontman playing at the IndigO2 next-door to a packed crowd.

It was obvious Pharrell had to close with Happy; it was the track that signified his comeback onto the scene as a soloist at the start of 2013, and, alongside the aforementioned Blurred Lines and Get Lucky, was one of the most-successful tracks of last year. Confetti-cannons galore, the show ended on a high, and yes, overall, a massively-enjoyable experience; however Pharrell now needs to work out where he wants to take his live shows, and his career… there seemed to be too many attendees standing still when some of his late-90’s work was being performed, which re-identifies that ‘age’ issue. The strength and breadth of Pharrell’s fanbase cannot be denied, but there did seem disparities amongst the reasons why people chose to go. Once Williams has ‘fixed’ that issue, it’d be interesting to see where the next stage of his career, as a performer, takes him.