If you want to get an R&B-loving crowd on your side, covering Usher’s very first Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Nice & Slow” is definitely the way to go.
At Spotify’s intimate House of Are & Be party Wednesday night in West Hollywood, California, Canadian R&B duo dvsn did just that, transitioning from their own 2020 song “Between Us” (a top 20 hit on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart with featured artist Snoh Aalegra) to Usher’s silky-smooth 1998 No. 1.
Singer Daniel Daley — dressed in an appropriately silky shirt, with a glimmering OVO owl chain peeking out — even let the crowd in on the action, passing off to them for the chorus and giving them a quiet round of applause in approval.
“So great to play to people and not just a camera crew,” Daley told the 100 or so guests at the Sunset Tower Hotel gathering, celebrating the move from at-home livestreams to in-person concerts.
The duo — signed to Drake’s OVO Sound — bookended their three-song set with two 2017 releases: “Think About Me” and “Hallucinations.”
With the crowd seated at tables of five, for an appropriately loungey setting, Grammy-nominated R&B singer Lucky Daye followed dvsn with his own trio of songs, shouting, “We back outside!” as he hit the stage. The set started with “Roll Some Mo” — his 2019 track that was nominated for best R&B song and best R&B performance at the Grammys — and also included a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology).”
Setting the tone for the night was D-Nice, the New York-based DJ who basically invented at-home dance parties at the start of the pandemic with his wildly popular livestream sets.
Live music events made their official return to California on Tuesday night when the Foo Fighters played a show at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills ahead of their full-capacity gig Sunday night at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
