Chris Brown and Usher brought The R&B Tour to Levi’s Stadium on Friday, Aug. 28, opening a three-date run with a show that drew a capacity crowd of some 50,000 fans. The concert lasted more than 2 1/2 hours and stretched to 50-plus songs, turning Santa Clara into one of the biggest pop-music draws of the summer.
That turnout matters because two more big dates were scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 29, and Tuesday, Sept. 1, putting the venue on track to see approximately 150,000 people across the run. For the people who came on Friday, the wait was part of the night: the lights did not dim until right around 8:20 p.m., about one hour and 20 minutes after the printed showtime.
Brown opened first with “Party,” and Usher joined in after the song got underway. From there, the pair moved through a long set built around hits and spectacle, with three catwalks shooting out from the mainstage, massive set pieces, plenty of pyro and other effects that kept the production in constant motion. Usher also hit “Yeah” and “Caught Up,” and he was shirtless most of the time, a look that fit a performance that often felt like the sharper of the two halves.
That is the friction inside the night: Brown was the co-headliner and the tour’s name is shared, but Usher’s side of the show carried more force. The crowd response suggested the same thing, and the scale of the booking underlined it. A turnout of this size is the kind usually associated with the biggest touring attractions, and the appetite for aughts-era R&B was obvious from the start of the first date.
The staging also recalled the kind of large-scale setup used at Levi’s Stadium only a week earlier, which says as much about the venue’s current role as it does about the tour itself. The first night delivered the opening statement. The next question is whether Saturday and Tuesday can match the size of Friday’s crowd and whether the two stars keep dividing the show in a way that leaves Usher with the stronger finish.
