NEW YORK (AP) – Usher debuted new songs in an unconventional way Friday night: The singer danced to his new music as part of the off-Broadway play “Fuerza Bruta: Look Up.”

“Fuerza Bruta” is the fast-paced and acrobatic play in which the audience stands as performers dance and jump about on the walls, onstage and on the floor with the crowd.

Usher worked as its lead “Running Man,” beginning the display on a treadmill, bursting however paper-created walls as his No. one R&ampB tune “Climax” blasted in the background.

There was also a plastic pool suspended above the crowd, in which dancers moved and splashed close to to songs, which includes 1 slow groove with lyrics like: “It’s raining inside your bed.” Water hit the crowd all through the night, which incorporated members of the press and industry insiders at the invite-only event.

Usher debuted 12 songs Friday. He’ll release his seventh album, “Hunting for Myself,” on June twelve.

At 1 point the Daryl Roth Theatre turned into a pulsating nightclub as Usher’s new pop anthems – including the European-flavored “Scream” – played as lights flickered, sirens blasted and confetti burst.

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Prior to the curtain rose for Dr. John last evening, an antique jukebox on the side of the stage piped out a crackly boogie-woogie track from his new album, Locked Down. An MC appeared onstage and dialed down the jukebox’s volume until finally it clicked to silence, then a frenetic snare roll cued in the band and the fatback beat. Dr. John appeared, hunched above a Wurlitzer piano in a brilliant purple suit, his face hidden behind dark sunglasses and his jazzman’s fedora. He was decked out with his trademark accoutrements: beads and teeth strung close to his neck, totem-pole cane at his side. A cool, confident New Orleans drawl emerged from his wrinkled mouth. At 71, Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. is an old man. But his band’s potent sound and targeted energy pushed the New Orleans legend into new sonic territory.

Rebennack is in the middle of a 3-week residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera Property. This weekend’s shows highlight his new album, Locked Down, produced by the Black Keys’ singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach. An early incarnation of the studio band jammed on a loose set of Dr. John and NOLA funk requirements at last year’s Bonnaroo festival. New music was later on composed, then honed into a razor-sharp set of fresh, funky tracks crystallized by Auerbach’s keen ear for riffs and beats. The band’s members – among them Leon Michels (baritone sax, keys, vibes), Nick Movshon (bass), Max Weissenfeldt (drums), Dave Man (trumpet), Aaron Johnson (trombone) and Yoshi Takemasa (percussion) – are all essential figures in the cabal of New York-centric musicians who record for Truth and Soul and Daptone records. Matched with Auerbach’s Midwestern garage-rock buddy Brian Olive and the gospel-singing McCrary Sisters, the finish end result sounds retro, but eludes simple categorization. Locked Down typically sounds as considerably like a room-aged Captain Beefheart composition as it does Ethiopian jazz.

The Opera House was a plush, cosmopolitan setting for the Locked Down live set. A sober, attentive audience obtained less of a rock &amp roll present and a lot more of a significant-faced exhibition of this record’s exclusive sound. Onstage, Rebennack’s demeanor was wry and reflective. He was light on banter and to the point, far more subdued than his voodoo-fueled alter ego. But when Rebennack nailed his skewed, percussive Farfisa solo on the second song of the evening, the single “Revolution,” it was a wizened incarnation of his very good-instances hustler persona. He perched calmly in the middle of a semi-circle of keyboards (his altar), with a lyrics binder open in front of him (his spellbook) and a single hand scampering across the Farfisa, as if with a mind of its personal.

The band executed each and every Locked Down track with amazing precision, maintaining the recordings’ tight song structures and allowing for only the most judicious solos and breaks – no jams. That becoming stated, German drummer Max Weissenfeldt deftly maneuvered through complicated, polyrhythmic beats. He was the quirkiest player and the most entertaining to view, preferring to channel an uptight James Black than the chiller Zigaboo Modeliste. Collectively with Movshon’s rock strong bass playing and Michels’ bouncy baritone sax lines, Rebennack presided more than a perky ensemble bursting with power.

On the album highlight “Ice Age,” Auerbach and Olive harmonized a syncopated guitar line whilst the rhythm section made a galloping beat. Rebennack spat and growled more than his spazzy Farfisa. The crowd cheered when he stood up in the direction of the end of the song to pirouette and dance a stiff boogie across the stage just before settling down to his Hammond. As the night’s bandleader, Auerbach was restrained and reverent. Enthusiasts of the Keys’ earlier records would have appreciated how he tastefully slipped his meditative Kimbrough-isms on the guitar into band’s tight, funky sound, specifically on the extended intro to “You Lie.” The McCrary Sisters dazzled on “God’s Confident Very good,” a jubilant, hyperactive gospel amount.

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Image Credit: The CW

Old-school tracks have been the name of the game much more typically than not these previous handful of weeks. Whether your definition of “old-school” translates to suitable Mad Men-era tunes heard on the AMC hit, Scandal, and Supernatural, or ’80s classics as observed on Happy Endings and One Tree Hill, this week’s Jukebox provides up a retro rave match for anyone. Of course there have been a lot of modern jams, as well: MCs from London and the Bronx on Breakout Kings, CSI: NY, and 90210, Tv darlings Sleigh Bells on The Vampire Diaries, and Portland indie rockers Novosti on Missing, plus “show tunes” from GCB and Gossip Lady. Verify out our picks under. (Warning for individuals even now catching up on DVR: SPOILERS ahead!)

SUPERNATURAL (The CW)
The song: The Yardbirds, “Turn into Earth”
The episode: “The Born-Yet again Identity” (720)
The hook: The jangling, thumping background of “Turn into Earth” was like a marching song for Castiel (Misha Collins) — the angel who was brought back from the dead in Supernatural‘s March 23 ep — as he charged on a mental hospital where Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) was becoming held. In doing so, Castiel unleashed on a crowd of guard demons, leading to dramatic beams of light to shoot from their heads. As the light flooded out, Castiel’s erased recollections flooded back in. Unfortunately, Castiel’s complex historical past with the Winchester brothers meant that those recollections ran the gamut — the very good, negative, and murderous. The flashes of light on screen stood in contrast to the 1966 blueser’s moody lyrics “I really feel my thoughts turning away to the darkness,” which was exactly what Castiel was performing as he was reminded of his dark past.
Watch it! Castiel takes a harrowing trip down Memory Lane starting at 34:25 on Supernatural‘s Hulu. EW’s very own Super-fan Sandra Gonzalez set up the stakes of Castiel’s twisty return a couple weeks ago, and posted her reaction to the ep proper following it aired.

Picture Credit: ABC

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Image Credit: Roger Kisby/Getty Images

Sucks to be an Odd Long term fan in Boston.

Nearly a year after the Los Angeles rap collective had their Newbury Comics present shut down by police, the Tyler, the Creator-led group has as soon as yet again witnessed their demonstrate lower brief by Boston’s finest.

According to a fan-created video, Odd Long term were performing last evening at the city’s Property of Blues when the lights have been turned on by the venue, apparently at the instruction of cops.

“Just so you guys really don’t feel we’re d—s, I was going to finish the song, since you guys paid income,” Tyler tells the booing crowd. “But the promoter cut us off.” Word has it, one of OFWGKTA’s crew members was arrested outdoors the venue.

“We desired to finish,” he continues, “but the owner of the club created us turn it off and the police are correct there.” He had far more to say, but his mic was rapidly reduce off. See it go down in the video below:

So, is Odd Long term lastly going to be scary once more? It would seem like ever since their cockroach-eating, Fallon-haunting ascendance last year, they’ve grow to be rather fun-loving, silly, and downright cartoonish. We now know exactly where Earl is girls are asking Tyler to prom.

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