May 17, 1999
By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
Robbie Williams wants to
entertain you.
In the first five minutes
of his sold-out show Friday night at Metro, the British export danced,
glad-handed, grabbed his naughty bits, bared his bum and stuffed a fan’s
mash note down his pants.
And then he lost his inhibition.
Definitely not shy, the
latest “next big thing” assaulted the crowd of Anglophiles and lookyloos
with a 75-minute concert that was turned up to 11 from the get go. And,
surprisingly enough, Williams lived up to the hype.
He and his six-piece band
strutted on stage as the theme to “Star Wars” blared. Just as it ended,
they kicked into a spirited, bluesy version of “Let Me Entertain You.”
You wouldn’t know it from
his sugary radio hit “Millennium,” or his past as one of the cutie pie
members of the English boy band Take That, but the guy is influenced
more by punk and bar band rock than anything else.
To drive this point home,
Williams sang Take That’s ballad “Back for Good.” But just as the audience
started to sway to the soft ballad, he exploded into a punk-infused chorus
that had the crowd pogoing like it was 1977. And as he came out of the
chorus, he casually leaned against a red shovel that was inexplicably on
stage, and crooned the rest of the song.
Williams’ debut American
album--“The Ego Has Landed”--is a compilation of his previous two multi-platinum
English records. But he knows that European stardom means little in America,
where the streets are littered with the carcasses of gaunt English superstars
(remember Pulp and Suede?) who registered little more than a blip here.
Onstage, Williams is a spaz.
And a contradiction. He’s a self-effacing extrovert who’s funny, congenial
and cocky. Unlike Oasis, which rarely treats its fans to encores, Williams
appeared ready to return for more before he even left the stage.
“Just humor me,” he said.
“You know I’m coming back.”
|
|
 |