Just blocks from the Texas Capitol where legislators who banned most abortions two years ago have spent the last session placing restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors and trying to ban drag shows, R&B/pop queen Janelle Monáe held a sex positive celebration of life and love on Wednesday that will go down in history as one of the most (ahem) “Phenomenal” shows to rock Austin’s Waterloo Park.
The thesis of Monáe’s “Age of Pleasure” tour is that indulging your inner desires to become the truest form of yourself is a revolutionary act. By collectively freeing ourselves and learning to lead with and amplify our love — whatever form that takes — she believes we can build a movement that hate will never break.
Here are five things that happened at the show.
She took us on an emotional journey
Near the top of the show, she gave us a directive: We were “forbidden” from thinking about the past or the future. “We’re going to stay present,” she said. And she invited us to “shake off” whatever outside baggage we brought with us.
The set was broken into chapters. After a seven-piece band, plus a corps of backup dancers, entered the stage in a slow procession, Monáe “Float”-ed into Chapter One, “A Thousand Versions of the Self,” wearing a broad-shouldered coat covered with hundreds of flowers and matching floral boots. Her stage was strewn with flowers and the magic mirror-shaped big screen at the back captured the detailed character work in every turn of her face and every flick of a hand that makes her such a compelling live performer.
From 2018:Janelle Monae made us feel like she shoulda been an ACL Fest headliner
Monáe took us back to her awkward early years, confessing, at one point, that Austin has a special place in her heart. During her first appearance at the South by Southwest Music Festival over a decade ago, she showcased her ambitious avant funk punk over seven or eight shows in three days. “Those of you that came to those shows early on gave me the encouragement I needed,” she said.
The show’s setlist moved back and forth through her catalog, taking us through the android cycle of her early career and into the sexual awakening of her later work.
It was a horn-y affair
No, we’re not talking about the vaginal fascinator and the nipple flash (yet).
Throughout the show with stunning flexes of range and tone, Monáe reminded us that she should be in all of our conversations about the best vocalist of her generation. Along the way, she also proved her mettle as a bandleader. Beyond the standards — bass, drums and guitar — she brought a booty short-clad trio of female horn players.
The band took extended breaks on songs like “Phenomenal,” amping up the dance party vibe as Monáe and her team showcased a new school juke joint flair with moves that segued from the Charleston to booty club caliber gluteal gymnastics. A sexy sax led us into “Know Better” and “Electric Lady” was a big brassy get down.
The whole crowd ignored their seats and danced all night. The show had the vibe of a ‘70s throwdown with Earth, Wind and Fire or Parliament, only fueled by female energy and kombucha instead of testosterone and whatever magic juice those ‘70s cats drank.
Did you say nipple flash?
The sexual awakening came in Chapter Four, “Paradise Found.” Monáe took the stage for “Pynk” with her dance crew clad in the famous lady part pants from the song’s video. She accented her own ensemble with the afore-mentioned vaginal fascinator hat. Did she reach around the back and slip a hand through said fascinator to tickle the front at one point? Yes. Did we blush? Also, yes.
A song later, after her twerk team let their booties do that “Yoga,” Monáe popped out a bare breast as she declared “Get off my areola!” with a wicked grin on her face.
The ‘Q.U.E.E.N.’ reigned supreme with Black girl magic
Real talk: Large concerts in Austin are rarely “highly melanated,” but “Django Jane” drew a crowd that skewed female and very brown. In Chapter Two, “Now or Never,” she donned a Black Panther beret. It was clear that the crowd truly felt the power of her marching orders as she invoked Black girl magic and “spoke truth to power in the darkest hour.”
From 2018:Janelle Monae brings the battle hymn of the booty shake to ‘ACL’ taping
With the band behind her swooning with classic soul, she rose to meet the gravity of our moment in time, rallying her troops like “a young Harriet Tubman” on “Q.U.E.E.N.” (The title of that song, incidentally, is an acronym for Queer, Untouchables, Emigrants, Excommunicated, and Negroid.)
The booty don’t lie and love just might save us all
Monáe’s ecstatic dance party raised the frequency of love in Austin. Wearing a straw hat that almost swallowed her, she reveled in her sensuality, letting her voice spin around her head as she savored every note on the homoerotic “Lipstick Lover.”
In the show’s final chapter, after channeling Josephine Baker on a heavenly version of “Only Got Eyes 42,” she spoke about the power of love.
“We are dripped in love,” she said. She invited us to hug ourselves and center our self love always, before reminding us that it’s really OK to be the “random minor note you hear in major songs” on “I Like That.”
Finally, before the end of the first encore (after riotous cheers brought her back to the stage) she said the “Age of Pleasure” is about creating a “safe oasis” for her community, saying we’ve heard enough about hate from “governors and lawmakers.”
“My trans siblings, I love you so much,” she said, calling on LGBTQIA+ community members and their allies to stand strong as one. We will not respond to hate, she told us, And we will not to deprive ourselves of the pleasure and joy that we deserve.
And then she took the set out with a one-two punch of “Tightrope” and “Come Alive” and the crowd wound out of the park, buzzing with love.
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