Alicia Keys at Summerfest

Last night, Alicia Keys was the Summerfest headliner.

Dave Tianen of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reviews her performance:

Seeing Alicia Keys on Tuesday night at the Marcus Amphitheater brought to mind an important but easily overlooked fact about the music business: Performers have a natural habitat.

For instance, imagine seeing Metallica in Shank Hall — or, conversely, seeing jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut at Alpine Valley Music Theatre.

I saw Keys on her first tour at the 2,500-seat Riverside Theater, and Tuesday night at the roughly 25,000-seat Marcus Amphitheater. Both shows were enjoyable, but theaters play to Keys’ natural strengths better.

This tour is in support of her “As I Am” album, which was one of my favorite discs of last year. It is, in many ways, not a particularly intimate album. Keys’ classical background comes to the fore on the title track, with gorgeous melodies and highly layered production.

So that should work well in a big shed like the Marcus, right? Well, not as well as you might expect.

...But in concert, all that muscle drove what was striking and dramatic on the album onto the edge of a sonic din.

The best moments on Tuesday were those passages with Keys singing at the piano and most of the band taking the moment off. “Like You’ll Never See Me Again,” is a gorgeous and dramatic ballad under any circumstances, but the heft of the band pushed “I Need You” to the edge of shrill. There were also moments when she seemed to get buried beneath that deluge of sound.

There was plenty to enjoy Tuesday. A good song is always a good song, and Keys in person is every bit as stunningly beautiful as she’s expected to be.

In short, Tianen wasn't thrilled with the concert, but he admires Alicia Keys' musical talent and physical beauty. In his opinion, the concert had highlights and lowlights. Basically, he had a problem with the venue.

For the most part, Tianen's review focuses on the music, as it should. However, I wonder if Keys got into any of her wacko conspiracy theories during her performance. Tianen makes no mention of that.

In an interview in Blender magazine back in April, Keys had some interesting things to say:

There's another side to Alicia Keys: conspiracy theorist. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter tells Blender magazine: "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. 'Gangsta rap' didn't exist."

Keys, 27, said she's read several Black Panther autobiographies and wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead," according to an interview in the magazine's May issue, on newsstands Tuesday.

Another of her theories: That the bicoastal feud between slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled "by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing."

...Though she's known for her romantic tunes, she told Blender that she wants to write more political songs. If black leaders such as the late Black Panther Huey Newton "had the outlets our musicians have today, it'd be global. I have to figure out a way to do it myself," she said.

Keys responded to the interview, claiming that she was taken out of context by Blender. Naturally.

Alicia Keys says she's not a conspiracy theorist. In a statement issued Tuesday, Keys said she was clarifying "comments that were made during my recent Blender magazine interview since they have been misrepresented."

..."We stand by our story," Blender spokeswoman Kate Cafaro told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"My comments about `gangsta rap' were in no way trying to suggest that the government is responsible for creating this genre of rap music," Keys said in a statement issued by J Records. "The point that I was trying to make was that the term was oversloganized by some of the media causing reactions that were not always positive. Many of the `gangsta rap' lyrics articulate the problems of the artists' experiences and I think all of us, including our leaders, could be doing more to address these problems including drugs, gang violence, crime, and other related social issues."

As for the AK-47 remark, Keys said Tuesday that AK-47 is a nickname given to her by friends "as an acronym for Alicia Keys and a metaphor for wowing people with my music and performances, `killing 'em dead' on stage. The reference was in no way meant to have a literal, political or negative connotation."

Is it possible to separate the art from the artist?

If Keys holds some opinions that one finds to be more than a bit loony, can one compartmentalize that stuff and still appreciate her music?

That depends on the individual. It can be done, if one puts on blinders.

Obviously, Tianen put aside Keys' conspiracy nutjob leanings. Perhaps he's not aware of her theories, or perhaps he's on board with her beliefs, or perhaps he considers them to be irrelevant.

If Keys did rant on stage, Tianen should have made mention of that in his review since she would have made the decision to make any potentially controversial remarks part of her performance. I hope Tianen was honest and complete. I hope he didn't sanitize his critique.