Interacting with the audience is what most performers do, but one soulful singer likes to take his performance to the next level.
Interacting with the audience is what most performers do, but one soulful singer likes to take his performance to the next level.
Eric Roberson recently performed at the Shrine, a hip joint that welcomes new and veteran underground and mainstream artists, DJs included.
Following a blog called “Lady Reese Speaks” landed a fan two tickets to the performance. LaTasha ??? brought her boyfriend Ryan who had never listened to Roberson before that night.
About the performance he said, “The show was good. Live music. Classy crowd. Great performance.”
LaTasha said she had never been to his show before, but became a big fan a couple of years ago after listening to his second album.
She was really excited to watch Roberson perform live and called the way he freestyled with the crowed, “dope.”
“He asked the audience to throw out funny words and he made a song out of it. The song was so dope and I couldn’t believe he made that up,” she said.
Roberson told the Defender that he enjoys the energy he gets from the crowd and freestyling with them makes it even better. “I think it sets my show and my band apart. The whole thing is about to be a trade off with our fans. We want that interaction through the whole show,” he said.
Freestyling is something that he does at most of his performances and it consists of the crowd shouting out words that he’ll use in a song. “They’re just as responsible as we are in making the song successful.,“ Roberson said. “They have to come up with stuff that’s fun. The crowd will let you know if you say a boring word.”
Not a Chicago native, Roberson feels welcomed every time he takes the stage here.
“Chicago is one of the first cities I really took aim at to establish myself as an artist. It also goes back to the very first promoter who brought me out here,” he said.
“[Thank you] to the fans that have embraced me the first time I ever came to Chicago, trying to express my feelings through song and I just thank them because they gave me a great opportunity. I don’t take it lightly,” said Roberson.
The Chicago performance was his fourth show in four days and he admitted he was tired, but he and the band fed off of the energy the audience helped produce.
“Chicago always [has] good energy. The audience was great. I didn’t get a chance to see the crowd before I got on stage so it’s always a great surprise to see a place packed and good energy and stuff of that nature,” he said.
Before going on any stage, Roberson said that he and the band like to pray.
“We have a very light-hearted fun conversation with God, with the band and whoever else is in reaching distance in the room, he said. ‘We’re always appreciative of the opportunity so I think that puts us in a right frame of mind going in.”
Roberson is an independent artist who has released seven CDs through his label, Blue Erro Soul. His most recent “Mr. Nice Guy” was the number one selling CD in independent stores the first two months after its release last year.
Copyright 2012 Chicago Defender
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