UR Experience Tour

The UR Experience was the fifth concert tour by American artist Usher. Visiting North America and Europe, the tour played over 40 concerts in 2014 and 2015.[1]

UR Experience
Tour by Usher
Promotional poster for the tour
Start dateNovember 1, 2014 (2014-11-01)
End dateMarch 26, 2015 (2015-03-26)
Legs2
No. of shows45
Usher concert chronology

Background
Usher performing in San Jose

The tour was announced on September 2, 2014.[2]

"With 'The UR Experience', I want to give my fans an ever-changing live show full of surprises and special guests", says Usher. "I am really excited to be with my fans and give them an Usher experience like they've never seen or heard before."[3]

To promote the tour, Raymond released a 30-second black and white video of him training, dancing and preparing for the upcoming tour.

Prior to the tour Usher began working with fashion designer Kerby Jean-Raymond[4] For the tour, they created a custom Pyer Moss bike jacket that he wore over a mess shirt with black cargo pants. Completing the outfit he wore Martin Margiela chain embellished red suede sneakers.[5]

The November 30, 2014 concert, held at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; was livestreamed via Yahoo Live!.[6]

Critical reception

The tour was met with positive reviews.

Jon Paroles from The New York Times wrote: "He has established himself as one of R&B's supreme performers and craftsmen, following through on what he learned from Michael Jackson in particular."[7]

Ashley Lee of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "His routines were sharp, effortless and even playful at times, and he didn't need to rely on constant gyrating to entertain. Usher also shined vocally when he took the time to do so: bouncing his gold mic stand during 'Caught Up', hitting the top of his range on 'Climax', adding extra runs to 'U Remind Me', impressively closing 'Burn' a cappella."[8]

Robbyn Mitchell of the Tampa Bay Times wrote: "Usher reminded fans constantly that they've been supporting him for 20 years in the music industry -- an unfathomable stat whenever he paused to smile his charming schoolboy girl".[9]

A.R. Shaw from Rolling Out commented: "With new age R&B acts such Chris Brown and Justin Bieber building their presence in music, some may forget Usher's overall impact on the genre. But the 'UR Experience Tour' proves, again, that Usher's legendary status remains intact.".[10]

Gerrick D. Kennedy of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "An Usher show has long been an exhilarating affair packed with high-octane choreography held together by sleek, masterful showmanship."[11]

François Marchand of The Vancouver Sun states, "Usher can embody the cybernetic physicality of a MJ and the pure funk swagger of a JB (as on party jam Twisted — 'Hit me one more time!'), and you can applaud an artist who doesn't rely so much on tape playback and shows just how much blood and sweat he leaves out there on the stage."[12]

David Smyth from the London Evening Standard gave the performance in London 4 out of 5 stars. He said: "Usher himself was quite the mover and shaker, invoking his idol Michael Jackson as he slid and shimmied about the stage in gold trainers. During one triumphant spell, including 'Twisted' and 'Caught Up', his band became an old-style soul revue, horns blasting while the lights blazed. There were snippets of Stevie Wonder and, more surprisingly, Eric Clapton."[13]

Opening acts

Setlist

The following setlist was obtained from the concert held on November 1, 2014; at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It does not present all concerts for the duration of the tour.[17]

  1. "My Way"
  2. "OMG"
  3. "Love in This Club"
  4. "You Make Me Wanna..."
  5. "Video Sequence" (contains elements of "Lil Freak")
  6. "Nice & Slow"
  7. "U Remind Me"
  8. "Twisted"
  9. "Caught Up"
  10. "She Came to Give it to You"
  11. "Video Sequence" (contains elements of "Dot Com")
  12. "Climax"
  13. "Seduction"
  14. "That's What It's Made For"
  15. "Confessions Part I" / "Confessions Part II"
  16. "Instrumental Sequence"
  17. "Burn"
  18. "There Goes My Baby"
  19. "U Got It Bad"
  20. "Superstar"
  21. "Video Sequence"
  22. "Bad Girl"
  23. "Good Kisser"
  24. "U Don't Have to Call"
  25. "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love"
  26. "Yeah!"
  27. "Video Sequence"
  28. "Without You"

Tour dates
Date City Country Venue
North America[18]
November 1, 2014 Montreal Canada Bell Centre
November 2, 2014 Toronto Air Canada Centre
November 4, 2014 Auburn Hills United States The Palace of Auburn Hills
November 5, 2014 Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena
November 7, 2014 New York City Madison Square Garden
November 10, 2014 Washington, D.C. Verizon Center
November 11, 2014 Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center
November 13, 2014 Boston TD Garden
November 14, 2014 Uncasville Mohegan Sun Arena
November 15, 2014 Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall
November 17, 2014 Chicago United Center
November 18, 2014 Saint Paul Xcel Energy Center
November 21, 2014 Los Angeles Staples Center
November 22, 2014 Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena
November 24, 2014 San Jose SAP Center
November 26, 2014 Seattle KeyArena
November 27, 2014 Vancouver Canada Rogers Arena
November 30, 2014 Edmonton Rexall Place
December 2, 2014 Broomfield United States 1stBank Center
December 4, 2014 Dallas American Airlines Center
December 5, 2014 Houston Toyota Center
December 6, 2014 New Orleans Smoothie King Center
December 8, 2014 Memphis FedExForum
December 9, 2014 Atlanta Philips Arena
December 12, 2014 Orlando Amway Center
December 13, 2014 Miami American Airlines Arena
December 14, 2014 Tampa Amalie Arena
Europe[19]
February 27, 2015 Copenhagen Denmark Forum Copenhagen
February 28, 2015 Hamburg Germany O2 World Hamburg
March 2, 2015 Cologne Lanxess Arena
March 3, 2015 Antwerp Belgium Sportpaleis
March 4, 2015 Amsterdam Netherlands Ziggo Dome
March 6, 2015 Zürich Switzerland Hallenstadion
March 9, 2015 Munich Germany Olympiahalle
March 10, 2015 Vienna Austria Wiener Stadthalle[20]
March 11, 2015 Paris France Zénith Paris
March 12, 2015 Mannheim Germany SAP Arena
March 14, 2015 Nottingham United Kingdom Capital FM Arena
March 15, 2015 Sheffield Sheffield Arena
March 17, 2015 Glasgow SSE Hydro
March 18, 2015 Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
March 20, 2015 Dublin Ireland 3Arena
March 21, 2015 Belfast Odyssey Arena
March 23, 2015 Manchester United Kingdom Manchester Arena
March 24, 2015 Birmingham Barclaycard Arena
March 26, 2015 London The O2 Arena

Box office score data
Venue City Tickets sold / available Gross revenue
Mohegan Sun Arena Uncasville 6,238 / 7,103 (88%) $636,570[21]
Staples Center Los Angeles 12,544 / 12,544 (100%) $1,205,705[21]
Toyota Center Houston 9,442 / 9,706 (97%) $804,210[21]
Philips Arena Atlanta 11,765 / 11,765 (100%) $880,618[21]
Amway Center Orlando 6,444 / 10,994 (59%) $534,349[21]
Amalie Arena Tampa 5,186 / 8,800 (59%) $440,679[21]
O2 World Hamburg Hamburg 11,386 / 13,473 (84%) $688,534[22]
Sportpaleis Antwerp 9,409 / 15,031 (63%) $427,727[23]
Hallenstadion Zürich 9,224 / 13,000 (71%) $718,805[24]
SSE Hydro Glasgow 3,830 / 4,094 (93%) $281,965[25]
Manchester Arena Manchester 8,493 / 10,000 (85%) $627,173[26]
The O2 Arena London 15,477 / 16,062 (96%) $1,327,540[23]
TOTAL 109,438 / 132,572 (82%) $8,573,875

Personnel
  • Lead Artist
  • Lead Vocals/Guitar/Drums/Percussion: Usher Raymond
  • The Funk Rock Orchestra
  • Guitar/Keyboards/MD: Natural
  • Drums/Percussion: Aaron Spears
  • Percussion/DJ/MPC/Sampling/String Programmer/Hype Man: Iz Avila
  • Keyboards/Organ/Synthesizer/MD: Buddy Strong
  • Keyboards/Keybass/Keytar/MD: Valdez Brantley
  • Additional Musicians
  • Bass Guitar/Playback Engineer: Andre "Dre" Bowman (on certain dates)
  • Horns: Rashawn (Trumpet), Rob (Sax), Sean (Trumpet), and Kevin (Trombone)
  • Vocalists
  • Backing vocalists: Kristal Lyndriette, Gene Noble and Neka Brown
  • Dancers
  • Choreographer: Jamaica Craft
  • Dancers: QuitaBee, Eyal Pipo Layani ,Kento Mori, Josh Smith, Jessica Digi (Europe only), Yusuke Nakai, Marc Marvelous, Ashley Everett, Antonio Hudnell and Naeemah McCowan

Notes

    References
    1. Bisson, Joann (September 3, 2014). "Usher announces "The UR Experience Tour"". AXS News. Anschutz Entertainment Group. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
    2. "USHER Announces The UR Experience" (Press release). Los Angeles: Live Nation Entertainment. PR Newswire. September 2, 2014. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
    3. Jackson, Alisha (September 2, 2014). "Usher is Coming to the TD Garden!". WODS. CBS Radio. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
    4. "Usher Wears Pyer Moss Biker Jacket and Balenciaga Arena Sneakers for 2014 iHeartRadio Music Festival". UpscaleHype. September 20, 2014. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
    5. "Usher Wears Pyer Moss Custom Biker Jacket and Maison Martin Margiela Chain Sneakers on Tour". UpscaleHype. November 8, 2014. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
    6. Johnson, Jr., Billy (November 19, 2014). "Usher's 'The UR Experience' Concert to Stream on Yahoo Live Nov. 30". Yahoo! Music. Yahoo!. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
    7. Paroles, Jon (November 10, 2014). "With Signature Moves, R&B Romeo Takes a Turn as Casanova". The New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
    8. Lee, Ashley (November 8, 2014). "Usher UR Experience Concert Review at Madison Square Garden: Leans on Nostalgia and Second-Nature Moves". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
    9. Mitchell, Robbyn (December 15, 2014). "Review: Usher crushes a dynamic, crowd-pleasing performance at Tampa's Amalie Arena". Tampa Bay Times. Times Publishing Company. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
    10. Shaw, A.R. (December 11, 2014). "Concert review: Usher highlights Atlanta's culture at the 'UR Experience Tour'". Rolling Out. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
    11. Kennedy, Gerrick D. (November 24, 2014). "Usher brings hits, but not much new to Staples Center". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
    12. Marchand, François (November 28, 2014). "Review: Usher dances around long-delayed UR album in Vancouver". The Vancouver Sun. Postmedia Network. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
    13. Smyth, David (March 27, 2015). "Usher, UR Experience Tour, O2 Arena – music review: 'The spectacle couldn't be faulted'". London Evening Standard. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
    14. "Premiere: DJ Cassidy's Behind The Scenes Recap Of Usher's UR Experience Tour". Vibe. January 28, 2015. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
    15. "August Alsina Recovers Ahead of Usher Tour". Rap-Up. September 26, 2014. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
    16. Augustin, Camille (September 30, 2014). "Nico & Vinz Joins Usher On European Portion of 'UR Experience' Tour". Vibe. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
    17. "Set List: Usher Opens His UR Experience in Montreal". Vintage Vinyl News. November 2, 2014. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
    18. Sources about tour dates in North America:
    19. Sources about tour dates in Europe:
    20. "Usher hat sein Konzert in Wien abgesagt". 27 November 2014.
    21. "Current Boxscore". Billboard. Vol. 127, no. 35. Nashville, Tennessee. November 21, 2015. ISSN 0006-2510. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
    22. "Current Boxscore". Billboard. Vol. 127, no. 13. Nashville, Tennessee. May 9, 2015. ISSN 0006-2510. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
    23. "Current Boxscore". Billboard. Vol. 127, no. 18. Nashville, Tennessee. June 20, 2015. ISSN 0006-2510. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
    24. "Current Boxscore". Billboard. Vol. 127, no. 14. Nashville, Tennessee. May 16, 2015. ISSN 0006-2510. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
    25. "Current Boxscore". Billboard. Vol. 127, no. 26. Nashville, Tennessee. September 5, 2015. ISSN 0006-2510. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
    26. "Current Boxscore". Billboard. Vol. 127. Nashville, Tennessee. June 6, 2015. ISSN 0006-2510. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
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