Review: Why was R&B icon Usher such a big tease in Minneapolis?

As the sound of electronic hand claps echoed throughout Target Center on Saturday night, R&B megastar Usher emerged onstage at the top of a giant LED cube. Oops. That wasn’t Usher. Then he showed up on a side-stage video screen but not in person. C’mon! Finally, Usher arrived for real from beneath the stage, a wide-brimmed fedora obscuring his face, to deliver this year’s “Coming Home.”

What a tease, that Usher.

He baited throughout his relentless two-hour Past Present Future tour concert that arrived this past weekend in Minneapolis for a two-night stand. It was a frenetically paced, often exciting show that showcased Usher’s all-around talents as a supple singer, dynamic dancer, sparkling showman and, let’s be honest, irresistible tease.

Usher’s polished, highly entertaining spectacle bookended a soulful week in Minneapolis that commenced with Stevie Wonder’s loose, musically magnificent and uplifting get-out-the-vote performance. The concerts provided a historical perspective on R&B: In the 1960s and ‘70s, Wonder serenaded about love and social issues while Usher’s updated brand from the ‘90s and this century is a lot sexier than Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You.”

In fact, to the surprise of none of the 14,000 fans at the jam-packed Target Center, Usher got a little freaky in a strip club setting during “Can U Handle It?” The singer tantalized female fans sitting in a choice section of the arena, dangling maraschino cherries over their lips, and each woman snatched the juicy fruit. What a tease. And a gentleman of sorts, I guess. In some cases, Usher gave the cherries so husbands or boyfriends could have the honor as the cherry dangler.

Like LeBron James, who is about to turn 40 next month, Usher, who recently turned 46, is amazingly still at the top of his game after a long run. Strikingly buff — he pulled off his tank top in midshow — Usher danced with more ambition, articulation and athleticism than any other living big-time singer who essays movement onstage. Locking and popping, stutter stepping and moonwalking on roller skates, he did it all.

Vocally, Usher traveled from an intimate croon (“Confessions”) to an emphatic belt (“Yeah!”) with a sassy entreaty in between (“Bad Girl”) and, of course, a sweet falsetto (“Superstar”). To be fair, he may have been singing to tracks when he was exerting some strenuous dance moves.

And, as a showman, Usher created various transfixing tableaux onstage from a roller rink to a living room with romantic drama, complemented by a series of runway-worthy outfits, including a red, floor-length faux-fur coat and a blue, rhinestone-encrusted leather jacket.

Even in the cavernous Target Center, Usher carved out some intimate space. At the back of the main floor, not only did he host a satellite stage with cabaret seats — officially called the “G Spot” — but also a U-shaped bar and a velvet rope to separate the seated VIPs from those standing. After arriving in the club, he mixed a drink for himself at the bar before distributing some cherries and making it rain with bills printed with his face.

The three dozen-song set — there were several snippets — was a retrospective on the eight-time Grammy winner’s career, from his 1993 debut “Call Me a Mack” — with a 15-year-old Usher depicted on the video cube — to selections from this year’s “Coming Home,” which was released two days before Usher’s indelible Super Bowl halftime performance.

Accompanied Saturday by a dozen dancers, a seven-piece band, three backup singers and two pole dancers from Atlanta, Usher presented his songs mostly in chronological order at first, then shifted to shuffle. Highlights included banging remixes of “OMG” and “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” to the delight of the dancing crowd.

In his first Twin Cities appearance since his 2017 grandstand performance at the State Fair, the Atlanta icon gave a shout out to Prince, Mint Condition and producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis — Minnesota music makers all — whom he said inspired songs like “I Am the Party” on his new album.

The seductive back-to-back ballads of the No. 1 pop hits “Nice & Slow” and “U Got It Bad” provided the night’s expected flirty moments with Usher eventually whipping off his white tank top to show off his fab abs to the ear-shattering squeals of fans.

The night’s biggest tease, though, came about a quarter into the long program. After “Caught Up,” the hook for “Yeah,” Usher’s signature hit, began and just as he started singing, suddenly, the words “system malfunction” appeared on the video screen. Usher exited only to re-emerge on roller skates for “Love in This Club.”

About two-dozen tunes later, Usher finally burst into the full “Yeah!” as his penultimate number, and Target Center predictably went crazy. What a triumphant tease.