Staff Editor on May 10th, 2019

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Whoever is Al Green‘s florist, they must be set for life, as he seemed to have brought enough roses for everyone in the orchestra section of the Greek Theatre on Thursday night. Strutting into the venue just a mere 10 minutes before he was set to begin, Green showed a vibrating audience what it means to get to work.

Playing a tight set of his own hits and almost as many covers, Green made each song a cause for celebration with the 73-year-old grabbing handfuls of roses to toss into the enthusiastic crowd. Despite the audience clearly being under his spell, Green won them over again with copious shout-outs and the smooth assurance that they were far more fun than his last show.

Included were his 1972 classic “Let’s Stay Together,” as well as “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart,” which were the crowd-pleasing-est of the crowd-pleasers. The rest of the night was a string of greats that had the audience at its feet, capping the affair with a revivalesque rendition of “Love and Happiness” that ran 15 minutes over schedule — forcing the audience to pour out into the jasmine-perfumed night, surely with nothing but romance on their minds.

An opening Jessy Wilson excelled at warming up the crowd. Undeterred by the crowd’s sole desire to see Al Green, she unloaded the full fury of her voice, playing songs off her week-old LP release “Phase.” Wilson gave an electric performance punctuated by her green hair, and a shirt that read: “By the way … which one’s Pink?” (If you know, you know.)

Photos and recap by ZB Images