Janelle Monáe’s ambitious NJPAC concert was an exhilarating ride

Janelle Monáe performs at NJPAC in Newark, June 17.

The first person to emerge onstage at Janelle Monáe’s June 17 concert at NJPAC in Newark was, unexpectedly, a United Airlines pilot in full uniform. The appearance made sense on paper: United is among the sponsors of the North to Shore Festival that included the show. Yet the scripted corporate introduction proved oddly apt. In retrospect, it felt less like a sponsorship obligation than a pre-flight announcement. Fasten your seat belts. The evening ahead was going to be some trip.

I last saw Monáe nearly eight years ago, during the Dirty Computer Tour at what is now The Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden. The general-admission floor pulsed with youthful energy; fans danced, shouted lyrics and fed off one another’s enthusiasm. Having attended concerts at NJPAC for two decades, I expected a very different atmosphere this time around. The venue and its audiences are invariably warm and attentive, but they are also among the most decorous I have encountered. People come to listen, not so much to move.

Somehow, Monáe accomplished what I had long assumed was impossible. She brought the kinetic energy of a general-admission show into a reserve-seated performing arts center and kept much of the audience on its feet for the better part of two hours. By the end of the night, dancing in the aisles felt less like an exception than the prevailing mood.

Although it has been three years since the release of Monáe’s The Age of Pleasure album and her last major tour, she has hardly disappeared from public view, balancing intermittent concert appearances with an increasingly visible acting career. The stage setup at NJPAC was relatively spare, anchored by a set of white stairs at center stage. Yet the presentation felt more refined than in previous outings. Gone were some of the more distracting production flourishes. Instead, the musicians entered ceremoniously, one by one, before taking their places — a small gesture that granted them the sort of recognition touring-band musicians rarely receive.

Janelle Monáe at NJPAC.

Monáe remained an unusually generous host throughout the evening. During “Paid in Pleasure,” she invited audience members onstage to dance alongside her. Such moments can be nerve-racking in an era when crowd interactions routinely go viral for the wrong reasons, but the participants proved enthusiastic and respectful. Security never had to intervene.

Each Monáe album arrives with its own visual identity and conceptual framework, and her stage persona evolves accordingly. The signature tuxedo remains, though it now appears in latex, nodding both to the sexual liberation that animated The Age of Pleasure and to the android mythology that has threaded through her work since the beginning. Her performance style is similarly cumulative. One can glimpse traces of 1920s vaudeville and tap dance, 1960s girl-group precision, 1970s funk Afrofuturism, Rhythm Nation 1814‘s militaristic discipline, and contemporary hip-hop’s blend of swagger, activism, irony and self-awareness.

Monáe’s achievement has never been invention from whole cloth so much as synthesis. She absorbs disparate traditions and recombines them into something unmistakably her own. The lineage is visible: Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament-Funkadelic, David Bowie, Janet Jackson and, above all Prince, whose influence hovered over the evening long before she performed a spirited rendition of “Let’s Go Crazy” (see video below) as one of her encores.

Unlike many artists burdened by their influences, however, Monáe wears hers lightly. The references enrich the performance without overwhelming it.

Janelle Monáe at NJPAC.

What emerged most clearly over 16 songs was not simply Monáe’s versatility, but her commitment. She is among the dwindling number of contemporary pop performers who approach the stage as a place of total exertion. Singer, dancer, bandleader, storyteller and ringmaster … she attacked each role with equal conviction. Though her film career has yielded memorable work, live performance remains her most natural medium. She understands that charisma is not merely a quality one possesses but something one generates through effort.

Monáe also paused to wish the audience a happy Pride. The gesture felt less like obligatory banter than an acknowledgment of the community she has helped foster. For many LGBTQIA+ fans, she represents a vision of self-invention that is joyful, politically engaged and defiantly public.

By the time the house lights came up, audience members seemed reluctant to return to ordinary life. The pilot’s introduction had turned out to be more prophetic than anyone could have predicted. For nearly two hours, Monáe had suspended the usual laws of the room and carried her audience somewhere else entirely.

_____________________________