Everything we saw at the first of Chris Brown’s back-to-back Detroit shows

On Thursday night, Chris Brown brought his “Breezy Bowl XX” tour to an energetic crowd at downtown Detroit’s Ford Field, the tour’s 15th stop.

With two Grammy Awards and six platinum-plus albums under his belt, Brown has been one of R&B biggest superstars for two decades. Though only 36 years old, the “Breezy Bowl” serves as an early retrospective of the Tappahannock, Virginia native’s body of work.

The night was all about R&B as Kentucky-born crooner Bryson Tiller kicked the night off with a 25-minute set highlighted by his 2015 debut, “Don’t.” Songstress Summer Walker followed with a 30-minute sensual set punctuated by her 2018 hit single, “Girls Need Love.”

The stage setup featured several LED screens, a pier-style walkway with two X-shaped catwalks that resembled the Breezy Bowl’s logo, and an additional stage set up on the opposite side of the arena. Two inflatable statues of Breezy didn’t appear after a number of fans made TikTok videos complaining the massive statues made it hard to see at the July 30 Miami stop, but there were all the pyrokinetics, lasers,  and effects you would expect from an artist of this caliber.

Brown appeared on the stage a few ticks before 8:30 p.m. wearing a “Breezy Bowl” varsity jacket and a Detroit Tigers snapback. (He would later change into sequins-covered camo pants and then a laser-tag like vest). His first act, “The Rise” saw Brown launch right into high-energy songs “Gimme That,” “Party,” “Ayo,” and “Go Girlfriend.” He slowed it down one notch for “Heat,” but went right back to blitz mode with “Yo (Excuse Me Miss),” “Show Me,” “Yeah 3x,” and “Turn Up the Music.” There were no breaks between his first wave of songs, just banger after banger without letting the crowd catch their breaths.

Brown’s second act, “The Fall,” started off with slightly slower songs from his catalog, “Grass Ain’t Greener,” “Liquor,” “Drunk Texting,” and “I Wanna Be,” but ended it with the supercharged “New Flame.”  The slow it down-speed it back up is the formula he stuck to for the rest of the night. But the funny thing about Brown is that even his slower songs felt velocitized by the energy he brings to each song.

In between acts there were documentary-styled videos shown. Before “The Fall,” Brown spoke openly and apologetically about the intense criticism and backlash he endured after the 2009 assault of singer and then girlfriend Rihanna, along with his recent arrest in the United Kingdom in May of this year for an alleged assault at a London nightclub. In another video the crowd was treated to cute and candid videos of Brown interacting with his daughters Royalty, Aeko, and Lovely while he discussed the impact being a father had on his life.

Because Brown made over 50 songs fit into a 150-minute show, he only did the first verse of most of them or an extended first verse where he would thrust himself into the kind of dance choreography that has been his calling card throughout his whole career. He also snuck in a quick cover of Usher’s “Nice & Slow” and sung his verse from Tee Grizzley’s hit “IDGAF.”

Brown also lived up to his bad boy persona when he seduced a fan on stage to “Take You Down,” and then let one of his backup dancers do the same to him as he sang “Under the Influence.” He flew around the arena singing “Look at Me Now,” thanked Detroit for supporting him over the years, and ended the show with his dance classic, “Forever.”

Brown returns to Ford Field for a second show on Friday.