Jhené Aiko sparkles, seduces as Magic Hour Tour kicks off in Detroit with LCA show

In a cinematic soul journey for a full house Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena, Jhené Aiko kicked off her Magic Hour Tour with a show that was in fact a magical 80 minutes of R&B enchantment.

“Stay Ready (What a Life)” was the first of many numbers Wednesday to ignite a full-voiced singalong from the LCA crowd, whose exuberant contributions often drowned out the headliner onstage. Since her emergence more than a decade ago, Aiko has forged a fan bond that runs deeper than many outsiders might presume, and there was no missing it inside the packed Detroit arena.

By the time she wrapped up three dozen songs later with “Magic Hour,” prompting a constellation of cellphone lights across the arena, Aiko had crafted a stealthily compelling performance of modern quiet-storm music with her own hippie-trippy touch.

The 36-year-old Los Angeles artist is a master of subtle musical vibes alongside lyrics that lean to the brash side, and Wednesday’s show made its impact through understatement. Over twinkling beats and vaporous grooves, Aiko was astral and organic, graceful and sensuous. There were fanciful twirls, flower petals gently tossed into the front rows, mystical sounds summoned from a crystal sound bowl, feathery vocals that sometimes took on hip-hop cadences.

If there were any jitters on the night — the start of her first headlining tour in six years — they weren’t obvious. Aiko, with several feet of hair cascading down her back, looked and sounded poised, though her voice was too often buried in a mix of backing tracks accompanied by a live bassist and harpist.

A stage fashioned with stone and ice formations had shades of Led Zeppelin circa ’73. Backed by a trifold video display with an array of glowing graphics — from outer-space nebulae to iridescent jellyfish — Aiko conjured the aura of psilocybin, sativa and sex that has become her musical stock-in-trade.

Songs flowed into one another like a series of suites, fluttering with self-empowerment (“W.A.Y.S.”), bitter kiss-offs (“Triggered”), relationship takes (“Do Better Blues”) and meditative tenderness (“Born Tired”). Amid instant crowd-pleasers such as “Bed Peace,” “While We’re Young” and “Stranger” were bits of her collabs and features recorded with the likes of Drake, Saweetie and City Girls.

Late in the night, Aiko’s elder sister and fellow singer Mila J was an unannounced onstage guest, linking up on the erotic “P- Fairy (On the Way)” before serving up a pair of her own songs, “Kickin’ Back” and “My Main.”

Unlike Aiko’s Coachella appearance in April, there was no onstage moment with her beau and Twenty88 partner, Detroit rapper Big Sean, with whom she shares a 1?-year-old son.

The Magic Hour Tour is scheduled to run through Aug. 22, when it will wrap up in Columbus, Ohio.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jhené Aiko sparkles as Magic Hour Tour kicks off in Detroit at LCA