Keyshia Cole, Trey Songz headline 'The Love Hard Tour'

Houston showed up March 22 at the Toyota Center with a capacity crowd for a night of R&B music for "The Love Hard Tour," who in return showed out, and featured headlining performances by Keyshia Cole and Trey Songz along with direct support from Jaheim.

Cole, dubbed by many as “The Princess of Hip-Hop Soul,” commanded immediate attention with a stunning a fire-red outfit with matching hat, boots and of course red lipstick.

“Where’s all my ladies?” Cole shouted. A massive reaction led into her first No. 1 single and Grammy-nominated “Let It Go,” which is also one of our favorites in her catalog. The song was released in 2007 and included rappers Missy Elliott and Lil’ Kim. The original video by director Benny Boom is still fun to watch.

This was our first time seeing the 42-year-old Cole and she is worth the price of admission. The soprano from California did an exceptional job with her setlist. With so many songs to choose from (seven albums), Cole covered all the bases with the likes of “Last Night,” “I Remember,” “Shoulda Let You Go,” “Heaven Sent,” “I Changed My Mind,” “Trust and Believe” and “Love.”

While all were flawless, we gravitated most towards “I Should Have Cheated” from her 2005 debut record, “The Way It Is.” The first verse of the song says it all:

‘First of all, let me say
You can't accuse me of all the things you know that you are guilty of
And I see that it is easy for you to blame everything on me
But if that's the case, I should go have my fun and do all the things you say I do
Boy, I can't continue to take this from you.’

We also remember that video, too. I believe it stayed in top rotation on BET’s “106 & Park” for months.

Trey Songz is Trey Songz. For starters, he's sold mre than 25 million albums. Like his tourmate Cole, literally every song is a hit, and Trey has dozens to choose from... A-plus by the way – “Gotta Go,” “Can’t Help But Wait,” “I Need a Girl,” “Heart Attack,” “I Invented Sex,” which was his first of many chart-toppers, “Slow Motion,” “Na Na” as well as “Bottoms Up” and “Say Aah,” which both of the those can still be heard in night clubs around the world.

“The Love Hard Tour” opened with short video montage with career speculations of Jaheim. Those “rumors” were quickly laid to rest after his set. The New Jersey native proved he still belongs.

An additional positive about the tour – all three performers are backed by a live band. Concerts are just a better vibe when the vocalists are joined on stage with professional musicians.

It was another fantastic show produced by The Black Promoters Collective, which is a coalition of six of the national’s top independent concert promotion and event production companies that produces more than 200 events across the country each year.

Their next event in Houston comes Saturday, April 13, with the Frankie Beverly & Maze “I Wanna Thank You Tour,” which co-stars The O’Jays and El Debarge at the Toyota Center. Tickets are available online at toyotacenter.com.

Chad Cooper is the Entertainment Editor. Contact cooper@theexaminer.com