Solange Knowles levels up at Vivid Festival

SOLANGE Knowles read the room and rocked the house in her own coronation at the Sydney Opera House.

THIS is how you do it.

This is how you level up. Solange Knowles read the room and rocked the house.

The 31-year-old Houstonite stepped out of that shadow as big as the Opera House sails and became the main event.

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Bathed in glorious crimson and magenta light, flanked by an all-black band, next to white pyramids and underneath a giant white orb, Solange breezed through her coronation.

Beginning with the opening cuts from her third album, A Seat At The Table, she eased us into an exquisite suite of songs.

Solange at the Sydney Opera House. Picture: Daniel Boud.

“If you need to stand up, let’s not question it,” she said with a smirk, we all leapt to our feet, no longer passive.

“I tried to keep myself busy, I ran around circles, think I made myself dizzy, I slept it away, I sexed it away, I read it away,” she sang over Cranes In The Sky with classy brass.

It was a sensuous feast. I’m sorry I’m getting all gushy but you would be too if you could have seen how they rolled this thing out.

The avant-garde musical activist made the personal political; a genius hiding in plain sight. Solange pulled the ripcord on her bangers and people — like the guy next to me fist-pumping every beat — absolutely lost it. I’m pretty sure he put his back out. No doubt he’ll say it was worth it.

Her old mates Midnight Juggernauts helped out behind the scenes getting this thing to fly, inflating that giant Rover-esque orb from Prisoner and gathering locals for the finale (we’ll get to that). Melbourne trumpet player and rapper Pataphysics tooted his horn too.

“If you need to stand up, let’s not question it,” Solange told the crowd. Picture: Daniel Boud

Solange’s choreography was on point. Picture: Daniel Boud

The choreography was on point during Don’t You Wait, the first pivot of the night.

She took things from sensuous to sexy and back with ease, crossing between Losing You (last song before encore, it yelped to life as the red lights were eschewed for cream) back to the woke with expensive taste F.U.B.U.

She shoulder-danced, she faux-twerked, she gyrated, she kept her crew in check like James Brown. And the crowd lapped it up and sent the energy back with interest.

Solange came right out to us and spontaneously sang to Faustina “Fuzzy” Agolley, who possibly hadthe biggest smile in a room full of toothy glee.

There were no YouTube worthy spills a la her slip up at Coachella with her sister, just slick, cathartic moments like Lovers In The Parking Lot, Bad Girls (Verdine Version) and Crush.

Forty people from across Sydney were hand picked (and paid) to join Solange for closer Don’t Touch My Hair.

The crowd lapped up Solange’s energy and sent it back with interest. Picture: Daniel Boud

“Like her shows at Chinati in Marfa, Texas and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Solange chooses to close her shows with a moment of proud black visibility,” read a statement from her camp.

“It’s so beautiful to see so many brown and black people here belonging and owning this space, it’s motherf…ing popping,” she’d uttered the night before.

This night she swished her hair around, locking into step with her dancers, at the peak of her powers.

We didn’t touch her locks, we gave her the space to stretch her wings.

Solange touched us all tonight, on her terms.

Solange. Sydney Opera House, Vivid Festival. June 3, 2018.

4.5 stars

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