It goes without saying that Stevie Wonder is a living legend. The singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist has been performing for well over 40 years and is responsible for a slew of well-known hits. As one concert-goer stated to me on my train ride home, the near capacity crowd at Verizon Center would’ve been there for a couple of days if he’d decided to play everything in his discography. Instead, he covered approximately 27 songs over the course of two-and-a-half memorable hours.

A good portion of the crowd wasn’t even seated when Wonder, escorted by his daughter/back-up singer/the muse for “Isn’t She Lovely,” Aisha, made his way to the stage around 8:30. As was to be expected, he received a stirring ovation. Once the attendees settled down, he gave the reasoning for launching his latest tour, namely the death of his mother. Given that I was in Section 418 and the Verizon Center’s audio left a lot to be desired, I couldn’t decipher much beyond that. Yet, judging from the audience’s reaction, his words were well-received.

The evening began with Wonder stationed front and center at a grand piano with Aisha by his side. “Love’s In Need of Love Today,” started the set in a somewhat somber, but fitting, mood given its lyrics’ telling of a global war against “Love” by the forces of “Hate.” All analogies aside, this mellow beginning helped set the stage for the remainder of the night.

After making an overt appeal to stop war during “Visions,” Wonder picked up the pace with “Living For The City” and a one song tribute to native Washingtonian, Marvin Gaye, with “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.” Most notable about “Grapevine” was his use of a vocorder, the funky, voice-altering devise he helped integrate into soul music for the use of some of today’s big-name urban acts. The vocoder’s inherent funkiness was a perfect segue into the raucous “Higher Ground.” By this time, the floor-seated crowd was on its feet clapping, jumping, and finding just about any other way to express their jubilation.

Wonder brought the fervor down over the course of the next few selections, which included “Ribbon In The Sky,” “Overjoyed,” and “You and I.” The wave effect created by low-tide ballads leading into high-tide foot stompers was apparent throughout the show but hit a bit of a wall after the crowd-pleasing, “All I Do.”

The break wasn’t completely abrupt but underlined the distinction between the Stevie Wonder found during the better part of 1970s and 1980s and the Stevie Wonder found in his earlier Motown recordings. Marked by the driving sound crafted by the Holland-Dozier-Holland production team and executed by the likes of the Funk Brothers, Wonder transitioned into the upbeat “Uptight” followed by an impression of “Lil’” Stevie as he broke out his trademark harmonica for “Once In My Life.”

By the time the show concluded, Stevie fans, myself included, had experienced a good music overload. Punctuated by his climbing on top of his piano bench and then jumping off of it, Wonder put on a fantastic show that elicited calls of, “Sing it, Stevie!,” all throughout. While he concluded the show with the popular line dance song “As,” the tune’s refrain about always showing love resonated because it was obvious Wonder loves performing for his fans and his fans are more than willing to show him their admiration as they have for nearly five decades.