I think what I’ve always liked about Raphael Saadiq was clear as soon as I got to the 9:30 Club last night: each person in last night’s sold-out crowd had a different story, but each had a reason to buy a ticket. Around me, I could hear talk of Saadiq’s history in the ’90s with Tony! Toni! Tone!, but up on the club’s video screen was the cover of Stone Rollin’, the solo album he released this month — and it was through Stone Rollin’ and other solo efforts like The Way I See It that I got to know him.

It was Saadiq’s six-piece band that crashed onstage first with a surprisingly loud rock version of “Staying in Love.” Saadiq has said on several occasions that he hopes to meld genres instead of keeping himself pinned to just one, and he achieved just that, touching on rock, soul, R&B and just a hint of funk, among others, throughout the night.

While his experiments in genre swinging were wildly successful, there were some moments in the evening that were less so. There were tunes that fell flat, seeming to be just filling space in the set list. Fortunately, those moments swung quickly into songs that every person in the room knew, word for word. Of the former, “Just Don’t” and, unfortunately, “Love That Girl.” Of the latter, Lucy Pearl‘s “Dance Tonight”, “Lay Your Head On My Pillow” from Tony! Toni! Tone! (a classic slow jam) and Saadiq’s own “Ask of You.” A medley of “100 Yard Dash”, “Keep Marchin'” and “Sure Hope You Mean It”, with a medley of tempos to match, kept the room swooning as well. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Saadiq sang, and then he did, ending the medley as he ditched his coat and tie, unbuttoning his shirt while singing without a mic to the front rows of the club, to their delight.

Throughout the night, Saadiq barely paused between songs, and just a shout of “D.C.!” was enough to cause a frenzy. The set’s final two songs were devoted to solos and vibrant farewells to the District. (The finale, by the way, was followed by a young man proposing to his girlfriend onstage). Overall, let’s call it a good show that could have been better with a shorter, looser set to match the rock and roll attitude.