Alicia Keys: A Piano Woman, and Don't You Forget It

Alicia Keys is not some gyrating tart of a songstress -- she is a musician, people. She plays a musical instrument. She is an actual pianist, you know, and she's not going to let any of us forget it for one single second.

"Since the very beginning, there was always someone trying to tell me to take it off more, to shake it," Keys told the crowd Friday during an "As I Am" tour stop at Verizon Center. "But I wanted to do something meaningful, different, special. I wanted to play my pi-a-no!"

With that, out rolled a black baby grand, on its own platform stage, all oiled up and softly lit. Throughout the night, other pianos and keyboards popped up unexpectedly from beneath the stage, a constant reminder that Keys is in a different league than Beyoncé or Mariah, that she can do more than just sing and look pretty.

Keys (who appeared with "American Idol" Season 6 winner Jordin Sparks and R&B singer/songwriter Ne-Yo) designed the tour as a retrospective exploring her career and four albums. As you might expect, the high points of Keys's life and career somehow center on a hard, wooden bench. So, after an intro that included "Ghetto Story," a duet with reggae star Cham, and the '60s girl-group-inspired "Teenage Love Affair" and "You Don't Know My Name," Keys sat down at the keys and got down to business.

She performed her retitled, rearranged version of Prince's "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore," as well as "Like You'll Never See Me Again" (her more-than-decent attempt at replicating the 50-year-old legend's sound). "Superwoman," a self-esteem booster from "As I Am," followed the dopey love song "Butterflyz" (from "Songs in A Minor"), thus showing the singer's growth between albums 1 and 4. And just for kicks, Keys played the opening notes of "Diary" upside down -- take that, singers who can barely read sheet music!

Keys surrendered instrumental control to her band while prancing around with her dancers on the show's futuristic set during "I Need You," "Wreckless Love" and "Go Ahead." Although choreography, lighting tricks and vignettes help justify ticket prices as high as $125, Keys doesn't exactly excel in that environment. New rule of thumb for Alicia Keys shows: When she sits down at the piano, stand up to get a better look; when she rises, take a load off.

By the end, Keys's voice was noticeably tired, but she dug down for the big finish. During her encore of "If I Ain't Got You," she said the lyric "Everything means nothing if I ain't got you" was meant for her fans -- but she could just as easily have been singing to the massive white piano she was playing.