R. Kelly all about crowd-seduction at the Liacouras

There are so many disarming, alarming, and charming elements of any R. Kelly show, you'd need a clicker to keep count. And all were on display Thursday night, when Kelly played a packed-to-the-rafters show at Temple University's Liacouras Center just before the pope's Philly visit.

This gig found the shades-wearing crooner getting towel-downs from female fans, dancing a "Bump N' Grind" to his simmering hit of the same name, and loudly posing provocative questions to his devoted crowd, such as "How many of you have made babies to my music?"

Kelly cooked up musky, enticing stuff while pacing the Liacouras stage in baggy pantaloons: carnal adventures on tippy-toes during the playful "Sex in the Kitchen": the girl-watching, score-keeping soliloquy of "I'm a Flirt"; and the salty, quiet-storming balladry of "My Mind's Tellin' Me No," in which Kelly's body pushed him (and his lady) toward the affirmative. This was spacey, hip-hoppy R&B served with a generous side of old-school machismo.

Kelly even lighted up a cigar and invited a group of women up on stage during the Auto-Tune-heavy "Oreo Cookie" to share cocktails and lounge on a leather couch while he caroused and tippled.

"Man, I'm drunk," he said, laughing. This man-cave-keeper's buoyant brio and the swooning reaction of the women in the crowd was something out of a Dean Martin special. Thankfully, Kelly was willing to flip the script, "to pull a switcheroo," on the winning "Strip for You." Outside of that, it was a man's-man's-man's world for Kelly.

Beyond the obvious sexual overtones, the theatricalities of getting sweat dabbed from his brow, etc., and the lyrics about "making you feel like a woman should" (from "It Seems like You're Ready" on his new album, The Buffet), what made Kelly an oddly innocent sensualist was his sultry yet conversational manner of address, no matter the topic.

Everything that came out of Kelly's mouth - often the most literal and overdescribed actions imaginable, rapped in rapid fashion as on "Ignition" and the reggae-toasted "Hotel" - was geared for maximum seduction.

Even when he sang the soft-shoe-worthy "Step in the Name of Love" or spoke softly and repeated the phrases, "I'm just saying" and "keep it real," Kelly made even the simplest narrative into a man-ic mantra worthy of Fifty Shades of Grey.