As the first musicians walked on stage, the crowd cheered a bit, but then the applause died down quickly, as Ms.Claudio failed to appear. Five minutes later, a line of blue flood lights lit up at the back of the stage, and Sabrina strolled over onto center stage as the band launched into the first song of her set. The venue was packed almost to capacity, in the sense that many people would perish if the roof caught fire.

Ms.Claudio and her band delivered tight R&B with raw rock’n’roll edges; picture Amy Winehouse and Ariana Grande’s lovechild. The projections of the flood lights at the back of the stage shifted into ever-evolving purple circular patterns, as Sabrina strutted her stuff to the steady grooves. In between the third and fourth song, she informed the crowd that it was her first time in Japan, and that she felt pretty overwhelmed, so she’d like to feel our energy to help her through it.

A few tracks later, she told the rapt audience that she was working on new music, and asked if it was okay if she performed a new song for them. It rang like a hybrid of Nina Simone and classic Massive Attack. In terms of her stage presence, however, Ms. Claudio came across more like Ariana Grande, or a young Janet Jackson; in her sexuality and movements. Her band also seemed steeped in the school of Prince Rogers Nelson, while sharpening it hard for the 21st century. The crowd loved every second, with their eyes barely straying from the stage. In the middle of the set, the flood lights went red, the guitarist turned on a wah-wah pedal to deliver sexy leads, and the band went extra tight on the sudden stops; which appeared to be a signature component of Sabrina Claudio’s sound.

Rather than seeing the odd person leave – as is common with the average stage of most festivals – the opposite seemed true here. Despite the apparent fullness of the venue, more and more spectators seemed to file into the void; like schools of fish drawn into the ocean of Ms.Claudio’s slow funky grooves. The audience was actually so silent in its rapt attention that Sabrina quickly inquired “Japan, are you still with me?!” as a song ended suddenly. The spectators roared in the affirmative. Sabrina then introduced another new song called “Take One to the Head” as “a bit dark,” but it continued in the same vein of darkly deep R&B grooves, with vocals akin to early Massive Attack. It was something you could see getting a lot of placements in Hollywood movie trailers. Most of Ms.Claudio’s songs sat comfortably in the field of slow, dark and heavy jams. And, in that vein, she owns a comfortable niche.

Another one of her trademarks seemed to be the vocals continuing on for a bar or two after the music has died out at the end of a song. This served as a good pairing for her heartfelt lyrics. The crowd went insane with applause at the end of her before-last song. After they calmed down – in order to listen to the woman they came to hear sing – Sabrina Claudio confessed that she had “waited so long to come here (to Japan)”. Then, she reluctantly announced that she had one song left, and she thought they might like it; her crowd pleaser “Belong to You”. The audience then erupted into approving applause, as the band leapt to life. As Ms.Claudio delivered her last vocal line, the audience applauded enthusiastically – as if on cue – and cheered before filing out of the venue; knowing there would be no encore today.