SYRACUSE, N.Y. — It was a Sunday full of soul as R&B royalty En Vogue lit up the New York State Fair.
Terry Ellis, Cindy Herron, Maxine Jones and Rhona Bennett took the stage in glittering black outfits before an estimated 6,500 fans. Ellis, Herron and Jones are three of the group’s founding members, while Bennett joined in 2003 and has performed with them on and off since.
The show opened with a bang: their 1992 hit “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It).” From there, the audience was taken on a decades-spanning journey through the group’s powerhouse catalog.
At first, the crowd was more reverent than rowdy, nodding along as if attending a soulful Sunday service. But once the group group broke into the unforgettable chorus of “Whatta Man,” originally recorded with Salt-N-Pepa, the mood shifted. Bennett’s confident rap jolted the crowd to its feet, turning the fairgrounds into a party…