From the moment he appeared onstage, all backlit-cool in an off-white suit at the top of a staircase, R&B auteur Maxwell proved he's got what a true soul man needs -- the voice, the jams, the moves and a truly fabulous Afro. Before the end of the night, he added vulnerability to the list, a trait not lost on several thousand screaming female fans.

Crooning and gyrating his way through songs from his platinum 1996 debut, Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite, the 24-year-old singer, songwriter and producer pulled out all the stops for a devoted hometown crowd of 6,000 at the second of two sold-out shows. And with a strong nine-piece band, a modish-looking stage set and a few months of touring behind him, Maxwell delivered a more polished performance than in previous New York-area shows at smaller venues.

Undeniably, Maxwell draws inspiration from a long line of sexy R&B singers, from Marvin Gaye and Frankie Beverly to Luther Vandross and the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. Laying a tender falsetto over smooth grooves built on reedy keyboards and wah-wahed guitar, he swiveled his hips in a slow grind, dropped to his knees and even crawled across the stage as he sang of the kind of love that lasts all night -- and never ends. The almost angelic notes of his current radio hit, the ballad "Whenever, Wherever, Whatever," stretched the tension of seduction to a pitch that -- judging by the audience's squeals, shrieks and impassioned pleas -- bordered on religious ecstasy. One truly hysterical young woman two rows behind me had to be calmed down by friends.

Still, for all his smooth talk and urbane cool, Maxwell's posture includes a down-to-earth, almost goofy side not seen in his more macho R&B contemporaries. Waving shyly at the crowd or busting an exaggerated dance step after a carefully choreographed sequence, his self-consciousness makes him accessible and, hence, desirable -- more geeky-but-devoted boyfriend than jive-talking lothario. To his credit, for all his knee-dropping and stage-crawling, not once did he resort to the absurdly explicit stage-humping favored by so many of his peers.

Musically, too, he seems to be looking beyond the confines of R&B. At one point, he sang Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" in his clear, high range, then, for the second and last encore, delivered a soul-revival-styled cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" (both of which are on the "Maxwell MTV Unplugged" EP, due in stores Tuesday). Dressed in a knee-length, double-breasted stoplight-green patent leather coat, dark-green velvet pants and rectangular shades, Maxwell reworked Trent Reznor's ominous come-on into a pop-funk tease, then transformed it completely into a full-gospel groove. Running across the stage and up the hall's balcony steps -- Afro flying, knees high and tambourine shaking -- Maxwell proved that no matter how far he may wander, he remains loyal to and in touch with his roots.