Bobby Brown attempted to attend Whitney Houston’s “Home-Going” in Newark, NJ on Saturday. Later in the evening, he attended his own homecoming in New England. Hours after the world paid its final goodbye to Houston, Boston’s New Edition performed in front of a sold-out crowd of over 7,000 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT.

Brown took a planned absence from the night’s first three songs, then entered stage right for “Hit Me Off.” As the band introduced themselves one by one before “Jealous Girl,” Brown acknowledged the woman he was married to for almost 15 years.

“I want to give blessings to my ex-wife, Whitney Houston. I love you,” Brown said, motioning towards the sky. “I want to give a lot of blessings to my kids, my fiancée, my brothers, and all of you.”

By “brothers,” Brown was referring to his New Edition band-mates. The sextet powered through a set that lasted almost two hours. Songs performed Saturday evening spanned from New Edition’s 1983 Candy Girl debut to Brown’s 1988 solo smash “My Prerogative” to Bell Biv DeVoe’s 1990 hit, “Poison.” Michael Bivens and Ricky Bell founded New Edition with Brown. Ronnie DeVoe joined a few years later.

With Ralph Tresvant and Johnny Gill also on board, the group had the crowd inside Mohegan Sun on their feet for most of the evening. As the night wound down, the six members sat on stools while the group’s lead singer addressed the crowd again.

“I lost three great people in my life, in the last year,” Brown told the audience of over 7,000 before New Edition wrapped with “Home Again.” “But, nothing makes me happier than to be right here, right now.”

Brown’s brothers were happy to have him there, and had his back. Bivens recognized the emotions that everyone was feeling due to the funeral. The singer said that Bell was “like a bull in a china shop,” watching TV coverage of the event.

“I told (Bell), hit them with your voice, not your fist,” Bivens said to the crowd.

Some New Edition fans, like Lisa Pollock of Bridgeport, Conn., were simply happy just to see Houston’s ex-husband in the building.

“(New Edition) just held it together. I can’t imagine what today was like for them,” Pollock said after the concert. “For them to come and do a show for all of us, definitely exceeded my expectations.”

Pollock thought that in the wake of Houston’s death, Brown is being portrayed unfairly by the media.

“We all have free will in this world,” she said, a nod to the notion that Brown was the direct reason for Houston’s eventual demise. “I’m not going to say what people did or did not do, but he’s his own person (Houston) was her own person.”

Serita Outlow of Norwich, Conn. also attended the show unsure if Brown would make it.

“I think he did an excellent job considering what he must have been feeling,” she said. “I don’t know what he went through with his voice today but I think he still pulled it off. I’m very proud of him.”