Superfest: A Lean, Mean Music Machine

----------------------------------------------------------- The Budweiser Superfest, featuring Bell Biv DeVoe, L.L.Cool J, Ralph Tresvant and Pebbles, last night at the Tacoma Dome. ----------------------------------------------------------- The Budweiser Superfest concert wasn't quite as super as originally touted. Promised artists Keith Sweat, Johnny Gill and Digital Underground were no-shows, although that was probably a blessing in disguise. As it was, the remaining performers - Pebbles, Ralph Tresvant, L.L. Cool J and Bell Biv DeVoe - put on a show that lasted four and a half hours. Any more would have been overkill.

A lot of comparisons were being made between this show and last February's T-Dome Triple Threat Tour, which featured Gill, Sweat and BBD. Triple Threat was a massively produced event, featuring big set pieces, long stretched-out interludes with audience members, and a bass boost so powerful it was enough to make your ears bleed. The breaks between sets were unbearably long, the show was lengthier with three artists than the Superfest was with four, and the M.C. was a bad comic and a boring host. It was in many ways as self-indulgent a display as you'd ever want to see.

With Gill and Sweat gone, the comparisons paled. Besides, Superfest was lean and mean. The musicians were set up on a revolving stage so that the next band was (almost) ready to go when the previous act was finished. Even then, breaks lasted about 20 minutes, but that seemed acceptable to a young crowd willing to show off its summer togs.

The show began on time at anearly 7 p.m. with host Byron Allen, the television personality. Allen got off a couple of jokes and then got off, leaving the stage to opener Pebbles.

Pebbles appeared with four dancers, two male, two female, and a white-jacketed valet who served her something to drink between numbers and had her red cape ready when she left the stage. It was a cute little James Brown conceit. Pebbles is best known for her hits "Girlfriend" and "Mercedes Boy," both of which struck the most responsive chord with the audience. A slower ballad, "Always," was more entertaining because of the men she brought out of the audience to sing the song to. One in particular was a major ham. Pebbles wasn't the most exciting performer, her dancers had much better moves than she did, but she got the audience engaged.

Ralph Tresvant, second up, had far greater appeal. Also backed by tag team dancers - strikingly dressed in loose blue and black two-tone suits - he played his set as a smooth sensitive gangster. He rapped a little, sang a little and teased a little, quickly loosing his coat and unbuttoning his shirt. He had good, grinding moves and the audience, especially the female portion, was quick and vocal in its approval. Tresvant's hits, "Stone Cold Gentleman" and "Sensitivity," were well played and very well received.

Rapper L.L. Cool J came on third, and the evening may have peaked with him. He carried the largest band, 11 including a three-horn section, and six dancers. Word was he was lethargic at his Paramount show last month, but he was in fighting trim last night. He prowled the stage like a pugilist, muscling through his raps, dancing with his fly-girls, lasciviously writhing, undulating, sliding across the stage like a beefed-up boa constrictor. He paused mid-set to extol the virtues of education and a drug-free life, with both proclamations cheeringly received by the audience, but then went right for the heart, throat and soul with the one-two combination of "Round the Way Girl" and "Mama Said Knock You Out." He was clearly having a good time, dragging his (embarrassed) father out at one point and telling the audience he was being unwillingly forced to leave the stage at the end of his set.

After that, Bel Biv DeVoe could only open with their mega-hit "Poison." They teased the audience with the rat-it-tat beginning and then jumped in full bore. In February the band had a giant telephone pager descending from the ceiling with the band's names flashing on it, a basketball court and a locker room set where they stripped to their shorts in full view during costume changes.

For this outing they kept it very simple: three dancers, tight choreography, and a rapid-fire delivery of the hits, including "BBD (I Thought it Was Me)" and "She's Dope!"

But even as BBD was still on stage taking its extended final bow, most of the fans were making a dash for the door.

Four bands were just about all the Superfest anyone could take.