KUBE bash's high-energy crowd goes mild for Big Boi
The party, Saturday night at the Everett Events Center, initially had the enthusiasm and feel-good vibe (and intimacy) of a house party with several thousand revelers on hand to hear Cassidy, Baby Bash, Master P, Jagged Edge, the Ying Yang Twins and Outkast's Big Boi.
But midway through the four-hour concert, for reasons not entirely palpable, the mood shifted. The squeals and hollas that reverberated off the walls building up to and following sets by Cassidy, Baby Bash and Master P were softer and less enthusiastic by the time headliner Big Boi of Outkast appeared.
Even without the charismatic and colorful Andre 3000, the other half of the powerhouse hip-hop duo Outkast, Big Boi was crisp and polished as he doused the crowd with a potent elixir of rap, funk and soul in a sexy, engaging 45-minute set.
Big Boi crammed it full of some of Outkast's most popular tracks, past and present, including a jazzy, sexy "Ghetto Musick," from "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" and the classic "Rosa Parks."
Big Boi, dressed head-to-toe in a green camouflage outfit, seamlessly spit out rhymes while occasionally busting a (modest) move alongside his dancers. When Big Boi pulled out truncated versions of "So Fresh, So Clean" and "Ms. Jackson," it was as if a mild temblor pulsed through the arena as bodies rose from chairs to rock and shimmy to familiar sounds.
Another familiar sound that dampened Big Boi's performance, however, was the unusual amount of feedback that bounced ear-piercing tones through the house. Nearly half the audience was gone by the time Big Boi wrapped the show (sans encore) with the suave and sultry "The Way You Move."
While the song was hot, the lack of audience participation led to a somewhat anticlimactic cap on what was without question one of the best performances of the night (nasty feedback and all).
A glut of four-letter words and raunchy sexual references created a certain monotony to the music of opening act Cassidy, though many of the teens and young women in the house hollered something fierce when the rising rap artist took his shirt off.
Also showing off something were the Ying Yang Twins, who entertained the crowd with fancy vocal interplay and even fancier footwork, as the hip-hop duo did their own Michael Jackson (circa "Thriller") dance interpretations, while getting others on their feet with "Salt Shaker" and especially, "Get Low."
Some of the loudest cheers of the night came during "gangsta' rapper" Master P's performance. The rap artist-cum-hip-hop mogul (No Limit Records) performed a strong set devoid of his trademark flash.
It was just Master P on the mic tearing through "Make 'Em Say Ugh" and "Break 'Em Off Somethin' " like it was nobody's business, while offering a touching tribute of sorts to " ... all the fallen soldiers" with "I Miss My Homies," set against a backdrop of dozens of flickering lighters.
Tina Potterf: 206-464-8214 or tpotterf@seattletimes.com
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