LIGHTS

As I sat back and waited for the show, I couldn't help but remember that the last time I had been in this venue, I had stood exactly 15 feet underneath where I was now sitting. The St. Pete Times forum is a rather solid corporation that hosts over 150 events annually. The last time I had been inside this structure, it was for the 2009-2010 ACDC tour and I was back stage. It was one of the greatest moments of my life, for I had gotten to witness the production of a massive show; something I had always wondered about since the first time I had been there.

As I reflected upon those situations it helped me gain a better picture of what the tour staff must now be doing to prepare for The E.N.D. World Tour I was about to witness. Underneath all of the seats was a whole other world that the attendees were completely oblivous to. There are a series of exits all around this alternate world that serve as an entry and exit for specific things. Lined against the walls are tons of props and utilities that most wouldn't even remember to include in a show. And around all this a hundreds of people moving in chaos ready to begin. I was still remembering all this as the lights began to dim.

LMFAO was opening, which didn't seem unreasonable since the other acts in the lineup were much more experienced and well known. Out of the sides of the stage bounced these two humans with insanity written all over them. This brings me to their merchandise, which is worth mentioning not only because I found it to be extremely trendy, but also because everyone onstage was repping what must have been each type of merch and periodically throughout the set, a tiny energetic hispanic man kept changing his newly donned attire for something else more relative to the current song.

Author Johnothan Baker from Tixx.com was assigned to review the concert. In his recent article, Baker addresses the performance of the band LMFAO writing:

LMFAO took the stage first and immediately established the fact this was more of a party than a concert. “Where are all my alcoholics at?!” was met with a big cheer, despite the fact it wasn’t even 8 P.M. The lighthearted, groove-happy duo serenaded the crowd via auto-tune, subbed Atlanta into “I’m in Miami, Bitch,” and had back-up dancers that included kids bizarrely dressed up in Lego costumes. It was like if the Flaming Lips ran head first into the Beastie Boys of the future… at a party.

Baker immediately talks of how LMFAO's performance is aimed as more of a party and even makes reference to them calling to the alcoholics in the audience. Playing to the crowd, the group subbed in the name of the city they were performing in for their infamous "I'm in Miami, Bitch" like they did for my city.

Another great touch during their set was the use of their use of telemonitors. During the song "Shots" which features rapper Lil Jon, clips of Lil Jon from the song's music video were flashed during each one of his parts. Another more interesting point to bring up was the terrible job done by the bands autotune. I've never been a fan of auto tune, but I agree that it has some decent applications; this was not one of them. The band itself however was increadibly engaging with the crowd and used this for great transitions into their next songs. I was impressed by their humor on stage as well as their song performance and definitely have to say that I recomend this band live.

Ludacris came next with very vuluptous dancers in hand. He had an very impressive set, rapping atleast one verse from many of his singles. His dancers were expertly choreographed to shake their butt in sync to every beat drop, which helped him pump up the audience more than I've ever seen an opening act do. What I was most thrilled with was the fact that his voice was exactly the same as his C.D.s. His assistant rappers voice was less appealing for it was much higher and slightly off tune, but this only complimented Ludacris' voice that much more and made it prevail even over the slightly overwhelming bass.

The final act, The Black Eyed Peas, came out with an intro that reminded me of the Matrix with a Wizard of Oz twist. The show progressed with a fantastic visual production that only came with the downfall of the lighting being way too over done and truly visually blinding. What caught me off guard was that Will.I.Am was in the spotlight more than any other band member. However, after his first solo, I didn't feel that was a problem. A list of current text messages sent in by audience members started scrolling up a screen and Will.I.Am freestyled effortlessly using them as points. My opinion of him immediately improved. Vocally however I was not impressed with anyone other than Fergie. After he was presented last, had two solo's, flied, and had many other slightly more important parts in the show, I came to the conclusion that he must be coming out with a solo soon. I felt that alot of the show was spent compensating the rest of the group for the over appearance of Will.I.Am. and the crowd hardly stayed engaged. Many people were sitting down the entire duration of the show and the crowd hardly responded to the band.

Truthfully, I was less thrilled with The Black Eyed Peas' performance than I was with the performance by Ludacris. The overall production of the show was fantastic, but the crowd was left more engaged by the opening acts than they were by the headliner. The acts were alright, and well above par, but for a band with as much fame as BEP, I expected alot more.