Tuesday, December 13, 2005  

Sean Paul
(sweet fan pencils)

Washington Post, Tuesday, December 13, 2005; Page C09

Near the midpoint of his 90-minute 9:30 club concert on Sunday, Sean Paul asked women with large breasts to toss their cell-phone numbers onto the stage for the "after party." Little pieces of paper started flying toward the dancehall superstar, and they continued to fall at his feet for the rest of the show. A dutiful hype man gathered up the digits. Based on the high volume scooped up, Paul's going to be hit with major roaming charges.

But "roaming" is something that he's used to: A large percentage of Paul's songs are about hooking up, and the women in the audience ate up his "dutty rock." The way the well-buffed Paul winds his hips could give Shakira a run for her pole-dancing money, and the females screamed like schoolgirls every time he shimmied his pelvis or made a shout-out to the "sexy ladies." Some were even more demonstrative: Before "Shake That Thing," a woman flashed her chest from the balcony, and just after the tune a giant red bra soared onto the stage.

In his flat, drony voice, Paul dispatched two of his biggest hits, "Like Glue" and "Gimme the Light," early in the set so he could get right into promoting his uneven new CD, "The Trinity." While that CD's catchy first single, "We Be Burnin'," rivals anything off his 2002 breakthrough album, "Dutty Rock," most of the other songs, like "Head in the Zone," "Send It On" and "I'll Take You There," are monotonous dancehall bangers, not crossover hits.

"Never Gonna Be the Same" is one of Paul's few tunes that's not about being a playah. Dedicated to reggae singer Daddigon, who was gunned down in January, Paul dropped his loverman shtick and delivered a heartfelt rendition of one of best songs from "The Trinity." But as soon as the tune was over, phone numbers peppered the stage and it was right back to party time. --Christopher Porter

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Tuesday, December 06, 2005  

Tosca

Washington Post, Tuesday, December 6, 2005; Page C02

Tosca is an electronica duo featuring DJ Richard Dorfmeister and his classically trained piano partner, Rupert Huber. On Sunday, the band's 9:30 club show, under the "Dwell Dell Sound System" banner, was supposed to be a huge affair: Four hours long! Amazing light show! Wicked live band!

Well, there was no live band. The closest things were when Huber meandered through a 40-minute ambient keyboard solo to begin the event and MCs Rob Gallagher and Tweed chanted over a Dorfmeister DJ set. Meanwhile, the psychedelic images Fritz Fitzke projected on a screen over the stage didn't stimulate sensory overload, and the gig lasted a mere three hours -- though that was plenty.

So rather than being the mind-bending techno extravaganza it was purported to be, Tosca's "performance" -- Dorfmeister and Huber never actually played music together -- felt more like a tiny li'l rave, which seemed to suit the crowd at the less-than-full club just fine.

But Huber's electric-piano performance was self-effacing to a fault. As he tinkled away, images of human silhouettes, stars and jungles danced above his head. In fact, the projections were the only things dancing at that point; the audience just chatted away as the background music remained there.

Things picked up considerably when Dorfmeister got behind the wheels of steel -- or rather CD players built for disc jockeys -- and the Austrian proved why he's such an in-demand DJ and remixer. For most of the next two hours Dorfmeister blended techno, dub and big beat in a seamless dance-floor construction that pumped up the party. But as the music began to slow and the midnight hour approached, the audience began to thin. A set-ending, and seemingly unironic, spin of the Beatles' "Come Together" sent the crowd scurrying off into the night. --Christopher Porter

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Saturday, December 03, 2005  

Damian Marley

Washington Post, Saturday, December 3, 2005; Page C04

The greatest performer at the 9:30 club on Thursday was not Damian "Junior Gong" Marley, youngest child of Bob. It was the wiry Rasta who waved the old Ethiopian flag, featuring the Lion of Judah symbol, throughout the 100-minute concert. It didn't look like he had Popeye arms hiding under his long sleeves, but he must be eating his spinach to have kept that flag flying for so long.

The charismatic and energetic Marley, his dreadlocks reaching well past his waist, held his own with the scene-stealing Flagman, revving up the sold-out house with an animated mix of roots reggae and dancehall riddims.

After a hype-man visit and a warm-up instrumental by the slamming Empire Band, Marley launched into the strident "Confrontation" from his strong new CD, "Welcome to Jamrock." While the album's striking title track is the smash hit that pushed Marley to the fore of urban radio, the crowd knew many of the songs from Marley's previous CDs, including "It Was Written," "More Justice," "Stand a Chance" and "Where Is the Love." But the set was heavy on tunes from Junior Gong's latest, including "All Night," "Beautiful," "Hey Girl" and "Move!," which samples Bob Marley's "Exodus." Of course, the place went nuts whenever Junior dipped into Pop's catalogue.

The closer, "Welcome to Jamrock," began as a dirge, befitting the tone set by Marley's lyrics chastising Jamaica's corrupt politicians and the sanitized image that foreigners are fed about the impoverished country and its stunning murder rate. Built on a liberal sample from Ini Kamoze's 1984 tune "World-A-Music," Marley and his brother Stephen have refashioned the riddim into one of the most powerful songs to come out of Jamaica. Marley's raging live rendition merely reinforced that. --Christopher Porter

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