November 6, 2000

Santa Barbara Bowl

The curfew can't come too soon...

Going to a hip-hop concert is like spending a couple hours on low-impact
aerobics. Between the Black Eyed Peas, De La Soul and Wyclef, the crowd tucked into the cosy Santa Barbara Bowl gets instructions to wave shirts, raise pointer fingers, shake things, scream, jump and dance.

Following a set by De La Soul that emphasises their latest LP
'Art Official Intelligence', with the staple 'Me Myself and I' thrown in for good measure, Wyclef finds himself at the reins of a few thousand kids more than happy to heed his direction. Three songs in, Wyclef
douses himself with a water bottle and with that baptism, assumes the role of emcee in the traditional sense of the word. Sure Wyclef raps plenty, lending vocals to new selections 'It Doesn't Matter' '911' and 'Perfect Gentleman', but like a good showman he also directs traffic on stage, bringing kids up to breakdance and sing, prepping his sister Melcky's a capella rendition of 'Amazing Grace' with an assurance that she's good ([I]"She knows how to sing.Bobby
Brown brought his sister out on tour with him. That was wack" the hordes to flood the stage for the final number.

Wyclef also directs his DJ
through the seemingly endless medleys and snippets of songs by other artists
that includes Mystikal's 'Shake Ya Ass', Dr. Dre's 'Forget About Dre', House Of
Pain's 'Jump Around' and Rob Base's 'It Takes Two', among many others. Sadly
Wyclef's choice to serve as hip-hop jukebox proves to be a distraction from his
own material. Given the fact that Wyclef can and does play guitar during 'Gone
Til' November', an aborted run at the Star Spangled Banner and his cover of Pink
Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here', and has the benefit of a full band behind him,
providing a who's who of hip-hop isn't necessary.

Like a good emcee however,
Wyclef knows how to smooth over the show's glitches, wading out into the crowd
to sing, monitoring the mood and showing off his guitar chops as needed. A city
ordinance means the show must be wrapped by 10 pm, but after three hours of
hip-hop callisthenics, the curfew can't come too soon.

Colin Devenish

If you want to discuss Wyclef Jean click here