Monday, August 07, 2000
Nickelodeon Music Fest a dull effort
By Chris Varias
Enquirer contributor
Sitting through the Nickelodeon All That Music and More Festival, the four-hour kiddie extravaganza that came to Riverbend Saturday night, has the same dulling effects as four hours of Nick at Nite, but without the occasional appearance of Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island to break the monotony.
LFO, a vocal trio a little more on the hip-hop side of things than their harmonizing boy-band brethren (imagine the Beastie Boys singing Will Smith), headlined with a 45-minute set representative of the evening: filler in the beginning, filler in the end, filler in between.
Unlike the half-dozen two-hit, one-hit and no-hit wonders rounding out the bill, LFO boasts a few known songs, but a few isn't enough to fill 45 minutes. So they threw in covers of Yvonne Elliman's “If I Can't Have You,” Sugarhill Gang's “Rapper's Delight,” Stevie Wonder's “I Wish” and Will Smith's “Wild Wild West” to complement “Summer Girls,” “Girl on TV,” “West Side Story,” “My Block” and “Baby Be Mine.”
It didn't fill 45 minutes, so the band took between songs to tell the the crowd (“the people on the left...the people on the right...the people in the back”) to “make some noise.” Again, this was in keeping with the half dozen acts, who asked the people on the left, the people on the right, and the people in the back to do the same.
B*Witched are the Spiceless Girls — Irish not English, a quartet not a quintet, no flavor. Their finest moment was a cover of Toni Basil's “Mickey,” but the crowd cheered louder for the confetti at the end.
Blaque is a TLC-style trio, but only two of the girls showed up. Nobody said why. “Natina couldn't make it, but the show must go on, right?” her bandmate Shamari bravely stated.
No Authority, a boy-band quartet, was the crowd's second favorite to LFO. “Can I Get Your Number (A Girl like You)” was the highlight, if there can be a highlight to a three-song, 15-minute set.
Boyz n Girlz United did a 10-minute set, an absolute marathon compared to those by sister2sister (six minutes) and Leslie Carter (three minutes).
In between each set, the crowd was entertained by a couple guys from the Nickelodeon show All That and a DJ, all of whom repeatedly reminded patrons to make some noise.
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