Part of the blame for the lack of stankiness must be assigned to the venue, which had reserved seating only, creating a sort of unspoken tension in the room. An Outkast concert should be an event where one can lose all sense of inhibition (demonstrated by the pink leather jumpsuit and blonde wig in which Andre appeared onstage), not one where an individual is confined to a reserved seat in a cluttered concert hall, afraid to interact with his or her neighbor for fear of ruining "the show." The ethnically diverse audience made do as best they could by interacting as a community in a wholly different way. When the houselights dimmed, the stage and the audience lit up. By the time Outkast appeared onstage, opening with a blistering version of "Gasoline Dreams" (off their newest album, Stankonia), an odious yet strangely soothing mushroom cloud had risen to the top of the theater, enveloping the rafters in mist.
The beginning of the concert was indeed as stanky as could be as the duo of MC's led off with a collection of remarkable hip hop tracks designed to get fans up out of their seats. From the previously mentioned "Gasoline Dreams" to the electro-thump of "Xplosion" to the irresistible catchy "Aquemini" to the fantastic "Elevators (Me & You)," Outkast’s songs managed to lift the fans up and take them higher, a noble feat given the level at which the crowd was already operating.
After about half an hour, however, the group made two mistakes that severely diminished the event’s stankiness. The first was an over-reliance on performances of older, back catalog songs. A band can and should be allowed to perform whatever they want in concert, and an over-emphasis on new material can suck the life out of a show just as much as one on old material can; however, when you have a hip hop collective like Outkast, an outfit which quite literally improves by leaps and bounds with each new record they release, a concentration on lesser material for shits and giggles can be a let-down for an audience weaned on the group's newer, edgier, more extraordinary fare. The second error in judgment Outkast made was a concentration on promotion for their production pet projects and partners in crime, Slimm Calhoun and Goodie Mob. Calhoun, though a talented MC, deadened the room with his back-to-basics hip hop, nowhere near paralleling the superstar theatrics of his mentors; Goodie Mob had a rowdy good time on stage with Big Boi and Andre, especially during lively performances of "Gangsta' Shit" and "We Luv Deez Hoez," however their overlong and overcrowded performance often denigrated into dull incoherency and white noise.
These honest live performance mistakes led to a much quieter, much less stanky crowd as the show began to approach its third hour. Reliable Outkast (and their P-funkesque backup crew, consisting of a seven piece band and overweight, knee-sock wearing dancers) managed to pick up the slack for the final few numbers, coming out with superior renditions of the melodic "Humble Mumble," the loopy "Red Velvet," and the single "So Fresh, So Clean." Finally, the dynamic duo delivered what the audience was looking for by performing their three beloved rap classics in chronological order as the last three songs of their set. First came "Rosa Parks," which the wiry Dre, now shirtless in shimmering UFO pants, dedicated to the woman herself (who reportedly has problems with the song and is suing the outfit). Next up was "Ms. Jackson," Andre's soulful top- 40 dedication to his ex, R&B sensation Erykah Badu, and their child born out of wedlock. Closing the show was "B.O.B.", possibly the most exciting, lucid and shockingly brilliant hip-hop single to come out this year. Because of Outkast's incomparable talents, the audience left the Theater at Madison Square Garden with stank fully restored, their faith in this masterful hip hop dynamic intact. If only Big Boi and Andre could have maintained this level of stankiness for the full show, the audience could have left having seen something magical: a "stank-fest" on the "Stank-Love" tour, brought to you by the proprietors of "stank," Outkast.
The Theatre at Madison Square Garden
(New York, NY)
reviewed by Matt Portenoy
photo by Barry Brecheisen -- taken from tunes.com
