The Black Eyed Peas are too pop for hip-hop and too hip-hop for pop, and that made for loads of empty seats at the Apollo Theater Thursday night. But those smart enough to give the Peas a chance were treated to one of this year’s best concerts.
L.A.’s interracial, seemingly extraterrestrial Black Eyed Peas played the kind of frenetic, energetic show that would have been commanding in a stadium, let alone the intimate Harlem music shrine.
The quartet sang, rapped and danced during a frenzied, two-hour showcase that stayed sharply focused on 2003’s “Elephunk” and their new record, “Monkey Business,” which dropped Tuesday.
The Peas’ pumping party anthems were unrelenting, often performed without breaks for applause.
That dedication to the music is what made this show so good. The complexity of the arrangements and being able to deliver them in a live performance without lip-synching or prerecorded tracks was as inspiring as unexpected.
Yet, that concert responsibility – one that few in hip-hop, pop or rock take seriously – paid off with the Peas, creating an old-school atmosphere where musical spontaneity and improvisation blossomed.
The band principals are foxy Fergie, Taboo, Will.i.am and Apl.de.ap, who perform in ensemble raps that would break into melody as often as physical acrobatics.
Among the most amazing mixtures of music and motion came during the Fergie vs. Will lover’s spat “Shut Up.” Each tried to top the other vocally, but it was Fergie’s one-handed summersault as she sang that sealed the competition.
With that kind of exertion, you might have suspected she couldn’t have been actually singing. But as she flipped across the stage in a gymnastic blur, she’d lose her breath at the bottom of each spin. You just can’t fake that.
It may sound like a novelty gimmick because the break-dance elements aren’t essential to the music, but the spectacle supercharged this performance in the same way the cannon blasts enhance an AC/DC show.
The whimsical party beats of “Ba Bump,” “My Style,” “Pump It” and “Don’t Phunk With My Heart” – all on “Monkey Business” – were the soul of a show that signalled the Black Eyed Peas arrival as one of the most important acts in pop.