I Love The 90’s
Feat. Young MC, Tone Loc, Color Me Badd, Coolio, Salt ‘N Pepa, Vanilla Ice
3rd June 2017
Trusts Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Kate Taylor. Photography by Doug Peters.
An evening bursting with colour, 90’s appropriate costumes, fun vibes and plenty of dancing; the I Love the 90s extravaganza busted a move into The Trusts Arena for a Saturday night of getting up, up to get down.
Kicking off the evening was Young MC, a Grammy award winning artist for his seminal hip hop track “Bust a Move”; and who has continued to release albums consistently since he blew up. During an evening that was run with military like precision, this reviewer unfortunately walked in at the very close of Young MC’s set and copped just the vigorous applause that he received…for missing that, it should be off to the Principal’s Office I go, I know.
Next up Tone Loc was primed and ready to party; launching into Funky Cold Medina everyone was vibing and really shaking off those inhibitions at this stage. Delighting with a cover, Tone Loc declared he was taking us back to Long Beach, California before an airing of Snoop’s Gin and Juice bounced through Trusts Arena. Then, bringing a bevy of kiwi ladies on stage to dance it up for Wild Thing, Tone Loc was fun, upbeat and bringing the grab-yo-boo, ‘nice up the party’ vibes.
Gaining a huge response as they came on stage, 90’s boy band Colour Me Badd, now a trio of the original members, glided onstage and while the audience was definitely wowed by the appearance of these smooth dudes so many years after their hits were NZ radio staples; main vocalist Bryan Abrams proved he’s still got the chops and as they kicked off All For Love the crowd erupted into R&B dance moves they could remember from the music video and followed along with what the Colour Me Badd lads were giving us on stage. I Adore Mi Amore was also a surprise hit, I know I used to love it on my cassette tape and the beach themed vid was a hit on RTR Countdown but it was pretty cute to hear an arena full of NZ’ers singing along and giving the Spanish verses their best shot. Bursting out with a cover of Blackstreet’s No Diggity that was well received it was then into the ‘to the tick tock ya don’t stop’ portion of the evening as Colour Me Badd rocked through I Wanna Sex You Up and left it at that; with Abrams heart-warmingly letting us know, “New Zealand we love you, you’re the phattest crowd we’ve had in a while”
Three down and three to go the set changes were happening at a quick pace and the party didn’t stop between artists as the vibes were kept going with the night’s MC announcing fave 90s tracks and drawing our attention to the video screens at the back of stage for tracks of the era from New Kids on the Block, Montell Jordan and 90’s adjacent tracks from Linkin Park and Eminem.
Perhaps considered the first of three headliners for the evening, Coolio was introduced well with a video montage to take us back in time and really cement just how much Coolio and his personality were a cornerstone of the 90’s hip hop scene, at least in regards to his international fan-ship as the crowd went wild for him; especially after he removed his baseball cap and we could indeed see it was the man himself. Slide, slide slippidty sliding into Fantastic Voyage, Coolio had everyone on board and were rocking along together before bringing it down a notch, introducing his band and dedicating his next cut, C U When You Get There, to the late, great Prince and also Muhammad Ali. Not dwelling too long on the sad side of things, Coolio brought back up the tempo with 1-2-3-4 (Sumpin’ New) before we were graced with the biggie, the one we’d all be waiting to sing along with – Gangsta’s Paradise. To be honest, I would have loved to have heard his 90’s PSA track Too Hot as well but Coolio’s quick and tight set was a great taster of what we could have expected from back in the day. Coolio wasn’t going to leave the stage without telling us “Auckland, New Zealand! I know you; you’re some real motherfuckers, Once Were Warriors…real gangsters. Fuck Captain Cook he found some real shit when he came here! That’s right I know your history, that’s why I love you motherfuckers!” I’ve never heard a crowd cheer for Captain Cook but there you go, I guess there’s a first time for everything!
Then the jewel in the line-up of this evening’s crowd and most certainly the act that everyone was excited to see, if the crowds co-ordinated costumes and purchased merch was anything to go by: Salt ‘N Pepa, the queens of hip hop graced us with their performance. Launching into 1990’s Do You Want Me, we were away and grooving! Addressing the crowd, Salt let us know that “You’re not at a Salt ‘N Pepa show; you’re in for an experience! We’ve been doing this for 31 years…and we wanna apologise to all the ladies in here for getting you in trouble when you were little, all talking about sex and pushing it real good! So, sorry about that.” Doing an age check, Salt ‘N Pepa called out for the crowd to identify themselves as to which era they were from and once we were all properly acquainted the hits came in a thick flurry. Looking incredible, sounding on-point, Salt ‘N Pepa showed that not only are they pioneers of the genre, but that they still 100% have the chops to deliver an exciting and sensational show. Ticking off the hits like Gitty Up, None of Your Business and of course Let’s Talk About Sex; DJ Spinderella cut in a bunch of 90’s tunes for us to groove too like Jump Around (which went right off!), Smells Like Teen Spirit; and one of their dancers performed a Michael Jackson dance routine in complete costume and in time to The Gloved One’s movements on screen. Bringing it right back to their goods with Shoop and Whattaman; Salt ‘N Pepa donned their trademark bright leather jackets to leave us with a searing performance of Push It. So overjoyed to have seen one of my all-time 90’s faves, I was satisfied and ready to go home before remembering that we still had Vanilla Ice to go!
Really not knowing what to expect, Robert Matthew Van Winkle aka Vanilla Ice erupted forth onto his stage set up of levels, a couple of cheeky luchadore dancers, a grim reaper set prop and his elevated DJ desk and…he looked good! Fit and looking box fresh in his gears, Vanilla Ice wasted no time in showing that he was packed with energy and going to give us more than we bargained for. Letting us know that “we’re officially teenagers in here tonight” Vanilla Ice performed a convincing raga inspired freestyle rap over some beats provided by Ice’s man – DJ Dirty Chopstix. Vanilla Ice testing the water asked if “anyone in the house grew up on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Sing it with me Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!” as we followed along the arena was washed with green as the Vanilla Ice dance scene from TMNT II: Secret of the Ooze played out on the screen above and Ice took us through the movie rap. Next up Play That Funky Music got a huuuge response with everyone laying down the boogie for sure! Obviously Ice Ice Baby was so loud and well received that the decibels in Trusts Arena must have been through the roof as we all rapped along with this 90’s icon. True, many punters did decide to leave after they’d heard what they came for; but for the large percentage that did stay on to rock out with Vanilla Ice, they were treated to a ‘block party’ of tunes including DJ Snake’s Turn Down For What, Kendrick Lamar’s Humble and Fetty Wap’s Come My Way. Surprisingly though, it was Vanilla Ice’s cover of Ginuwine’s Pony that pricked my ears up because, seriously, Ice’s singing vocals were solid, like really, really good and this formed an awesome surprise as the crowd got all sexy with their significant others; which made me chuckle realising that Ice is probably going to be responsible for some babies tonight. As the block party continued, Vanilla Ice was all over the stage, taking time and selfies with some of the slew of punters that had been invited on stage to have a dance and as Tone Loc and members of Colour Me Badd also came out to dance, it was one particular kiwi chick in 90’s get-up and bright red pigtail bunches atop her head that killed Vanilla Ice, committing to the dance and stomping it up so well, so floored was Ice by her dancing prowess, that he hugged it out with her and gave her the props she so richly deserved! With the feeling that he could have gone all night if it was allowed to, Vanilla Ice showcased his definite singing chops by taking us out with a rendition of Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry which had everyone swaying, waving and smiling the evening out to a close.
A huge event of artists that I never thought I’d see play live and with my childhood firmly shined up in my memory; if you were ever into any of these artists then I Love the 90’s is a winning night of getting pumped and leaving it all on the dance floor.
Were you there at Trusts Stadium for this musical flashback? Or have you seen any of the acts on the bill live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!