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Music

Celebrating bodies

By SEAN DALY
Published April 12, 2006

	[Times photos: William Dunkley]
	BLACK EYED PEAS: Above, Will.i.am, left, and Fergie) of Black Eyed Peas perform at the University of South Florida Sun Dome in Tampa on Tuesday night.
	PUSSYCAT DOLLS: At left, the bawdy sextet of cabaret kitties put on a show.

TAMPA - It was all about celebrating bodies and booties - big ones and small ones, sad ones and happy ones - at the USF Sun Dome Tuesday.

The Pussycat Dolls, a bawdy sextet of cabaret kitties, taunted with theirs. Headliners the Black Eyed Peas, the mega selling hip-hop quartet who scored a hit with My Humps, boasted about theirs.

And 6,500 young, rambunctious fans of slick party pop kept theirs in motion for more than two silly but satisfying hours.

If you craved wholesome family entertainment, you would have been better off staying home and watching American Idol. Then again, maybe not.

Born in 1995 as a wink-wink burlesque act, the L.A.-based Pussycat Dolls promote titillation over talent. Only one of the women is an actual pro singer: raven-haired frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger. But a serious lack of vocal skills hasn't stopped the group from selling several million copies of their debut album, 2005's PCD.

With Nicole working the mike, the other Dolls - Kimberly, Ashley, Melody, Jessica and Carmit - excelled at writhing on catwalks and stripper poles, chairs and stairs. They were all not-so-dressed dressed in clothes that looked like something from the Beyond Thunderdome collection.

Why, the entire cheeky affair was like a no-contact lapdance.

And I'm not ashamed to say I loved every gosh-darn moment.

Especially because, as a nice bonus, the Pussycat's songs are sincerely catchy, especially Beep (produced by the Black Eyed Peas Will.i.am no less), Wait a Minute and, of course, Don't Cha. (All together now, ladies: "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?")

You've seen them on the Grammys. On Best Buy commercials. At the Super Bowl. Heck, you just might see them milling around your back yard in the morning. But despite their omnipresence, the Black Eyed Peas continue to charm.

Will.i.am (real name: William Adams), who's also one of the hottest producers and songwriters in pop music, is the unmistakable leader of the Black Eyed Peas. But fellow legumes Apl.de.ap (Allen Pineda), Taboo (Jaime Gomez) and Fergie (Stacy Ferguson) certainly have their own fans, as well, making the quartet a supergroup with serious commercial clout. Their two-hour set was sluggish at times; the four members each took several long solo turns onstage (including Fergie's attempt at Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child O' Mine), which will only fuel the rumors that the divided Peas will split up after this tour.

But also consider this: When the four played together, the madcap energy was nothing short of infectious. Working from their last two multiplatinum albums - 2004's Elephunk and 2005's Monkey Business - the Peas roughed up their slick studio sound, turning such hits as Hey Mama and Don't Lie into more rap-driven vehicles.

The most ferocious number was the new Pump It, which snatches a surfy lick from the Dick Dale catalogue and layers it over a rapid head-snapping beat. The song is whopping evidence that there isn't a hip-hop band around that can get you dancing quite like the Peas.

In other words, it was bootyful.

Sean Daly can be reached at sdaly@sptimes.com or 727 893-8467. His blog is at www.sptimes.com/blogs/popmusic

[Last modified April 12, 2006, 09:08:51]