It may be easy to forget of Sean Paul's dominance in pop music seeing as the once ubiquitous dancehall mastermind hasn't really been the limelight since hits like "Get Busy" and "Temperature" broke charts the world over. You may even be forgiven in heading along to his Sydney headline concert with some very low expectations, expecting to see a man clinging to relevance with a backing track and hype man; I must admit, I've become pretty cynical about these types of shows. My expectations were completely flipped on the night, the headline act bringing with him a perfectly balanced band and gave us over an hour of exciting, boundless energy, and of course, dutty rock. Along for the ride was another star who hasn't been too prolific in recent years, but has a far few hits stored away from the early 2000s. Mya, equipped with two new independently released EPs, came to remind us not to count her out of the scene just yet.
Armed with X-Factor fame, support act Young Men Society (YMS) opened the stage to the early arrivals. Touted for their chemistry as both dancers and singers, the trio did their best to entertain the slow-to-grow crowd and eventually managed to get quite a few bouncing up and down. There's an obvious commerical American R&B influence on their sound, as all three play as if there is a trio of Chris Brown's on stage; their style - both in music and dance - plays close to the controversial R&B singer. As such, if you're a fan of Chris Brown, chances are high that you'd warm to these guys straight away, and while there's nothing original or too endearing there, their stage presence is undeniable.
Another local act and former X Factor contestant, Lazy J, tried his best to hype up the crowd for what was to come. He brought with him drummer Jed McIntosh and Zee from Soul Benefits on the decks, tasked with adding some extra oomph to his incensed J-Cole esque tracks. While J's lyrics are lacking, the young rapper spins a punchline rap flow over some commanding beats with enough confidence to at least force you to pay attention. Fans seemed to get into his verse from Faydee's"Laugh 'Till You Cry" but there wasn't much excitement in the crowd beyond that.
Rather than pound us with the same old tired "ratchet" beats and have her dancers twerking all over the stage, Mya was content on being a gateway to the R&B of early 2000s, when an understated sexuality was still far more seductive than anything else. It's because of this refusal to try 'keep up' with the current sound, that Mya's performance was so enjoyable. With a small posse by her side, including a musician on the electric guitar and two back up dancers, the effervescent singer leaped around stage with 90s R&B dance moves and a sense of showmanship as hits like "Free", "My Love Is Like Woah", and "Case of the Ex" were each given attention grabbing reworks to keep her live show engaging. The latter was given a nice touch up, blended into the disco-esque "Free". Her cabaret like performance of "Lady Marmalade" was a nice and nostalgic trip, much better than her poor two-hook reconstruction of "Ghetto Superstar" which was only thrown in because people recognise it. Downtime also came towards the end of her set, when generic house music was blended with rock and R&B for something that may have worked on paper, but came across a bit too messy, and if it wasn't for the playful dancing that took Mya all across the stage, the set would have ended on a very low note.
Rather than force feed us unfamiliar material from her two current EPs, Mya does well to balance the set list so we are reminded of her sassy style and sweet, delicate vocals, busting out a few covers of pop songs, old and new, while sitting on a stool next to an acoustic guitar player. Her choices were a bit unexpected - think OneRepublic and Robin Thicke - but each was a nice display of a singer who is far from down and out.
Sean Paul's unique vocals and intriguing blend of hip hop and dancehall was groundbreaking for the mainstream back when he was making tracks with DMX and tearing up the charts with "Gimme The Light". It almost seems 'out of sight, out of mind' now, but maybe our love for his style was just lying dormant in our souls, waiting to be woken up with force by pounding live drums, sliding electric guitars, and Paul's tongue-twisting party commands.
The man works symbiotically with his band, twisting "Get Busy" into arena rock and making it work very well, jumping up and down and banging his head from left to right as he turns the crowd into a mosh pit and takes us through every single hit, making each one as epic as he possibly can.
Paul's set is one that, like Mya, is far from selfish. There's no rush to promote his new album Full Frequency outside of a few shouts here and there; instead, Paul makes it all about how his band can update his biggest hits into something deserving of an arena show. There's not much where visuals are concerned, with flashy lights replaced by two very energetic backing dancers who each had a go at stealing the show, but visuals aren't really needed when the music is as impressive and exciting as this.
Surprises like this make the night so much better than you could have possibly expected, and the dedication to the fans from both headline acts is something deserving of as much adoration and respect as they both commanded during their peak success. Things may or may not work for Mya and Sean Paul as well as they used to, in terms of recorded material, but there's no taking away from them on a live stage.
Images by Gwendolyn Lee for the AU review. Her full gallery can be found HERE
