No Sweat

Keith Sweat might want to consider changing his last name. At the singer’s local headlining concert debut at the Palace on Thursday night, there wasn’t too much sweat being worked up on stage or in the packed audience. What Sweat offered in his 55-minute set was an efficient and workmanlike set of late ‘80s, hip-thrusting R&B; cliches delivered with much swagger but little underlying personality.

The New York-based vocalist has one great calling card in the Top 10 single “I Want Her,” a propulsive, electro-groove anthem of unbridled desire. But extended to a 10-minute jam, as it was here, the charms wore paper thin, and the rest of his material--drawn from his best-selling “Make It Last Forever” album--is even less distinctive. Compounding the tedium was Sweat’s paucity of material, which forced him to extend some of his best material, including his cover of the Dramatics’ “In The Rain,” beyond the breaking point.

Sweat was backed by an energetic eight-piece band who, thanks mostly to gritty-voiced backup singer Jacci McGhee, sometimes stole the spotlight. But what got the crowd’s sweat going more than anything on stage was a dance floor fracas that sent many streaming to the upper levels and the exits. Of course, considering Sweat’s performance, they might not have needed much prodding.