POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Tepid Dancehall in Long Beach

Dancehall may be the commercially hot reggae style, but Saturday’s performances at the two-day Bob Marley birthday celebration showed that it still is only sporadically effective in the live arena.

Headliner Buju Banton is the most popular, influential deejay (as the dancehall-style rappers are known) in Jamaica since Shabba Ranks, and his entrance did provide an impressive jolt of energy that galvanized the nearly full house at the Long Beach Arena.

But energy alone wasn’t enough as Banton’s hourlong set progressed. His rough, bellowing voice and thick patois rendered the lyrics indecipherable, and his vocal rhythms fell out of sync with the backing band several times.

The set peaked on an extended encore that found the lanky deejay playing his vocals against those of singers Wayne Wonder and Beres Hammond.

In his own Southern California debut, Hammond offered the day’s strongest, most consistent set, and one of the few stressing song craft.

Wonder’s smooth set of “lovers rock” was enjoyable and well-performed, but ultimately generic.

The annual festival sported something new this year--three large video screens and two cartoonish backdrops adding bright color--to complement its usual assortment of food and crafts booths. The Sunday bill was scheduled to feature roots reggae artists led by the Wailing Souls, Barrington Levy and the Mighty Diamonds.