WEEKEND REVIEWS : Pop : Boyz II Men Smooth Out R&B; Sophomore Summit

A far more interesting match than the Mike Tyson fight was on tap Saturday night at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre: an R&B; Sophomore Summit bringing together the smooth young professionals of Boyz II Men and the volatile and sassy ladies of TLC.

But the more interesting corner came up empty: TLC wouldn’t perform, the announcement came, because one member of the Atlanta trio was ill. Which member and what ailment were left unspecified.

Boyz II Men, reviewed on an earlier Southern California tour swing, put on an 85-minute packaged show light on substance if long on vocal embroidery and eye-catching stage effects.

It was left to Montell Jordan, a platinum-selling rookie, to uphold the sort of rap-R&B; merger offered by TLC. Performing to canned backing tracks, the towering, 6-foot-8 Jordan suffered some rookie blahs as his set lurched haphazardly at the start. Changing shirts or topcoats before each number became the connecting thread in a 30-minute set that ranged from the crowd-participation cliches of rap to the melismatic cliches of contemporary pop-R&B.;

In the end, though, it was all just a prelude to the performance’s main point, a lengthy rendition, plus reprise, of Jordan’s career-launching hit, “This Is How We Do It.” The funky party song, a zestful merger of rap rhyming and sung catch phrases, roused the crowd to a happily roaring, sing-along frenzy.

It’s a vibrant celebration of Jordan’s home turf in South Central Los Angeles, paying tribute to the ‘hood as a place of good times and life-affirming possibilities, at least on a block-partying day when “all the gang-bangers forget about the drive-by.” If change starts with a vision, Jordan’s rollicking valentine helps point the way.

But it would have been nice if the contrasting vision of TLC’s mournful hit, “Waterfall,” had been available as well.