A Show With One Thing on Its Mind

Here’s a question just for the ladies: If a guy walked up to you and laid out a line like “Your Body’s Callin’,” would you: (a) laugh and send him packing, or (b) invite him to sit down?

In the real world, the answer would likely be (a). But in the private fantasy world of R&B-pop; lothario R. Kelly, come-ons like his 1994 hit single work every time.

The singer-songwriter-producer’s 75 minutes on stage Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim were one long, multimedia seduction, an elaborate affair involving video segments, costume changes, a band, rappers, singers, dancers, loads of audience participation, and, oh yeah, a lot of simple, sexy grooves over which Kelly delivered his unabashed pleas for action. It culminated in his persuading a fan to strip to her underwear and climb into a giant bed with him for some sheet-rumpling during the final erotic ballad, “Half on a Baby.”

It was the utterly appropriate climax of a strangely unfulfilling evening packed with talk about love and sex by the supporting acts, whose sharply contrasting 10- to 20-minute sets featured much between-songs fanning of the flames of ardor, not to mention the gender wars, but too much canned music to foster any spontaneity.

Singer Deborah Cox’s soulful takes on romance were positively genteel compared to rapper Foxy Brown’s tough, lascivious boasting. Vocalist Kelly Price crooned only two songs but made a deep impression with her expert wails and moans in the epic, crowd-stirring “Friend of Mine,” about a husband-stealing best friend.

Rapper Nas provided a different flavor with songs from his current album, “I Am . . . ,” which focused on brotherly love and pride in such numbers as “We Will Survive,” an ode to slain rappers the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, whose painted images gazed down from a banner behind the stage.

In spite of its relative depth, his half-hour set often rambled, and it seemed more out of place in the absence of originally scheduled hip-hop prankster Busta Rhymes, who dropped out before the tour started over “creative differences” regarding the production, according to Rhymes’ label, Elektra Records.

Kelly’s own set matched the program’s hip-hop-heavy vibe, only occasionally dipping toward his soul side. The Chicagoan eschewed such inspirational ballads as “I Believe I Can Fly” and most of the more reflective tunes from his fourth album, “R.,” in favor of such laid-back carnal pleasures as his 1994 hit “Bump & Grind” and raw sexual pantomime that included several minutes of rummaging in his pants during “Your Body’s Callin’.”

The lack of introspection was just as well, since--given Kelly’s repetitive “Which one of you ladies can I take home with me?” shtick--his attempts at vulnerability strained credibility more than they added dimension.

If the bluesy cautionary tale “When a Woman’s Fed Up” seemed the inevitable result of his philandering ways, the message of “One Man”--pledging devotion to a woman who’s suffered a bad relationship--proved breathtakingly ironic. Still, such departures gave Kelly the opportunity to show his sensitive side, and he crooned in a surprisingly gentle, genuine voice. Which, ultimately, made the answer to the question “How does he do it?” quite clear.