With Earth, Wind & Fire, More Glitz Than Show

In R&B;, well-oiled choreography is as venerable a tradition as sweat-drenched spontaneity. But when a mapped-out game plan overwhelms the music, as was the case with Earth, Wind & Fire’s show at the Universal Amphitheatre on Tuesday, then showmanship curdles into something bloodless and brittle.

The show, the first of two nights at Universal, was pure New Vegas vulgarity, a high-budget boredom-killer. Even the band wasn’t the band: Only three of the 14 players were original members.

At its mid-’70s peak, Earth, Wind & Fire’s soulfully slick anthems of utopian self-affirmation made it one of the great singles bands of the era, but at the Universal Amphitheatre, those hits had to compete with tedious set pieces devoted to drum solos, dance numbers and a laughably over-the-top medley of old-school funk from bassist Verdine White. Only midway through the set, when the band’s now-retired leader and main songwriter Maurice White joined vocalists Philip Bailey and Ralph Johnson to sing “Head to the Sky,” did the glitz dissipate long enough to let some real feeling shine through.

Second-billed Rufus avoided Earth, Wind & Fire’s show-biz trappings and managed to evoke nostalgia without succumbing to it. Singer Chaka Khan, who remains one of the most spine-tingling vocalists in popular music, has lost none of her astounding vocal range. She swooped and soared through the band’s ‘70s hits as if something truly were at stake, evincing the kind of musical commitment that Earth, Wind & Fire lacked.