In a Bit of a Rut

As with most things in life, you have to be careful what you ask for in live ‘90s R&B; and rap, because you just might get it.

If one has felt cheated by the frequently lackluster presentations of multi-platinum hip-hop acts, there was always the daydream that some promoter would eventually put together a concert that (a) actually started on time, (b) had top-quality sound and (c) relied on tightly arranged live instrumentation instead of prerecorded tracks.

For the past two years, the House of Blues’ Smokin’ Grooves tour has been an answer to those prayers, dramatically increasing the chances for urban artists to flourish.

Not only do the organizers assemble top-shelf talent (including the Fugees, A Tribe Called Quest and Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers last year), the production quality and pacing of the shows are silky-smooth.

So, why did it feel like something was missing Wednesday night when this year’s edition of Smokin’ Grooves checked into the Universal Amphitheatre with a stellar lineup that included Erykah Badu, one of the runaway sensations of ‘90s pop, and funk legend George Clinton?

It was a show that ran like clockwork--too much so, in fact.

Sometimes grooves need to be a little loose in concert--to provide character and seasoning. “Grits and gravy,” James Brown called it in 1971’s “Make It Funky.” Soul music is about unmitigated passion and spontaneous invention.

Instead, the concert had the feeling of an assembly line--so much so that the audience could sense the show being run by the clock--with no act allowed to stay onstage a second too long--even if the momentum was just building. Ideally, you’d like to let an act keep going if it were cookin’ or cut it short if it weren’t. It’s a spirit that always guided Brown, Prince and other masters of live soul.

Only three of the evening’s five acts--the Roots, Cypress Hill and Badu--were able to fully showcase their musical prowess within the time constraints.

Built around drummer ?uestlove’s pocket-rocket snare kicks, Hub’s aggressive bass antics and Black Thought’s increasingly impressive rapping, the Roots opened the concert appealingly with a jolt of raw, hip-hop fervor. Not only were their own songs noteworthy, but they also employed some outside grooves--from Ol Dirty Bastard’s “Shimmy, Shimmy, Ya” to Schooly D’s “P.S.K,” in inventive ways that set a lively tone.

The next two singers were a study in contrast. The Brand New Heavies’ Siedah Garrett, who recently joined the English group, is technically proficient, but she and the band both lack emotional heat.

Badu, who followed, was everything Garrett wasn’t: sultry, intriguing and intense. Though her extraordinary singing is one of the reasons her “Baduizm” is one of the year’s most compelling bestsellers, she demonstrated Wednesday even more vocal explosiveness and power than she does on record. Her band, too, nicely expanded the recorded arrangements of such hits as “On & On” and “Certainly.”

Cypress Hill and Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic group put on strong back-to-back performances that closed the show with a bang. Surprisingly, Cypress out-funked P-Funk. It wasn’t a question of quality, but execution. Cypress’ arrangement of its songs, from the intense “Hand on the Pump” to the laid-back “I Wanna Get High,” raised and lowered the mood of the crowd in ways that got it slam-dancing in the pit.

But P-Funk, whose normal shows are four-hour extravaganzas, needed more time onstage to get its engine rolling--a slow build that normally begins with “P-Funk (Want’s to Get Funked Up)” and culminates with “One Nation Under a Groove.”

By performing “Flashlight” here and “(Not Just) Knee Deep” there, it was all climax and no foreplay. Fully smoked grooves take time--more than an hour, unfortunately.