CONCORD, Calif. — Gen-Xers never forgot when TLC and En Vogue—years before a child was a twinkle in Destiny’s eye—ruled R&B and MTV. Dancehall artist Shaggy came along soon after as the nerdy, sex-starved Mr. Boombastic. Those were simpler times, before 9/11 and before we worried computers would stop working at the stroke of midnight. If you were growing up around that time, this was formative music. The trio of acts clearly know this, combining their forces for the Hot Summer Nights Tour, which hit the Concord Pavilion on Sunday on the tour’s U.S. finale.

While Shaggy played last, attendees gave TLC top billing and the biggest responses, cranking out ’90s hits and a couple of deeper cuts. Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas led a full band and a dance troupe, with some of the members performing flips mid-song. The late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes never felt far away, her recorded rap on set closer “Waterfalls” turned up and getting some of the loudest cheers of the night.

T-Boz and Chilli, now 53 and 52, came out from opposite wings of the stage before kickstarting with the hip-hop-flavored “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg.” The former, who handled most of the singing, showed off her iconic gravelly voice on “Baby-Baby-Baby” and “Red Light Special.” The latter song was in a funkier arrangement but managed to sound less sexy than on record—probably on purpose.

Bursts from a fog machine matched the bass-laden rhythm of “FanMail.”

“We’re so thankful to all our ‘Day-1s’ for almost 31 years,” Chilli said midway through the set, which was only about 12 songs long—enough to leave those Day-1s wanting more, even after TLC and the band rolled through its very biggest hits.

T-Boz introduced “Unpretty” by talking about how her words from long ago rang even truer now due to the image standards placed on young women and girls by social media and other societal pressures. This snare-led version of the song turned it into a bit of a marcher, with attendees swaying while bathed in fuchsia light. From that point, the duo rolled into mega-hits like “Creep,” “No Scrubs” and “Waterfalls.”

There was also a dance breakdown or cover medley that included, among other songs, Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling.” This felt a bit like a stall, and I would have rather gotten an extra TLC song instead. But what wasn’t a waste of time was Chilli’s dancing. She was basically the head of the dance team, still moving like she did nearly 30 years ago as T-Boz sang.

En Vogue, who played in broad daylight, were nearly as fantastic with its 11-or-so-song set. Original members and Terry Ellis and Cindy Herron, and Rhona Bennett (who’s performed with the group for parts of 20 years) began explosively with “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It),” with Ellis and Herron trading verses.

The three wore complementary orange outfits and performed their own matching choreography, which borrowed heavily from ’60s doo-wop groups. That song went right into “You Don’t Have to Worry,” and then “Lies.” Their voices felt powerful and clear. Bennett then had a chance to stretch her own pipes on “Give It Up, Turn It Loose.” Unlike the headliners, En Vogue didn’t have the benefit of a live band and performed over recorded music. But the trio worked it to its advantage, sliding focus to the singing. The group rarely stopped to chat, hopping from one hit to the next like a jukebox.

After a cover of Salt‐N‐Pepa’s “Whatta Man,” they led the audience in a quick electric slide lesson for “Ooh Boy” and then went right into a medley that included Cameo’s “Candy” and Prince and the Revolution’s “Let’s Go Crazy.” That built up into “Free Your Mind,” which seemed to blow the roof off the pavilion with the trio’s powerful harmonies. En Vogue rounded out its set with their cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Giving Him Something He Can Feel” (which was popularized by Aretha Franklin before En Vogue made it a hit for a third time in 1992) and “Don’t Let Go (Love),” performed as the three stood still at the front of the stage and with hundreds singing the song’s refrain, “Gonna be some love making/ Heartbreaking/ Soul shaking…”

True to his image, Shaggy served as the night’s comedic relief. But as the night’s headliner—which surprised many and led to some leaving before he even took the stage—his set suffered from some momentum-stifling issues, as he stopped one song after another for either lighthearted fan-chastising (if he felt the crowd wasn’t engaged enough) or attempt some situational humor. Still, the songs he was able to get through faster were plenty fun, which was the message of the night.

The anthemic “Mood” successfully set the scene, getting fans waving their arms. Shaggy followed that up with a curveball: “Boombastic,” his biggest hit, performed with a false start and then over a sample of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” (it’s his “Sting Remix” of the song). Midway through, he paused the music, arched his eyebrows and threw his sunglasses out of the way. In yet another fun twist, he followed that up with a surprisingly faithful rendition of the joyous Mungo Jerry tune “In the Summertime.”

The dancehall artist filled many songs with groin thrusts, which worked on some songs like “Boombastic” better than others like “Strength of a Woman” and “Angel,” stripping those songs of their sincerity. He traded lines on the latter tune as well as “I Need Your Love,” covered Peter Tosh’s “Buk-in-Hamm Palace” and waiting until the end to close with “It Wasn’t Me,” the right song for some more pelvic thrusts.

Fellow Jamaican dancehall artist Sean Kingston opened the show with a 20-minute set of some of his biggest tracks like “Beautiful Girls,” 2010 Justin Bieber collaboration “Eenie Meenie” and “Fire Burning.” He was backed by a DJ and a hype man. On “Beautiful Girls,” he led the crowd in a singalong, sometimes cutting the music completely and letting fans sing a few words at a time. How much of the vocals were performed live, other than those sung by the audience, wasn’t clear, but that didn’t seem to affect the revelers.

 

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter. Follow photographer Sean Liming at Instagram.com/S.Liming.