Kandré McDonald, Freelance Writer

Assassin poses backstage with three young fans.

The estimated two hundred persons who turned out for Face to Face last Saturday, at the beautiful Temple Hall Estate, St Andrew, left disappointed.

Aside from Assassin, most of the acts were either normal or below par. There were also some no shows as Konshens, Spice and Bugle, who were advertised to perform, did not. The international artistes were lacklustre and the small turnout offered them no assistance as far as energy building was concerned.

Another downfall was the time the artistes started to perform. When 'show time' began at 1:48 a.m. most of the patrons, some who were there from as early as 9 p.m., were already exhausted.

Foul-mouthed Darro

What made matters worse was the fact that Darro, a foul-mouthed fresh act, was first on-stage.

Baby Father, another fresh act, had quality lyrics but delivered poorly. Wasp 'stepped' on the audience, while Slash should have been slashed from the line up for lack of talent. Chino was just alright, while Chi Ching Ching commanded the attention of the audience with his verbal gimmicks. But his dancing lacked energy and bored the patrons.

Déja vu

Like a déja vu the audience was again asked: "Are you ready for show time?" this time by Nikki Z who was trusted with emceeing duties. She introduced Assassin who took the stage, developed and maintained a commendable vibe with the small turnout. He did some songs from his early catalogue and deejayed a few new songs that wooed the patrons.

He complained that "the line between man and woman was getting blurred in Jamaica," to a thunderous roar from the minute gathering. The single ...Surveillance was well received and he was given a deserved encore.

Leftside a.k.a. Dr. Evil's switch between personalities was a dud and failed to impress the audience. The bar set by Assassin's performance seemed too high for him. QQ's performance was also flat.

Atlanta's Playaz Circle was downright boring and the crowd was not all that tolerant, especially after the long wait. They couldn't woo the audience and sounded annoying as they rapped above the background track. However, they did get a little response for Duffle Bag Boy.

Trey Songz makes an attempt to get the audience involved in his performance.

Trey Songz' performance found favour with some of the female audience and he would have done even better if he could have fed off a larger crowd. His singles No Clothes On, Last Time, Gotta Go, Wonder Woman, Missing You and Can't Wait, had the ladies singing along.

At 3:58 a.m. Sunday morning Young Joc stormed onstage singing It's Going Down and expressed his disappointment with the turnout, but said he was going to throw a party nonetheless.

He dispelled TV images which portray Jamaica as a negative country and promised to inform others that if they have never been to Jamaica they were missing something special. He also delivered on his promise to throw a small party before making an exodus.

All in all Face to Face was a colossal flop when viewed from the perspective of the turnout. The performances were nothing to really write home about, but THE STAR team has experienced worse.

Young Joc makes a statement about Jamaica during his performance. - nathaniel stewart photos