Fergie & Rooney Entertainment Art House of Blues Chicago, Ill. June 8, 2007

One of the things that have always annoyed me about music critics is that if they don’t like a performer they aren’t objective. Let me begin by saying that the crowd was absolutely enthralled by both Fergie and Rooney’s sets. When Fergie performed and danced her ass off to her hits the crowd went crazy, and there was a persistent scream from the girls up front every time Rooney did anything.

Having caught a sloppy New Year’s performance of the Black Eyed Peas live from Rio a few years back, Fergie’s machine-tooled performance caught me by surprise. First, the backing band was filled with the usual suspects of producers/writers/multi-instrumentalists who had absolutely no trouble reproducing Fergie’s hits perfectly. Her set featured a Black Eyed Peas medley that included “Don’t Funk with My Heart” and "My Hump" that was absolutely dead on. “Fergalicious” and “London Bridge” percolated with an energy derived mostly from what sounded like prerecorded tracks and all along Fergie’s dancers were phenomenal.

I can say it, the woman can clearly sing, honestly. Her cover of Heart’s “Barracuda” lacked the punch of the original, but it was still respectable. Fergie also pulled off one-armed cartwheels while belting out the Heart classic, without ever losing her voice. Almost comical at times, she dedicated virtually every other song to the memory of a failed relationship, or a darker time, and these dedications elicited half-hearted applause from the audience who was clearly waiting for her to trot out her hits, regardless of their artistic motivation. The band also covered Jay-Z’s “Show Me What You Got” for what arguably provided the highlight of Fergie’s dance off between the quartet of backing dancers.

After Rooney’s opening set I spoke very briefly with frontman Robert Schwartzman about the band’s influences, and he mentioned ELO, the Beach Boys and Queen, all of which could be heard in the band’s light and polite set on Sunday. The band clearly knows how to rock a teenaged sing-along. Schartzman is clearly no stranger to playing the O.C. fan base live, and I for one appreciate the professionalism, although the band seemed to be going through the motions without a lot of passion at times. On the other hand, they mix and match influences with a certain reverence for the glory days of 60’s and 70’s arena rock with a clear sense of purpose.

Right before Fergie’s set there was a fashion show featuring local models displaying clothes from the other sponsor, Kohl’s department store. The show lacked any real energy; the MC was even reading copy off of a half sheet of paper. Most of the crowd looked pretty bored and when the models got onstage for the grand finale, there seemed to be a collective sigh that it was finally over.

Sure, the performances seemed largely canned, and sure it’s a little weird to be standing next to someone whose only reason for being here is that he bought a microwave at a department store, but even as I write that I must admit that seeing Fergie’s slick professionalism and Rooney’s influence mix and match was impressive. Sometimes I guess you have to endure a little corporate synergy to enjoy these results.

Fergie knows how to deliver a great show with fun energy and Rooney has got all the goods to do a great live show with Fergie or all on their very own. Even if your taste runs to other things, these performers are pros.

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