A dodgy sound system and dubious planning dampened the excitement of 4,000 fans at American rapper Jay-Z's "block party" last week at Bangkok's BEC-Tero Hall.

The "block party" idea was supposed to make it more like a party in the 'hood for the audience, but the scattered seating and the stage placement only succeeded in curtailing movement.

No one got a really good view of Jay-Z and his guest, Rihanna, and even the most devoted fans - those who got the best tickets - found they had little room to dance.

The designated dancing area was far from the main stage - out by where the refreshments were being served - and it was quite a hike.

"The sound system was terrible and the atmosphere isn't like a dance hall," one disgruntled concert-goer complained. "The sound is even worse than in some of the RCA pubs."

There were problems with the big video screen too. At one point it just shut down altogether.

Thaitanium got things off to a rousing start, and much dancing was attempted.

There couldn't have been a better set-up for Rihanna, but she'd no sooner laid into "Pon De Replay" than it became clear her lip-synching - punctuated with occasional efforts to sing - wasn't going far.

She did the cute "If It's Lovin'" and "Break It Off" with Sean Paul's voice in the background, and stirred things up with Bob Marley's "Redemption Song", finishing with her hit single "SOS" to show off some of her celebrated dancing, but the performance lacked energy.

"Is she going to make it?" one young lad wondered as Rihanna's lethargy showed even in her hairstyle, pulled back rather than her usual voluminous style.

The party really only got going when Jay-Z appeared, the fans raising their hands with thumb and fingertips together in the diamond symbol of Roc-A-Fella, his own record label spun from Def Jam.

He sang 27 songs in all, often with the help of Memphis Bleek, another of the Def Jam crew. "What More Can I Say?" jumped into "99 Problems", "Dirt Off Your Shoulders", "Jigga What" and "Izzo (HOVA)", his collabo-ration with Linkin Park.

By mid-show Jay-Z was telling the crowd, "I know you already!"

More sexy tunes followed. During "Is That Your Chick" he got the audience bouncing along with him.

The ladies in the house swooned with "Song Cry" and "Bonnie and Clyde", then he got back to rapping with Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" and the flirty "Excuse Me Miss".

"Hard Knock Life" wound the fans up fully, lots of them rapping along with him word for word. All thoughts of technical glitches vanished as the show roared into its encore -

Encore? "Is that it? It finished so fast!" a girl gasped.

Jay-Z's got other things to attend to - his new video "Show Me What You Got" has already been banned in China.

Lisnaree Vichitsorasatra

The Nation