Live Review: Salt-N-Pepa, CDB

It's a busy scene as soon as we enter the venue with punters choosing to go down the nostalgic road toward CDB and their synchronised '90s moves are something to behold.

Shoppingtown Hotel beckons. 

An a cappella version of In The Still Of The Night (by The Five Satins, but famously covered by Boyz II Men who, let's face it, CDB were our version of) inspires the crowd to sing along enthusiastically and CDB somehow manage to also mash in Toto's Hold The Line ("Love isn't always on time"). Some of the band's chorey repeats the same eight counts over and over, which the boys still manage to stuff up in parts. Closing hit Let's Groove (Earth, Wind & Fire cover) takes us there confirming this band as an excellent choice for support. Watch this space for a tour announce: Shoppingtown Hotel beckons. 

The DJ continues with the '90s classics and how can one resist MJ's Remember The Time into Mariah's Fantasy? Then Heavy D & The Boyz' Now That We Found Love kicks our muscle memories into gear ("I'm feelin' hunky dory/About this thing I found" - classic!) 

When Pepa takes charge for Let's Talk About Sex it's off the chart.

When Spinderella takes her position behind the decks and two old skool red tracksuited male hip hop dancers appear, audience members go troppo. One half of Salt 'N' Pepa announces, "Australia has a Salt 'N' Pepa fetish," and the unparalleled entertainment begins. When our Everyday People singalong satisfies Salt 'N' Pepa, they allow, "Hip hop is in the building!" Their set incorporates skits during which the dancers become douchebag blokes, complete with props, and tunes such as Gwen Guthrie's Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But The Rent, TLC's No Scrubs and Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive cleverly become Salt 'N' Pepa's shut downs. When Pepa takes charge for Let's Talk About Sex it's off the chart. We all wanna be Spinderella in our next lives, but the rock segment (which has been reduced to her just spinning segments from Sweet Child O' Mine and Smells Like Teen Spirit for this tour) still feels a bit incongruous. Pepa holds her leather kilt down at the front, perhaps concerned about upskirt photos. For Whatta Man they invite a handful of dudes up on stage. Three hipsters look naff, but one adorable gent goes all 'Gangnam Style', saving the reputation of our Melbourne boyz. A neighbouring chick in the crowd sums it up best: "The others were trying hard while he was just airing his business, looking funny." Then all abruptly leave the stage.

Shortly after, Spinderella returns: "Did we forget something?" Did they ever! Push It! All return and our encore kicks off with a Run The World (Girls) (Beyoncé) intro. All in the house need no encouragement to, "Push it REAL good!" Salt stresses, "Salt 'N' Pepa have been doin' this for 27 years," but the flava they bring remains fresh.