90’s House Party at Firekeepers Casino Review 2019

Vanilla Ice melted the nearly packed house Sunday Night.

As a huge fan of 90's music I was pumped to see C&C Music Factory, Coolio, Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray and Vanilla Ice in concert.  Let's start with the rapper that wasn't taken seriously back in the early 90's after he did the song "Ninja Rap" for the Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles II soundtrack.  Vanilla Ice was amazing.

First of all, this guy has aged better than most.  In fact, he looks better in 2019 than he did in 1990.  How about his performance?  To say that he surprised the crowd with his incredible rapping skills would be the understatement of the year.  He absolutely killed it.  If you get a chance to see Vanilla Ice in concert, you must.  Not to mention, he even brought out the Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles.  His performance was seriously remarkable.

Thank God Vanilla killed it.  The three preceding artists were surprisingly mediocre.

First it was Freedom Williams of C&C Music Factory.  I wore out the "Gonna Make You Sweat" CD back in 1990.  So, I was very excited when he took the stage.  He came out wearing denim jeans, a denim jacket, work boots and a ball cap with his name on it.  He didn't dance at all.  Which is odd if you think back to the C&C Music Factory videos.  His rap delivery wasn't bad.  But if I'm being honest, as such a big fan of his I expected more.  Not to mention, he didn't perform one of his biggest hits "Things That Make You Go Hmmm."  That song peaked at #4 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the US Dance charts.  How do you not perform that song?

Next up was Coolio.  I last saw him perform in 2016 as part of the "I Love the 90's" tour.  In 2016 his show was mind blowing.  This show fell short.  He still had his full band with him, which is awesome.  But for some reason, it just fell flat.  I can't stress enough how much I hate saying that.  I love Coolio.

Then there was Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray.  I get the feeling from the way he spent most of his time talking up the other artists that he was the organizer of this tour.  However, I don't know that for sure.  You know how some artists take themselves too seriously and that makes it hard to enjoy their show.  Well, Mark McGrath seemed to go the other direction.  It almost felt like he was making fun of his music at times.  However, he was a great hype man and got the crowd into it.

In summary, it was a lot of fun.  Vanilla Ice is way more of a performer than I expected.  I walked out of that show amazed by that guy.  Also, the Firekeepers staff were incredibly helpful and awesome.