Ludacris gives enthusiastic performance

Does anyone remember last year? The Sting Break concert seemed like the people in charge of picking the talent just drew two names out of a hat.

Bubba Sparxxx and Fuel? Sure, it was free, but did anyone else want their money back after the show? We weren ' t even paid to sit through Schming, and that ' s just salt in the wound.

This year someone in charge got it together. We found a local superstar that the student body actually wanted to see.

That, and apparently Ludacris gave us a fat discount in an effort to help with one of our philanthropy programs.

Within a matter of hours of the doors opening at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, Tech was living la vida Luda.

The first concert review I did for the Technique was for Ludacris at SoulFest 2004 last September.

A true showman from the start, his humorous segues, crowd interaction and well-chosen set list gave a quality performance that left the audience walking away with a feeling of the live experience. Thankfully, he stuck to the formula.

Ludacris promoted his latest album, The Red Light District, performing songs from it to gauge how many in the crowd could sing along. Throughout the show, he performed hit after hit, including " Move, " " Southern Hospitality, " " Act a Fool, " " Area Codes, " " Stand Up " and " Get Back. "

I can ' t say I ' ve ever seen a rapper do an encore before this, but I did find it suspicious when he left the stage without performing " Welcome to Atlanta. "

Accompanying Ludacris on the stage among his partners from Disturbing Tha Peace was DJ Soul, who gave Luda a break to spin Snoop Dogg ' s " Drop it Like it ' s Hot. "

As I watched him do the song, I started making connections in my head.

I remembered running into him at SoulFest and talking to him about the event.

I learned that he was a DJ for the station V103 ( " The People ' s Station " ). Before becoming a rapper, Chris Bridges (Ludacris) was also a DJ for the station.

" The thing I liked the most was how he played classic songs for the fans instead of just blatantly promoting his newest CD, " said Andy Dempster, as true of a Ludacris fan as there was to be found in the venue that night, having traveled three hours just for the show.

One of the highlights of the show was the unexpected performance of " Phat Rabbit, " one of his best and most underrated songs and the one that he made with Timbaland to get his foothold in the rap scene.

During " Southern Hospitality, " he substituted some lyrics of the song to talk about Tech girls.

Also classic was when he asked where all the weed smokers were in the audience.

This was a priceless Tech moment: he coaxed the crowd into holding up lighters if they smoked weed, and some people held up cell phones.

Congratulations Techies, but you can ' t light a roach with a cell phone.

The ticket system this year had its pros and cons. Fortunately, we were allowed to bring guests this time around. However, there were some problems.

We had to provide drivers ' licenses at registration, which was useless for a lot of concert-goers. Also, if you had a group bigger than two people and didn ' t get the floor, you were out of luck.

It is a good thing, however, that they didn ' t just let the floor fill up to its capacity.

Security was able to manage any unforeseen problems this way, including the fight that broke out on the floor.

Also, holding the event indoors at the coliseum was a good call with April showers going on.

All in all, it was worth it and it was free. If you didn ' t go, shame on you.