Arizona went looking for the hottest party in town last week and found it at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre. Nelly, JaRule, Eve and Chingy brought the Where The Party At Tour to the desert and the fans were ready to get rowdy to all their favorite throwback club bangers.
Chingy pulled up first, decked out in plenty of bling and wielding a setlist of straight hits. From “Dem Jeans” to “I Like That” to the classic “Right Thurr”, there wasn’t a moment of the performance that the crowd was not familiar with and they gave Chingy their full attention and their best dance moves. The evening was already hot but the fans were prepared to sweat it out on the dancefloor.
The queen herself, Eve, was pure glamour in her shimmering custom outfit and backed by a posse of talented dancers. Each dancer was the perfect complement to Eve’s magnetic stage presence, backing her up on “Hot Boyz” and “Who’s That Girl” before Eve treated her audience to a plethora of iconic verses from iconic 2000s tracks. From Gwen Stefani’s “Rich Girl” to the powerhouse collab that was “Lady Marmalade”, fans were transported back in time during Eve’s incredible performance.
Ja Rule hopped up out of bed, got himself ready and jumped right into a high-powered set all from the comfort of the amphitheatre’s stage. He turned the energy all the way up and the audience matched him bar for bar on “New York”, “Livin’ It Up” and so much more. With his gritty vocals and mischievous smile, Ja Rule is still the king onstage and he didn’t let Phoenix forget it for a second.
It’s been a long time in the making but Nelly reunited members of the St. Lunatics for this tour and the night came alive when “Where the Party At” and “E.I.” kicked in. Nelly had club dancers and a handful of fans in the VIP booths onstage to give the show the true feeling of being back on the floor in the 2000s- and it absolutely worked. He had the audience shaking a tailfeather and dusting off their “Air Force Ones” before pulling out the real bangers like “Country Grammar” and “Ride Wit Me” (nothing like screaming “must be the money with hundreds of ecstatic strangers to really cultivate a vibe).
The set was a little bit country mixed with plenty of Midwest and Southern hip hop- a sound that is still unique to these artists and this lightning in a bottle time in music. Like the rest of the lineup, Nelly pulled out all the stops when it came to the setlist and closed with the ubiquitous “Hot in Herre”, “Dilemma” and “Just a Dream” as the lights came down on one heck of a party.
