Ice Ice Baby was Too COLD!

July 9, 2010 Vanilla Ice took over the stage at the Tropicana Field after Cleveland stung the Rays with a victory. Unlike usual protocol for the Rays Concert Series there were no wristbands, no VIP section, and anyone who attended the game could hit the field afterwards to watch the show.

When I saw that Vanilla Ice was coming to the Tampa Bay area, I thought, why not? I mean who doesn’t like “Ice, Ice Baby”? But I shortly realized the man only had one song, so perhaps it may be a short show. Then my husband reminded me that he did the Ninja Turtles 90’s theme song so I was pretty stoked to see Rob Van Winkle in action.

It turns out that “Ice, Ice Baby” was indeed “Too cold, too cold” as the performance was quite chilling. Vanilla Ice rode onto the field in a Ray’s logo-covered Hummer, while the stage was being set up. There were skeleton-ghost-clownish figures all over the stage, both props and people in costumes. People had rushed to the stage. Most of the fans were drunk, twenty-somethings but some were familes with kids in tow trying to get a glimpse of Vanilla Ice himself.

After a foggy intro Rob Van Winkle appeared and the show had begun. Being in the crowd was intense. He opened with “Dirty South” and his harsh and no longer teenage voice bounded through the Tropicana Field. His angry, nonsensical lyrics keep people’s attention for the first few minutes but a quick glance through the field showed the fans wanting one thing: to hear “Ice, Ice Baby.”

I can’t lie, it was all pretty bad. His scruffy and scraggly voice made his older songs sound terrible. There was so much hype and very little to show for it. Half of the audience probably didn’t even know who Vanilla Ice was, let alone what songs he was famous for.
To introduce “Ninja Rap,” he said, “I still love the Ninja Turtles,” yet he changed the song. It wasn’t the same, and neither was “Ice Ice Baby.” It was like he was trying to be Eminem meets ICP, with his dancing clowns and kicking water bottles all over the crowd.

It didn’t matter what song he was playing, he still managed to get the “Ice, Ice Baby” hook into every song. During his performance of “Ice, Ice Baby,” which was reminiscent of nothing from the 90’s, he had girls from age 8-28 on stage being sprayed with water. He only played 45 minute set and after the first song we left the crowd to get away from the drunken masses.

It was pretty disappointing. Perhaps the expectations were too high but it wasn’t even entertaining. Every other song he plugged his upcoming album and his website. Rob Van Winkle produced two cult classics and somehow seemed annoyed to go, “Back to the Old School,” as he called it. He was trying to be rough and tough and badass in his Hustler t-shirt but he just fell flat.

I think my husband summed it up best when he said “At least we got to see the Rays, I mean they lost and that was still the high point.”