By Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer

WATERFALLS WARMED up to the music of Tami Chin during 'Showtime' last Friday night. The singer was the featured act on the weekly live music segment held at the Liguanea entertainment complex.

Getting to the stage at approximately 10:30 p.m. she seemed prepared to keep the dance driven night going. Her hot pink outfit, displaying a dangerous sliver of belly skin, suggested she came prepared for heat.

"Come closer man, I can't sing to the tiles," she told the audience who were scattered around the room leaving most of the dance floor empty. At the time, many of the patrons were either sitting at the tables lining the side alcoves or by the bar. Chin's promise that she would not bite, seemed to work eventually as the audience inched their way closer and closer with each song in the short set.

Beginning with the song Hyperventilating Chin kept the energy high. Most of her songs were delivered with a smooth blend of deejaying and singing. She followed up Hyperventilating with Rock You, the first song she had recorded in Jamaica. This was the remixed version which had her deejaying "how im so hot/ want a piece a dat" over the reggae pop ballad.

MAGIC

By then her cajoling and singing was working its magic on the audience urging them to come closer to the stage. The first several tiles would remain empty during her set, but the night was still young. Several members of the audience were clearly not satisfied just standing or sitting around listening to the music which resulted in more than just sporadic dancing.

After the high-energy start, Chin took the level down a few notches by including two straight ballads in her set. She began with I Want To Make It With You. The song should have easily displayed that Chin was capable of a lot more vocally, a fact that most of her repertoire merely hints at. Unfortunately, the complex's sound needed balancing as the back-up music was being played at a higher level than her vocals. As such, the bass segments of the reggae ballad tended to drown her voice.

Though the set lasted only for approximately half an hour, it was a highly energetic one, showing that Chin is quite a talented performer and singer.

THE CHANT

She ended with the chant, "looky looky but yuh can't getty getty bwoi," from the song Looky Looky. Though the end of her performance was greeted with a few shouts of "encore", none was forthcoming.

The audience received a taste of this week's 'Showtime' performance as Raul Tejada took the stage. Tajeda brought the Latin dancing enthusiasts to the floor who swirled and twirled away as he sang first Dileme then Valemas.

The end of 'Showtime' was not the end of the night however. Indeed, several patrons were just making their entrance. The music played on, as some persons seemed to have been gearing up to dance until morning, or at least until their favourite songs stopped playing.