Snoop Dogg at the Paramount
by Adrienne Fisher
The sidewalks of Huntington Village are no stranger to busy nights. Block for block, the town is lined with bars, shops and restaurants, drawing in droves of people in search of their next fantastic evening. With the relatively recent addition of The Paramount Theater in the midst of the activity, Huntington has added one more unmatchable reason to patronize what it has to offer. And on September 26, the long queue of people lined up beneath the marquee boasting “TONIGHT: SNOOP DOGG” were indeed about to be blown away.
The Paramount itself, on the inside, is a spectacular establishment. The infrastructure is complex yet accessible, with something new around every corner; unexpected stairways lead to VIP nooks, a mezzanine section gives an excellent bird’s eye view of the stage, a roomy general admission floor houses three bars and the majority of general admission standing space and second-floor balcony bars ensure that the house is packed floor to ceiling with hyped up fans.
The people in attendance on this rainy Wednesday were no exception, and as the Paramount began to fill up, it seemed that the level of anticipation was only matched by the level of diversity among the concertgoers themselves. From college bros in New York sports hats to hippies in Rastafarian gear, suburban bachelors in business casual, drunken moms in leopard print tops, nerdy-looking McLovin’ kids, and even a few good-spirited grandparents, it was clear that Snoop’s career has been so longstanding and steadfast that it transcends the stereotypical idea of what a hip-hop fan should be. What resulted was a group of people gathered from all different walks of life with at least one thing in common: getting down with the Doggfather.
After a lengthy DJ session featuring some of the 90’s best hip-hop and rap cuts to get the attendees warmed up, Snoop Dogg took the stage to the epic opera tune “O Fortuna,” standing before a similarly epic stage backdrop of himself re-imagined as Bob Marley. As a casual listener myself, I had expected to be unfamiliar with the majority of his set. After all, the man has cranked out 11 studio albums over the course of 20 years; a staggering amount of material that even the most die-hard fans would be hard pressed to know by heart. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself singing along to almost everything, as Snoop peeled off the crowd-pleasers and radio-hits in a successful attempt to create an enjoyable, hedonistic live experience. Many of his song selections from that night included more recent tracks on which Snoop has guest verses– “All I Do is Win” (DJ Khaled) and “California Gurls” (Katy Perry) stirred up the sorority girls in attendance, while classics like “The Next Episode” and “Let’s Get High” (both Dr. Dre) brought many hands into the air (waving, of course, like they just didn’t care).
Snoop Dogg himself brought to the stage a special brand of swagger, strolling from end to end calmly yet confidently while seamlessly delivering his verses to a cheering crowd. His years as a professional performer are evident in his live presence; while he wasn’t necessarily energetic in the traditional jump-up-and-down sense, his encouragement of audience participation in the form of “hey, ho” chants and hand clapping was accompanied by the great vibes of the music and the energy of the performers themselves. He was joined on stage periodically by a host of hype men wielding their own microphones and dancing about the stage, taking over rapping duties on certain choruses and verses. One of the crew was adorned in a giant mascot head in the shape of a dog, with the name “Nasty Dogg” on the back of his jersey. Nasty Dogg brought along several contraband stage accessories, namely an oversized plush marijuana blunt that complemented one of Snoop’s most prominent lyrical themes: “Smoke weed every day.” The audience went wild.
The set continued with more and more well-known songs, and concertgoers, united in their collective partying, danced away to popular hits like “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” “Sexual Seduction,” and a cover of House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” After about an hour, Snoop closed out his show with last year’s “Young, Wild, & Free,” leaving the audience breathless and smiling as the house lights rose up. It was more than obvious that during the entire show, Snoop’s efforts didn’t lie in trying too hard to impress anyone, or perform past his capabilities; instead, his focus was on creating a universal, party-now-worry-never experience for anyone who enjoys his music. That sort of easygoing, accepting attitude toward his music and his career is undoubtedly what makes Snoop such a widely loved artist by so many types of people and will keep permeating through the years and albums to come.
