The crowd partied on.

They partied from the first bass-rattling beat of Drop City Yacht Club’s set to the dying strains of Ke$ha’s second encore: a homage to the Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party).”

They partied between sets, dancing and singing with the PA’s steady stream of Top 40 hits, and they partied during sets, electrifying the Carrier Dome from the second the house lights darkened.

“It’s great to be in the Dome. I feel ready to tackle someone,” rhythm and blues crooner Trey Songz said in an interview before Block Party. “I’m going to come out there and kick ass.”

Kick ass he did.

Even for Corey Landis, a junior biomedical engineer who counted Block Party as his 103^rd concert. He didn’t love the lineup, but this year’s Block Party was all about having a good time.

“If you look at how big these artists are,” Landis said, “the ticket is totally worth the price.”

After a breezy set from 60s-tinged hip-hop trio Drop City Yacht Club, who rattled off Outkast and The Beach Boys in the same breath when discussing influences, a swaggering Trey Songz quickly burst into hit single “Say Aah,” his performance bolstered by a jazzy backing band.

“Mr. Steal Yo Girl” lived up to his moniker. Showing off both his falsettos and his abs, Songz drew staccato bursts of swoons and screams that swelled down from the upper deck.

The Block Party faithful partied on from the cheap seats, though junior architecture major Tyler Hedge said he thought more fans could’ve moved down to the pit.

“If they moved the stage back, more people could get a better experience,” he said. “Being that close to an artist makes the concert that much better.”

But Songz kept his performance intimate, despite the distance between the higher-tier seating and the stage.

“Are there any special girls in the audience?” he asked to an answering roar from the females. The applause when he followed up this question by saying his next song was already about a special girl was significantly quieter.

Songz seamlessly slid between gentle ballads and club-bangers at the drop of a beat, slyly blowing a kiss to his fans before launching into “Heart Attack.” He spent most of his set crooning from center stage, bathing in the funky rainbow spotlights.

From the raucous applause after Songz left the stage to bookending his set with two fan favorites, “Bottoms Up” and “2 Reasons,” Mr. Steal Yo Girl almost passed off as Mr. Steal The Show. Fans flocked to the stage’s barricade as Songz walked off in a series of strobe lights, trying to see him up close.

“I want to set the weekend off right and have some fun,” Songz said in a pre-show interview.

Not one to get upstaged, a glitter-clad, barely dressed Ke$ha stormed the stage with a troupe of back-up dancers and punkish-looking band to her hit “We R Who We R.” Bursts of smoke rocketed up from the stage as she slung a guitar around her neck and riffed.

Though the Block Party survey listed Ke$ha as a pop act, her set owed more to lewd, unadulterated rock ‘n’ roll. She wore a white guitar like an oversized necklace before shredding on “Blah Blah Blah,” and re-imagined mega-hit “Take It Off” with grungy guitar licks. Even the choreography for older material — including “Party at a Rich Dude’s House” — featured some Springsteenian power slides from her dancers.

Some songs, though — “C’Mon” and “Your Love Is My Drug” — didn’t get the rock-star remix.

Ke$ha trotted out “Gold Trans Am” from her newest album, “Warrior,” for the first time live, riding onto the stage atop a gold-painted toy Trans Am. But members of the crowd mistook the song’s beat for a Queen song, mistakenly singing, “We will rock you” before the songstress started singing. The tune borrowed from the Bowie songbook instead, with a few growly “Wham, bam, thank you ma’am’s” from Ke$ha.

“This place is about to blow,” the singer said with a slur as the wobbling bass of “Blow” kicked in, setting off confetti cannons that flanked the stage.

Ke$ha introduced most of her songs with a quick anecdote, including “One morning, I woke up and couldn’t find any f*cking toothpaste” for “TiK ToK,” and “Don’t f*ck with crazy b*tches, boys” as a prelude to “Cannibal.”

As quickly as Ke$ha left the stage after finishing “TiK ToK” with a flourish, the crowd thundered into a chant of her name. In true, rock princess form, she obliged the encore request with smash hit, “Die Young.”

And the crowd partied on.

Published on April 27, 2013 at 4:57 pm

Contact Erik: ervanrhe@syr.edu | @therealvandyman