Neither gin nor juice

A respectable percentage of the UB student population was bouncing to Snoop Dogg's beats Saturday in Alumni Arena.

But the UB Spring Fest was far from the only show going on that evening. Where were all the other show go-ers? Who else was "dropping it like it is hot?"

Many probably found the Buffalo State Spring Fest, featuring Nas and Redman, just as enticing a party option.

Reggie Noble himself opened up the set with an energetic set. Engaging the crowd from the beginning, the Jersey rapper played crowd favorites such as "I'll Bee Dat" to "Muddy Waters" and "Rapper's Delight."

Redman connected with the crowd like few performers can, talking constantly about Buffalo, upcoming projects (How High 2 is apparently in the works), and getting one side of the audience to scream "F*** you" to the other.

As a surprise addition to Redman's set, DJ Kool made an appearance. The name may not be familiar to most - but the words "now, now let me clear my throat" should clear it up.

After a short delay, Nas took the stage with a furious barrage of songs. Not one to shy away from crowd pleasers, the Queens rapper performed most of his major hits, from "Made You Look" to "If I Ruled the World."

At one point, Nas even asked the audience to shout out a song for him to perform. The overwhelming response was for "Ether," Nas' notorious diss to Jay-Z, but the rapper replied laughingly that "I don't do that song anymore." Nas did, however, hint that a response is on the way to 50 Cent's recent slam on his track "Piggy Bank," on which he ridiculed Nas and his new wife.

Overall, the two established rappers put on a great show at a bargain price of $10.

On the other side of town, New York City reggae-ska act The Slackers were playing to a demographic slightly over the college age at The Icon. The bar tenders received more business than they're likely accostumed to from the kids who usually attend the club.

There was also the hint of another nefarious substance in the air, which gave the club as much a reggae feel as the keyboard calypso melodies.

20s-style caps and berets rode atop many patrons' heads. The Swingers each wore an elegant three-piece suit.

The seven-piece band was outfitted with a charismatic trombone player in Glen Pine, who also sang. Midway through the set, Pine walked offstage and waited a moment in the wings before running headlong into the crowd to stir things up.

"It's not often one gets the opportunity to communicate with so many people at once, so I'd like to tell you a little story," lead singer Victor Ruggiero said before going into a story of the adolescent desire to spend the summer "grooving" rather than working.

A few stop lights away at The Continental, a couple of Revelation Records bands, Pitch Black and Temper Temper, had some attendance problems, probably because of the other high-draw acts in town.

Roughly 20 people were there, maybe 30 including the other band members and their girlfriends.

The touring acts from across the country, Pitch Black from Los Angeles, Calif., and Temper Temper from Milwaukee, Wisc., took the opportunity to take things less seriously with such a small audience. Each band stood directly in front of the stage for the other, while most of the audience stood in the back.

Pitch Black sounded like Queens of the Stone Age plus a keyboard and minus about 100,000 man-hours of practice, but that's not necessarily bad. They were a little loose, and bassist/singer Martin Monroe sounded like the son of Johnny Rotten with his delivery, but the band seemed on the cusp of a sound worth hearing.

Temper Temper was the hot jam. They have their own spin on the synth-punk sound that The Killers and Franz Ferdinand have popularized. Their take is a bit more rough-cut than their contemporaries', but just as danceable.

The five-piece's rhythm section had Ferdinand's unrelenting robotic sound and frontman Pat Fuller sang and screamed in ways that belied his small stature.

They mixed passion with accuracy in their set, hitting all the big notes and dancing hard on the in-betweens. Temper Temper has the ability to make the audience members who aren't getting down feel like the awkward ones.

Their set ended around 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning, concluding an evening during which Buffalo kids got their candy from an array of strangers.