decided to go to Wednesday night's soca concert featuring Xtatik and Machel Montano, my ace-girls and I intended to have a chill, laid-back experience at the show.

I swore to myself that this year wasn't going to be like last year's concert where I jumped-and-waved myself into a sweaty heap gasping for air -- so this year I purposefully didn't even dress for a hardcore soca concert.

I wasn't going to `wine' too much, so I put on flip-flops instead of sturdy sneakers; I wasn't going to dance myself into a frenzy, so I didn't bother bringing a towel. But of course, as soon as Machel and Xtatik jumped on stage, all my cool composure went right out the window.

When we first arrived at Bailey's Bay, there were only a few hundred people in attendance, and I suspect that we weren't the only ones who had a tough time deciding between Xtatik and the Sanchez concert at BAA.

But there's something special about a crowd consisting of die-hard soca fans.

Even with the smaller-than-usual turnout (which grew to a decent-sized crowd by showtime) and streaks of lightning flashing in the distance, the audience at Sea Breeze was ripe -- they were dancing up a storm even with just the pre-recorded music playing.

Xtatik made their appearance at about 11.30 p.m. following a few minutes of women dancing onstage in Trini Carnival outfits -- and immediately I knew I was in for a good show.

I like soca, but I really love reggae -- so I was especially thrilled at how many of the songs from this year's Xtatik album "Any Minute Now'' had such a strong dancehall reggae infusion.

They performed songs from the new album including "Big Phat Fish'', "We Sound (Ba Dang)'' and "Mocking Meh''.

The crowd had a bit of local entertainment when Xtatik sang "Rubber Waist'', the song they usually perform with dancehall DJ Red Rat. There was an onstage wining challenge between two Bermudian women from the audience, and I think the woman from Town won the competition when she wrapped her legs around the singer and gyrated with her hands on the ground.

In addition to the reggae infusion, Xtatik highlighted their own versatility as a band when they performed songs spanning musical genres including hip hop diva Lauren Hill's remake "You're Just Too Good To Be True'', Marvin Gaye's groove classic "Let's Get It On'' and TLC's "No Scrubs''.

Throughout the course of their two-hour performance, Xtatik gave us the best of old and new soca such as "Foluma'', "Ah Reading'', "Deep River Mountain'' and `J'ouvert Morning''. They also sprayed the audience with most of their own hits like 1997's "Big Truck'' (which sent the crowd through the roof), "Footsteps'' and of course what I consider one of the best soca songs of all time - the matador-style classic "Toro Toro''.

The entire night wound up with their grand finale "Outa Space'', which was in keeping with this year's theme of millennium-style futurism.

And wow, I love Caribbean creativity -- they actually had a huge UFO blimp that floated high above the stage as well as tall, green alien puppets blowing in the wind next to the stage to close out the show.

I think the show was great -- Xtatik once again lived up to their reputation as the number one soca band in the world.

In addition to the obvious talent and sexy, charismatic stage presence of lead singer Machel Montano, one of Xtatik's major advantages is sheer manpower.

Soca is such a high-energy music, but with fourteen guys in the band they've got the stamina to perform all night and barely break a sweat.

And the sound system, provided by Sound Concepts, was absolutely beautiful -- fine-tuned to a tee.

My only criticism of the evening was the length of the entire concert which lasted exactly two hours on the nose.

Granted, Xtatik packs a hell of a punch in those two hours, but for tickets at $40 a pop, the audience deserves at least some local entertainment to get them geared up for the headliners instead of listening to prerecorded music for most of the night -- after all, we could go to a club for that.

KIM DISMONT ROBINSON ENTERTAINMENT ENTERTAINERS ENT