When it comes to soca music, Trinidadian monster band Xtatik proves that there's tremendous strength in numbers.

I had a feeling that Socafest 2000 was going to be a nice vibe as soon as I neared St. David's Field and heard packs of Bermudians blowing whistles before they got inside the gates.

The live music portion of the show started at about 10 p.m., and started off on a great note with Bermuda's own Jahstice.

The nice thing about writing frequent concert reviews is that I've been able to see the growth of this particular band -- and they sounded really strong on Saturday night. The music sounded clean, crisp and professional.

They kicked off with an original song entitled `Be Careful My Brothers' before moving into some of the tried-and-true tracks like Bob Marley's `Crazy Baldheads' and the Mighty Diamond's `When The Right Time Comes'.

Jahstice was followed by a performance by Bermudian reggae artist Ras Giorgas.

He stepped out on stage in a camouflage outfit, waving a wooden staff.

Ras Giorgas apparently has a new album coming out soon, and he performed some of his newer tracks such as a song called `The Jugglin' Way'.

Although I give him props for producing his own original music, Ras Giorgas needs to work on his stage presence. When onstage, he doesn't strike one as a dynamic performer, and that may affect his career.

The Silk brothers, kin to the late great reggae artist Garnett Silk, appeared onstage next. Predictably, they performed several of their deceased brothers' songs including `Mama Africa', `Kingly Character' and `Zion in a Vision'.

I'm not sure if these are the same pair of Silk brothers who performed in Bermuda a few years ago, but if so, they sounded worlds better than the last time they were here.

There was about an hour break in between the Silk brothers and Xtatik, but the crowd stayed hyped thanks to music by Craig `Bubbles' Darrell. Dread & Baha also included a nice touch of having video screens on both sides of the stage, which played video clips during the interim.

When Xtatik took the stage near midnight, the crowd was immediately swept up in the dynamic energy of the crew, led by the charismatic and sexy lead singer Machel Montano.

Starting up the set with their hit tune `Big Phat Fish', Machel showed Bermudians how to `jook' the Trinidadian way as he proclaimed, `We gettin on badder than Cup Match, y'know!' They performed previous hits such as `Big Truck', `Footsteps' and `Yu Hornin' Me'. Machel, gyrating wildly in an orange tank top and black shorts, insisted that `We're gonna have Carnival in Bermuda right here tonight!' Xtatik held the crowd's attention by mixing up performance with audience participation.

At one point, Machel invited four Bermudian women onstage to see who could wine the best. Some things are better left to the imagination since words can't always give the full picture, but suffice to say that there are at least a handful of Bermudians who can test a Trinidadian wine.

The performances flowed really well through the whole night -- largely because there were no breaks between guest singers Iwer George, Miss T.C., Precious and Tallpree -- they just came onstage along with Xtatik and performed.

Soca stars simply shine Barbadian performer Miss T.C. appeared onstage in a silver catsuit and made sure the audience would `get on bad'.

Young Trinidadian singer Precious gave a memorable performance when she appeared onstage in a body-hugging fire-red outfit and sang her hit song `Riding It'.

She invited a Bermudian man onstage, then threw her leg up on one of his shoulders and proceeded to `kill him with the wine'.

Iwer George's performance was a consistent success as he performed songs such as `Ah Reading' and `Jump Up and Kick Up'.

And Grenada's hottest young soca artist Tallpree, also known as Evilus, brought a whole different kind of energy to the stage with his song `Old Woman Alone'. The crowd tried, with greater and lesser degrees of success, to imitate his trademark dance.

Xtatik rounded out the night with a show of their diversity as they performed snippets from popular hits such as Montell Jordan's `This Is How We Do It', Enrique Iglesius' `Bailamos', Santana and Wyclef's `Maria Maria' and Capleton's `Tour'.

Machel titillated the audience with his 2000 hit `Water', where he stuffed a water bottle into his pants and, well, this is a family newspaper so I'll stop there.

And Xtatik performed `Toro Toro' and `Unidentified Flying Object' for the grand finale.

As usual, Xtatik is a band that always ensures you've gotten your money's worth by the end of the night. And as much as I like the sound of soca, I love the vibe at soca concerts even more. It's one of the few venues where Bermudians finally allow ourselves to loosen up, dance like maniacs, and have a ball.

Release some pressure: Xtatic lead singer Machel Montano, middle, hyped up the crowd on Saturday night while the number one queen in Barbados, T.C., above left, waved her flag at the excited crowd. The show reached a climax with the world's number one soca band Xtatic, above right, pumping up the crowd.