Singer Anthony Malvo (left) and veteran deejay Tiger performing at Sting 2009 at Jamworld in Portmore, St Catherine, on Saturday night.

Although the steaming morning sun struck the large, adoring crowd at Jamworld, Portmore, St Catherine, at 8:20 yesterday as dancehall's darling Vybz Kartel wrapped up a marathon concert with a snippet of 'slow motion', precious little was truly hot about Sting 2009 in the post-midnight hours.

It was a matter of the sting in Sting - a relatively short but stirring showing by Mavado, Bounty Killer showing his gangster roots to many who would have been babies or not yet born in the early 1990s, Twin of Twins taking the house down, Assassin's controlled performance, Aidonia's guttural gangster delivery - left until the early hours of Sunday morning. This was after a gruelling night of generally brief, strikingly lacklustre showings, mislabelled performances, many of them coming from relatively unknown faces at a time when Sting should have been warming up for a crackling end.

There were the clashes which did not materialise, no takers for Merciless who floundered on his own and was booed roundly, and the much hyped Mr G and LA Lewis squaring off not taking place. However, KipRich walked out on General B and whipped him soundly.

Some unexpected guests walked out too, Lorna Golding waving to the crowd, Rev Al Miller making an impassioned speech and a still wounded Tiger, for whom there was respect, recalling some old, old days with Wanga Gut and Puppy Love, Anthony Malvo in tow.

Sole stampede

Among the very low points of Sting 2009 were three consecutive overseas-based entertainers well on the downside of 2 a.m. Then there were promising names which delivered well short of their popular records, Wasp and Laden included.

So although the crowd, (big but still far short of last year's bumper crop for the Vybz Kartel/Mavado clash) was in place and well behaved, save for a sole stampede in the band change which followed the crowd's dismissal of Merciless coming up to daylight, the sting in Sting really began at 5:50 a.m.

Lisa Hype was called on to give a blow-by-blow defence of the pictures of her performing oral sex and did a fairly decent job, getting a mixture of boos and cheers in the process, I-Octane then delivering one of the far better, effective non-combative performances of the night to give Sting 2009 a huge boost when it was badly needed.

Before then Chino, with the promise to "never ever change", was one of the few real standouts in terms of delivery and crowd response, Nesbeth, Romain Virgo and Lady G among those who roused the audience to approval and Harry Toddler and Tifa stirring them to boos and jeers.

And there were moments when singers were on key with good material, but Sting was not in an overly embracing mood for them, Cherine Anderson with her take on Ring The Alarm and Stevie Face crooning Tell It Like It Is meeting that reception.

Interestingly, as Chuck Fenda sang for Mama and his voice cracked in emotion, there seemed to be a respectful observance. Etana, who was singing Roots when the sound went for 15 minutes, continued singing for those before the stage, who clapped along to Rivers of Babylon.

D'Angel, with her oversize wings, injected a rare moment of the theatre for which Sting is known, although that did not save her from some hounding handclaps, Charly Black having his best moment with his declaration of "no new friend" at the end of his stage time.

So there was the largely lacklustre Sting, though with its bright moments, before Lisa Hype, her highly anticipated performance, then Sting after Lisa Hype which delivered much more of what impressed the crowd but could not and did not compensate for the 'mish-mash' which preceded it.

Short-changed

Jahvinci advised "watch yu friends whey yu run joke with" to good effect, Black Ryno took potshots at Chino, Flippa Mafia was up to his flossing - liquor splashing, money dashing ways and Pamputae got glee more for her bouncing rump than her lyrics as Sting packed its sting in its tail.

But it was not enough after the malaise of a long night and the resultant time constraints meant that the audience was short-changed (Mavado did not do House Cleaning and many of his more recent songs, Kartel was on for a mere 10 minutes), for an overall unsatisfactory Sting 2009 in its peak post-midnight hours.

Nuffy was the MC for prime time, with the Rhythm 2000, Raging Fire and Ruff Kut bands providing the music.

The Living Fire (formerly Chuck Fenda) performing at Sting 2K9.