EDMONTON - Swollen Members at a strip joint. Oh, that's good. That's very good.

Last night, after opening for the Black Eyed Peas at Rexall Place, the Vancouver hip-hop outfit headed over to Showgirls for the 10th-anniversary party of the gentlemen's club. Being a big fan of, uh, irony, the event sounded like a fun and novel idea. But a show within the safe and sound all-ages Rexall playground ensured that it was going to be all cotton candy, not cocaine.

But the concert was never at a loss for punching me below the belt. The sound system's bass throb made it tough not to groove along and the Swollen Members made it, well, even harder.

"Oh, we're going to party tonight," they told us.

Be warned

So, parents, be warned, this bass will change your children's minds. With hip- hop, it's the dirty beats to hook the kids in first. Lyrics about the peelers come later.

Even with their pimp billing, Swollen Members aren't so so hardcore, really. The shiny topside of the Peas's happy hip-hop show is where the teenies bop, not where you ask a lot of big questions.

It was, nevertheless, infectious as anything - it's easy to understand the appeal of music where you're constantly encouraged to yell and make some noise.

The Members did it through poppy numbers like Breath, their collaboration with a not-present-at-the- show-but-would-fit-right-in Nelly Furtado. And when Barbados-born Rihanna took over, it was with Latin rhythms, dancehall reggae and some really great stage presence .... until she left.

Only three songs deep into her set, she left the stage, letting her backup dancers take over for a few songs. She did tell the crowd she had recently cancelled gigs because she was ill, so ...

It almost seemed like she was actually done; turns out it was just a distraction for a costume change.

Rihanna's booty-ful like Beyonce, but her stage chops could use some work.

She redeemed herself with a well-intentioned but creaky cover of Bob Marley's Redemption Song and catchy tunes like her big SOS and its Wayback machine sample of Soft Cell's Tainted Love for all the Mr. Peabodys out there. Overall, though, her set programming stank. Too much interlude and not enough performance, even though the backup DJs did their best to hold the fort.

It looked like the Peas would hinge their performance on stronger foundations, like a stage show that took the roadies half an hour to set up. But are there fractures in the group's lineup?

Maybe this was one of those pivotal moments of pop upheaval. The ones where you get to proclaim, hey, I was there, at one of the last shows before Fergie finally broke from the Peas on her way to solo pop stardom.

The BEP has been around since the late '90s, but achieved bigger success when Fergie, with her ample and obvious charms, joined the group a few years ago.

The rapid fire dancehall style of Hey Mama kicked their set off, with a backup band of a guitarist, sax player, keyboardist and drummer, all of whom probably weren't keeping the best time under the deafening whoomp of the bass.

The Peas stageshow was solid, with professional awards-show quality video footage for the big screens and plenty of room for Taboo to do a few backflips and break dance moves and Fergie to shake and flash.

Voice takes over

Her voice took over, hitting it high on Don't Phunk with My Heart, a driving Shut Up and a really nice cover of GNR's Sweet Child of Mine, almost acting as a prelude to ol' Axl's imminent arrival here.

Maybe a Pealess Fergie can go places.

And should the Peas's pod split, it was a show to remember for more than 9,000 people in E-town.