THE pre-publicity material did mention that the promoters of the event were not sure who would perform at Studio 38 last Friday — whether it would be raunchy dancehall goddess Lady Saw or her softer, more gentle alter ego Marion Hall. The truth be told, both did.

The venue, located at the Pulse Complex on Trafalgar Road in New Kingston, shook to its foundations following the double whammy served up by this tour de force within local entertainment.

It was clear things would heat up from the time she stepped onto the stage near 1:00 am. She seemed to be acutely aware of where she was and didn’t want to offend anyone’s sensibilities so she asked, “Who you want, Lady Saw or Marion Hall?” and the audience roared, “Lady Saw”.

“You all know seh me can’t work inna shoes,” she declared, kicking off her six-inch-high Christian Louboutin stilettos and got down to delivering what she came to do.

First up was Wuk a Billionaire sung to the tune of the Bruno Mars hit Billionaire. This set the tone for the Lady Saw aspect of her set, which included all her raunchiest music from her break-out standard If Him Lef and a host of the other not-fit-for-airplay tracks, to the radio-friendly hits.

With her hubby John John spinning the backing tracks, Lady Saw was in her element, dishing out advice to the largely female audience on finding and ‘holding’ their men.

She also delivered her ‘matey’ set in which she taught the females in her audience how to handle calls from other women with tracks such as I’ve Got Your Man, Walk Out and Chat To Mi Back — but warned, “nuh turn yuh back unless yuh have a crew fi back yuh,” bursting into laughter, showing her dimples.

She then announced that it was time for Marion Hall. “This is for the ladies who don’t smile when I get nasty,” Hall explained.

This segment included More Than A Woman, the extremely personal account of her inability to conceive so far. During this track her voice dropped and her delivery was etched with what seemed like every drop of emotion within her. She recovered emotionally to continue with the soothing ballads I’m a Woman and Silly.

The Marion Hall set was extremely well-received and allowed patrons to catch their breath after the Lady Saw onslaught which preceded. The respite was however not for long as Marion Hall soon departed and Lady Saw returned to close the evening on another raunchy high.

Throughout the performance, the audience thoroughly enjoyed the music of both Lady Saw and Marion Hall singing word for word, putting in requests and making the night yet another success in the series of live performances at Studio 38.