WORCESTER - The “I Love the '90s” showcase held Saturday at the DCU Center was much like the era of pop music it encapsulated: It was a lot of fun, made for some excellent dancing and was marked by moments of brilliance, although it perhaps wore out its welcome by the end.

Comprising Vanilla Ice, Salt-N-Pepa with Spinderella, All-4-One, Color Me Badd, Coolio, Tone Loc and Young MC, the evening offered an array of familiar hits played to a packed house of ebullient partygoers.

The showcase began with a touch of Irony, with a noticeably not-so-young Young MC kicking off the evening. What makes it ironic, though, was that a little bit of age has given the rapper an air of authority. He commanded the stage with a casual swagger, delivering songs such as his party anthem “Bust a Move,” and indeed, there was something transformative when that song was played, a sense, for a moment, that the show was less an exercise in fading nostalgia and more an expression of pure joy.

That became the standard for what the concert was trying to deliver, and for the most part, it succeeded. When rapper Tone Loc delivered "Funky Cold Medina,” he demonstrated a sort of magnetism, reveling in the song and milking every dropped beat for effect. Indeed, these are both rappers whose power lies in their personal charisma, which was diluted when Loc brought female audience members up on the stage for a modified conga line in “Wild Thing.” The crowd loved it, but it screamed excess, and begged the question of whether these songs hold any meaning beyond a certain age group's grasp for youth.

If anyone answered that question, it was Coolio – fresh off pleading guilty to possession of a loaded handgun at Los Angeles International Airport. Whereas the preceding acts performed with DJs and prerecorded music, Coolio was backed by a live band, and it added a level of excitement and energy to his renditions of classics such as “1,2,3,4 (Sumpin' New)” and “Gangsta's Paradise.” The former crackled with sensuality and power, the latter managed to both hit the right amount of balance between solemnity for the song's subject matter, and not harshing the room's buzz. It was a virtuoso balancing act, and it showed the visceral impact and immediacy that was still inherent in this music.

R&B group Color Me Badd took that energy and offered a sort of respite from the intensity, delivering a steamy, sensual rendition of song such as their seminal hit, “I Wanna Sex You Up.” Likewise, All-4-One delivered some spectacular four-part harmonies in classic boy-band style, including the group's heart-melting romantic ballad, “I Swear.” But all of that was only prelude to the main attraction: Salt-N-Pepa with Spinderella.

Celebrating 30 years of performing together, the all-female hip-hop trio, accompanied by a pair of male dancers, launched into a set that was riveting from beginning to end. Indeed, a lot of the set wasn't even devoted to the group's own music: Spinderella dropped a sample of Run-DMC's “Tricky” to great enthusiasm, as well as surprising covers of Guns N' Roses' “Sweet Child O' Mine” and Cyndi Lauper's “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”

They also brought up two separate groups of audience members – one female, one male (and the latter including an adorable little boy who danced like a hip-hop master, including dabbing with Pepa). The audience lapped up everything it was offered with overflowing enthusiasm, but it was moments such as “Let's Talk About Sex” and “Push It” that pushed the evening into overdrive. It was a fantastic set to demonstrate why the trio have been hip-hop staples for three decades.

Alas, they didn't close the night. That honor went to Vanilla Ice, and at first, it looked like it was going to be fine, launching into the set with a fiery and fun-filled cover of Wild Cherry's “Play That Funky Music,” and then proceeding into an energetic explosion of rap.

Ice is a dynamic performer, and well commands an audience, holding the room rapt until he hit on his best-known hit, "Ice, Ice Baby.” Performing on stage amid a crowd of audience members, the song was fun, lively and a nice capper to a flashback evening. The audience applauded, and began leaving in droves.

But he wasn't actually finished: From there, he went on to an actually impressive rendition of Ginuwine's “Pony,” which had what little of the crowd was left up and dancing. It didn't stop the exodus, though, even when he moved on immediately to a cover of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes.” By the end, he was left performing to a mere fraction of the audience with which he started. It's not that he was terrible – some of that closing sequence was a lot of fun – but sometimes, you just need to know when the party's over.