SAN FRANCISCO--The scene was set for an earth-shattering night.

The GZA, aka The Genius and the head when the Wu-Tang Clan forms like Voltron, was at the Independent to perform his classic album Liquid Swords in its entirety, in front of 500-plus fans primed for a tour of the streets of Shaolin with one of hip-hop's most acclaimed lyricists as their guide.

But a funny thing happened along the way: The GZA largely phoned it in.

Whether due to age, apathy, or a combination of the two, the 41-year-old MC left most of the heavy lyrical lifting to his hype man and the crowd itself. It was disappointing, primarily because Liquid Swords--such a singular album in the history of hip-hop--deserved better.

The show fell woefully short on two fronts, both of which consistently plague live hip-hop shows.

First, the performance and GZA's delivery simply didn't match the overall tone of the record. Sure, fans who go to a concert seeking an exact re-creation of the album are naive and cheating themselves. But the GZA had the opposite problem: He was trying to rock the party with a gloomy, cinematic album.

As Rakim said, MC means "moves the crowd." But that doesn't mean that the MC must constantly seek reinforcement from it. The GZA seemed to raise the inflection of his voice at the end of every line, which made for some awkward moments. Something tells me that lines like, "B****** caught in airports, keys in they vag****" weren't meant to be party-starters.

The second major flaw was more excusable, but no less easy to overlook. It's been more than 17 years since his debut and 13 years since Liquid Swords hit stores, so the GZA is a tested hip-hop veteran.

But when the MC jumps into the crowd and has to awkwardly take the stairs on the way back to the stage, or when he admits to "always forgetting" the lines to the song "Swordsman," it's easy to see that 41 is senior citizenry in hip-hop years.

The night did have a few high points, such as when longtime Wu affiliate Killah Priest climbed onstage and ended the album portion of the set with a blazing rendition of "B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth)"

Opening act the Blue Scholars were fantastic, rocking the house with a set that gave bounce to political tracks and precision to party jams. The Bay Area's sizable Filipino population showed the Seattle duo plenty of love, and they gave it back in spades.

And despite the show's flaws, the GZA would still tear apart most of the MCs half his age that dominate the charts. Hearing him spit classic verses on tracks such as "Duel of the Iron Mic" and "Shadowboxin'" was a thrill, just not as much as it should have been.