So I saw the Roots on Saturday....

[Kill]

yup, the Roots once again did a show round here and this time I was very determined not to miss it. As most of you probably know, they're not only one of the greatest bands in hiphop, but also have one of the greatest repuations for live shows, so I went there expecting alot and i feel i'll share this with my fellow dubcc members and give you a quick review of the concert

well, so i went there and had to wait for a while, so i basically just sat around using up my stock of cigarettes...the official start of the concert was 8 pm but we had to wait in the lobby till they'd even let us into the main hall until about 8:45...when they opened the door though, the supporting acts started performing almost instantly...no need to talk about them, they were decent but i was far from interested in seeing those local cats I had already seen like 5 times before anyways, not when i was waiting for The Roots. They played their decent lil songs for like half an hour, after that they put on ATLiens, and just played the album from track 3 to track 8, which i found kinda funny at such an event

Anyways, at about half past 9, The Roots entered the stage and Black Thought just got on there and started rapping for like seven minutes. From this point (yes, i was absolutely sober), I don't really remember shit very well chronologically, so I'll just tell you what comes to mind. I had a pretty nice spot in the crowd at that time, right in the middle and quite close to the stage, good spot to view the show from

So after performing several songs at once, Black Thought stopped and talked to the crowd a little. There wasn't much of the 'when i say this you say that' or 'people on the left say this, people on the right say that' shit, def less of it than at most hiphop concerts, which i appreciated. They then just played stuff from their impressive repertoire, often going on just playing after the actual end of a song or giving the guitarist a little solo or something, which was dope cause you of course don’t get shit like that at hiphop shows usually.

In the middle of the show, they stopped doing the ‘regular’ stuff and kinda experimented with their instruments, with especially the guitar playing being dope as hell at times, and they just went on playing a mixture of jazz and hiphop and demonstrating their musical skills for a while. After that, they gave a Californian soul singer they'd brought with them and who'd been on stage before already performing vocals, a few minutes and he did two songs of his, which were decent, especially the second one.

Then, after this long time-out, they got back to the 'normal' show and played some more dope songs, which went on for easily 20 more minutes and after playing "The Seed V.2" and "Section", they got off stage. Of course they came back, but it took the crowd a pretty long time of making noise until they would. But then they didn't just come back for one song, but they'd actually do a few more and would stay on stage after that for quite long just jamming and playing other people's material, they even did "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (instrumentally of course) and shit like that.

I had to leave cause i had to catch a train and see this girl lol, but they had played for over two hours when I went. It was def the longest hiphop show I remember. They did all songs I wanted to hear really, except "Respond/React" and "Concerto Of The Desperado", but nevertheless that show was tight as hell. Also, the crowd was full of cool people, nobody who was there to cause trouble and get into scuffles, no 15-year-olds about to OD on 2pac, etc. The location was nice, too. dope evening overall

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Sounds dope man, they really do put on a good show for sure. I think they need to get Malik back in the mix though. Black Thought is really dope, but when you have a full on band it seems a bit stupid just having one emcee stood up there the whole time. Must have been even doper to see them when they were only just coming up.

[Kill]

^ yeah, it's true, i missed Malik too, but i really can't complain...Black Thought is def dope enough an MC to carry a 2-hour show and the band is tight as fuck. It would be interesting to compare them to what they were like in the days of Organix or Do You Want More?, but it was my first time seeing them...the advantage now is they got an amazing repertoire of classic songs

at least one person has cared lol

[Danté Williams]

I know I might sound like I'm a 15-year-old Eminem fan or something, but I don't really like The Roots. And I saw them live and I liked them even less.

And I've been loving hiphop for 11 years now, and I love music, real music, live instrumentation, etc. It's just that I don't like The Roots. I've always thought it was funny that if you say you don't like The Roots people think you don't like real rap music or you are stupid or something.

?uestlove is one hell of a drummer, tho.

[-Euthanasia-]

black thought should go solo. he's been saddled by that 'live band' stigma for too long. talib kweli or somebody who doesnt know how to chose music should replace him as the roots frontman