It’s always a little strange attending a concert starring The Roots. For starters, their “typical” crowd is almost completely devoid of hyphy thizzers, bling holders, cheeba stashers and bourgeoisie models, replaced by backpackers, bohemians, breakers and hipsters. Promptness has always been their trademark, performing at exactly the time they are scheduled to. And there’s never an assortment of weed carriers with microphones flooding the stage screaming over Black Thought’s voice.
Roots shows are almost always an event unto itself. Three-hour jam sessions, solo drum sets from ?uestlove, and various guest shots are the highlights of their shows. So while their performance at The Roxy was essentially a one-hour affair stripped of its bells and whistles, it still proved why the Legendary Roots Crew are still the best in the live-show business.
DJ Z-Trip opened the show, with a 60-minute vintage-inspired set, spinning and scratching away, even creating a beat through his turntables. Keeping the energy flowing throughout the standing-room-only venue, Z-Trip tore though his genre-crossing set, playing everything from Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock to Aerosmith. The bizarre high point, however, was when the crowd went berserk over Spandau Ballet’s “True.”
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After a quick intermission, ?uestlove and percussionist Knuckles kicked off their set with a brief but entertaining solo as Hub, Captain Kirk, Kamal [sporting a grill] & Black Thought [rocking an equally chunky chain] took the stage, where they immediately ripped into the title track from their Def Jam debut, Game Theory. Thought, as usual played the calm, cool and collected rapper to ?uest’s rambunctious and frenetic drumming, effortlessly coasting through songs with the crowd nodding and reciting along the way.
However, rather than performing their more recognizable (and classic) songs from their catalog, The Roots chose to do joints from recently released album, as well as songs from 2002’s Phrenology and 2004’s The Tipping Point, leaving some concertgoers unable to recognize most of their set. They redeemed themselves, though, when an “anything you can do, I can do better”-esque battle broke out between Kamal, Hub, Knuckles, Captain Kirk and ?uest, ending the show and leaving MySpace fans happy they added them as a friend.
