The other night I got to see The Legendary Roots Crew. It was amazing, having never seen them before. I definitely reccommend any fan of music to see them if you can.

The show was opened by local St. Louis band Illphonics. Illphonics is a band comprised of 2 guitars, a bassist, keyboard, drums and a rapper. They have all the guitar-rocking glory of an 80s rock band, with a jazz-drum twist and a dope MC. Really cool band. As I said after they finished playing, “that’s the way to open up for The Roots.” They brought down the house with wild energy, rocking solo’s and pure awesomeness. If you have an opportunity to see these guys play, do. They are great.

Then after about 20 minutes of frantic waiting, The Roots took the stage, one by one. First Captain Kirk, then Owen Biddle, then F Knuckles, then Kamal, Tuba Gooding Jr., ?uestlove and finally, Black Thought. For about 2 hours ?uestlove played non-stop as the group hit tracks from each album, and even some covers of other stuff. Imagine what it’s like to hear The Roots do a cover of This is Why I’m Hot. It was cool, energetic, and all over. Really nice.

Despite the overall greatness, 2 moments really stood out and made this performance special. First: a 3+ minute solo from Tuba Gooding Jr. Nothing is more awesome than a dope-ass tuba player (sousaphone technically, but whatever). Not only was he playing this solo (incredible lungs), he was dancing around the stage, then off the stage in the audience, and then did a run, around the stage got back on and finished. It was truly spectacular, and wildly entertaining. The second stand-out, and certainly the best moment of the show, was the drum solo. ?uest is one of the most talented drummers in the world. One of the most talented musicians in the world. To see him play a solo is worth the price of admission. He and F Knuckles went back and forth a bit, in a half routine, half improvised solo. Then the lights went out, ad ?uesto took up his lighted drum sticks and went to work on his own. The result was a swirl of glowing colour and the best drum solo I have ever heard.

The show was excellent. And I am more excited than ever for the new album, Rising down. The album drops in 8 days, and I think could be there best work to date. A lot of the album has been leaked, and there have been 3 videos released so far (although one of the tracks has not been included on the album). Check it out:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=XBq3dZwQD-A[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=JVlFpBXm7rQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=MPKtYhRZYSI[/youtube]

Great show, great band, and what is shaping up to be a great album. Can’t wait for the 29th.

Peace,

-the judge

Posted on April 21st, 2008 under Music • Tags: Concerts, illphonics, the roots. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback