Thursday, November 25, 2004

Roots in Nottingham: a fine gig

The Roots are one of the most exciting acts in hip-hop, mostly because unlike many acts they are not insular to hip-hop music. Amongst the musical reference points in last night's breathtaking non-stop 2hour performance were the Shadows, Black Sabbath, The Beatles, funkadelia and hefty chunks of soul, as well as some fantastic inclusions from the history of hip-hop (including grandmaster flash and tribe called quest).

The place was heaving and they rocked big style: extended solos aside, nothing ever sagged and when the musicianship is as fine as theirs, you can hardly blame them for grandstanding with their solos!

Awesome experience!

2 comments:

lily said...

the roots take me back to high school (i know, im so young) and remain one of the best, illest live shows i've ever seen.

i used to have a big crush on scratch :) was he with them?

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Sadly no Scratch, but there was some awesome percussion from the mighty ?uestlove (and an equally mighty afro in the front row of the audience!)