Brightest Young Things

all photos: Mike Danko
all words: Josh Phelps

The Roots have always put on a near flawless live performance, a testament to many years of two-hundred plus gigs.  Claiming sold-out night one of The Roots’ two-day residency at the 9:30 Club as their best show ever?  It was, at least according to chief composer and drummer Questlove who, along with rapper Black Thought, conceived their unique style in Philly two decades ago.  They’ve steadily earned recognitions such as your favorite-rapper’s-favorite-rapper and the go-to band for hip-hop accompaniment.

Speaking to the latter, my mom only knows them now as “Jimmy Fallon’s band” but I had to remind her about the “Do You Want More?!” cassingle we copped back in ’93, around the same time as Southernplayalisticcadillacmuzik (you know, before 3000 let the freak flag fly.)  Many expected the late-night gig to allow the band to ease into some well deserved years of relaxed complacency but quite the contrary.  Quest and Black have taken these expectations as a challenge, working out hundreds of musical interludes for the show and learning their musical guest’s songs in order to play along.  Point being, The Roots are still cutting swathes in hip-hop, and now pop-culture, history with a razor sharp blade.

We entered the club around the beginning of the show with the band ripping through 75 Bars, a stripped down beat showcasing Quest’s focus and Black Thought’s penchant for rhyming days upon days and days.  They even let the tuba get some as he pranced from side to side while the band worked in the Incredible Bongo Band’s Apache, one of many interludes and segues of the night.  They continued with some newer material off of the upcoming How I Got Over but it was clearly the old joints that got the club rocking, albeit with some polish from this decade.  Mellow My Man crushed and got a Love Lockdown infusion, while You Got Me got the Lollipop treatment.

Let’s stop here and throw some credit to guitarist Captain Kirk who provided more than serviceable vocals for this track.  He also took the chorus on Star while getting the go-ahead to rip furious solos throughout the night as they hit a rock stride, including Sweet Child O’Mine and touching on Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song.  Returning to hip hop form, the latter part of the set had a couple of not-so-unexpected guest spots from early Roots member Dice Raw as well as DC’s own Wale.  Infusing Thought at Work with Jungle Boogie, the entire evening paid homage to the band’s, ahem, roots.  Quest even rocked a Cosby Kids tee reminiscent of The Beatles.  Rounding it out with the obvious but no less effective The Seed 2.0, they jettisoned the crowd out to V Street completely satisfied with over 2 hours of nonstop rock and hip hop lessons.

Previously in Live DC:

• 2/13: LiveDC: Veronica Falls/ Brilliant Colors @ Black Cat
• 2/13: LIVE DC: Steve Aoki/ Datsik/ Alvin Risk @ Fillmore
• 2/13: LiveDC: The Darkness @ 930 Club
• 2/9: LiveDC: Theophilus London @ 930 Club
• 2/9: Best Weekend Bets
• 2/8: LiveDC: Kathleen Edwards @ 930 Club
• 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
• 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
• 2/7: LiveDC: Demetri Martin @ Warner Theatre
• 2/7: LiveDC: Augustana/ Graffiti6 @ 930 Club