Issue date: 5/14/01 Section: Style & Arts

Media Credit: Mark Dwyer. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Mark Dwyer. [Click to enlarge]

In front of me four white guys in big pants are break dancing. To my left, four hippie chicks are twirling with arms akimbo. In front of me a sea of bobbing heads and outstretched arms are bouncing to the beat. On stage “The Legendary Roots Crew” are just getting started.

The Roots, played to about a thousand people at the Alfond Arena on Wednesday night. The house looked empty, but the crowd filled it out well with their enthusiasm. They represented a wide cross section of Orono, with black, white, males, females, young and old all turning out to see the Philadelphia bred hip-hop giants.

As one of the more respected hip-hop acts on the music scene, The Roots brought with them the promise of a good time, and no music lover at Wednesday’s show could deny that they had anything less than that.

Starting around 7:30 p.m., The Roots played an almost nonstop set of hip-hop that included favorites like “What You Want,” “Tha Next Movement” and “Adrenaline.” Suspiciously missing from the stage was “The Human Beat Box” Rahzel. Rahzel apparently missed the bus, and was AWOL from the show. Band members were as clueless as the audience as to his whereabouts, but the show went on regardless of his absence.

The Roots do not play a boring show. This fact was evidenced in the way they changed pace and tempo throughout the show and changed familiar songs to give them a fresh sound. Emcee Black Thought announced the song “You Got Me,” at the end of the first hour by telling the crowd they would recognize it. The song, probably The Roots most well known track, was featured on the album “Things Fall Apart,” their most recent studio effort. The album version was a love song of sorts, but the live version was barely recognizable. The Roots added a reggae beat and sped the track up. That, and the absence of a female singing the Erykah Badu parts of the song turned it into something entirely different.

After “You Got Me,” The Roots left the stage, but only for a minute. To the cheers of the crowd Black Thought reemerged and told the crowd that they didn’t have to stop yet and that the rest of the band was going to take a break while drummer ?uestlove played a solo. The close to ten-minute solo that followed was the prelude to a rare musical experience … a rap group jamming out on stage.

The Roots are gifted musicians, and as they worked their way around the stage soloing on keys, guitar, bass and turntables, their skill as performers became more evident. In the course of each solo, the group teased a handful of songs from different genres. Among the tracks they teased were “Award Tour” by A Tribe Called Quest, “Back In Black” by AC/DC, “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugar Hill Gang and the classical song “Peter and the Wolf.”

The encore was amazing through all of the solos, but reached its peak when Scratch “The Vocal Turntablist” took his turn. Black Thought introduced Scratch as The Roots DJ, but DJ’s are not nearly as talented as he was. Scratch’s voice was his turntable as he made amazing sounds and beats out of his mouth and a microphone. As Scratch soloed, Questlove and Kamal played imaginary DJ, challenging Scratch to keep up with their moves. Scratch’s performance alone was worth the price of the ticket, making the rest of the two-hour show icing on the cake.

For anyone unlucky enough to have missed The Roots on Wednesday, or for anyone craving more live hip-hop, The Roots have a live album entitled “The Roots Come Alive.” The Album is available in one disc or two disc versions and it is as close as someone can get to seeing the real thing.

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