The Roots: Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn, NY 12/31/10

2010 was an incredible year for the Philly-bred Legendary Roots Crew.  In June, The Roots released their 9th studio album, How I Got Over, which is arguably their finest instrumental, collective and diverse work to date.  On the wake of much critical acclaim towards HIGO, The Roots announced that they had been recording with John Legend, which led to the September release of Wake Up!, a soulful and engaging covers album.  The Roots, completing all of this and more while performing night after night on NBC as the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, a successful role to which they celebrated their one year anniversary of in March.  So what better a way to celebrate 2010 and ring in a new year than an all-night three set marathon Roots show at the Brooklyn Bowl? 

Fans entering the venue before the show were greeted with the Soul Train-inspired sounds of DJ Questlove, Roots drummer Ahmir Thompson’s alter alias when he is not behind his drum set holding down the foundation.  The Brooklyn Bowl itself is the prototype venue to see a great band live in an intimate location.  The 600 capacity venue/bowling alley combo hot spot offers up a restaurant, two full bars and enough couches to lounge out at, all set aside from the comfortably sized general admission floor.  And yes, you actually can bowl during the middle of the concert.  Surprisingly, you can’t even hear the pins crashing while the show is going on.  Awesome atmosphere!     

As Black Thought took hold of the microphone just before 11:00pm, The Roots took the stage to a sold out New York crowd eagerly waiting for the night to get underway.  Wasting no time, The Roots dove into what has become the intro signature to many of their live shows.  A jam on “Thought @ Work” mixed in with some freeze-frame stoppages, pulled back into full throttle with Tariq spitting, “Can I get some help?”  With a heavy emphasis on their latest record, Questlove cued the rest of the Crew to transition into “How I Got Over.”  With Kirk Douglas on backup vocals, this track is one of the standout times Black Thought gets to show off his singing abilities and still deliver aggressive and truthful rap verses. 

Cruising into more from HIGO, the band ripped open “The Fire,” as Kirk filled in on John Stevens’ parts, which followed with Questlove laying down the smooth opening drum texture to “Dear God 2.0.”  “They said he’s busy hold the line please,” Black Thought began as The Roots played through the Monsters of Folk sampled arrangement, as Jim James (My Morning Jacket, M.O.F.) sings the high pitched hook on the studio version.  Switching gears towards the end of the first set, The Roots included “Here I Come,” the fast paced theme off of the darker, James Yancey-laced album, Game Theory.  As the clock struck midnight the lone Root onstage was bassist, Owen Biddle, keeping it locked down on Frank Knuckles’ bongo drums with drumsticks in hand.  You could hear, and see, in the back of the venue Damon “Tuba Gooding Jr.” Bryson’s sousaphone leading the pack as all members strutted through the crowd and onstage New Orleans’ style to “When the Saints Go Marching In.”   

For a large portion of Act II, The Roots featured Philly’s own Brass Heaven, fronted by Jeff Bradshaw, onstage throughout the jams.  The trombone/trumpet/sax combo brought another level of energy to the already high-powered set.  One of the highest points of the entire NYE show though was The Roots’ cover of N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton.”  Their take on the song had such a raw element to it and had Black Thought wrecking the microphone, and, believe it or not, “Captain” Kirk Douglas laid down his guitar to spit the final verse.  Towards the end of the middle set, The Roots took it back to the highly regarded Things Fall Apart album to jam on “The Next Movement,” a song that lyrically describes their mindset in the 1990s, and still even to this day.      

The final set opened with a twenty minute jam on The Roots’ Grammy winning song “You Got Me,” that transitioned into Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” and “Who Do You Love?” all before returning back to Thought’s final verse and Questlove’s outro drum solo on “You Got Me.”  The third set was much more loose and improvised than the preceding two and you could tell the band was much more relaxed with the vibe at this stage in the concert.  With much of the crowd still in attendance, being beyond 3:00am now, The Roots brought Dice Raw to the stage on “Get Busy,” from their 2008 release, Rising Down and followed with “The Seed (2.0)” from the Phrenology record. 

As the clock neared 4:00am, Black Thought began to thank everyone for making the New Year’s celebration a great experience and re-introduced all band members on stage, giving them the floor for extended solos to close out the night.  As a side note that must be noticed, DJ Questlove, continuing to defy the standards of human energy, returned to his post behind the turntables and continued to spin for two and a half more hours going non-stop until 7:00am!  After such a great year, I’m sure all are looking forward to seeing what The Roots have in store for this upcoming year. The self-proclaimed “hard working Legendary Foundation” closed out 2010 with one of the most memorable shows of the year and proved their dominance in the musical universe.        

 

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