Apparently operating under the credo It’s Our Party And We’ll Smoke Everyone That Came Before Us If We Want To, the Roots closed out the festivities with dizzying, awe-inspiring hour-long jam. By our count, they only played three proper Roots songs — “You Got Me,” “The Next Movement” and “The Seed (2.0)” — but those were just jumping off points for a magical history tour across the continuum of popular music. Dub reggae, classic soul, soft-rock, hard-rock, garage-rock and cock-rock were all essayed in the stunning genre-morphing medleys (Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love,” George Thorogood’s “Bad To The Bone” Muddy Waters’ “I’m A Man” and Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child Of Mine”) that the Roots inserted in between the verses and choruses of their own songs. If you weren’t there, know this: The Roots could be your iPod, if only you’d let them.
From an article in Rolling Stone. I’ve never seen them live, but everything I know about the Roots tells me that they’re the best currently-touring live band around. And they’ve been doing it consistently for years.
