Seattle Subsonic

CultureMob Presented: (1/2 of) The Roots

June 10th, 2008

While the barista at my favorite cafe bumps Giant Panda‘s “Laser Ray” from Electric Laser, I am bobbin’ my head, procrastinatin’ and reminiscing of last week’s attack of rhymes here in the City of Intermittent Wipers.

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CultureMob threw a great post-party on Thursday night after The Roots‘ appearance at Marymoor Park, where they opened for Erykah Badu. I didn’t venture out to the show as my passport expired and I didn’t have toll for the bridge, but I carpooled like a good show-goer up to The Hill for the jump-off. Beers for the prefunction at the uber-hip Quinn’s and we showed up fashionably on time at 11:15 as DJ ?uestlove, self-proclaimed “fake DJ”, began spinning. Promoted as a listening party for the new release, we knew the whole band wouldn’t be present, and a full set seemed unlikely but beyond that, we weren’t sure what more to expect. Particularly because we hadn’t seen the earlier show. Were MCs from Rising Down going to be hanging out? Was Talib or Peedy Peedy going to be there? Mos Def? Everyone loves Mos Def, right?

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?uestlove wisely pumped out hits to keep the crowd on its feet, and prompted many a call and response as he was about two steps ahead of us on the tables. LL, Snoop, Beasties, Biz Markie, plenty of familiar jams. The set sorta meandered towards the middle with some instrumental wankery but as soon as my comrades began to fade, we were invigorated by the sight of Black Thought at the corner of the stage.

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His set, though brief, was better than expected for an MC that had already put in an effort outdoors in Redmond. The setlist was a bit of a montage, with songs culled from the new release, Rising Down, as well as The Tipping Point, Phrenology and I think I recall “Here I Come” from Game Theory. The absolute standout was “Web”, the chorus-free three-minute breathless tirade from The Tipping Point, followed by an equally fierce “75 Bars” from Rising Down. Catch that vid (complete with explicit lyrics!) here on the YouTubes. Seeing BT spit that live was worth the 6 weeks of waiting since learning of the show. (“The Roots at Neumos? You’re kidding, right?”) Whatever strings were pulled to make this happen, I’d like to thank CultureMob for their efforts. You hooked up about 100 fans with the kind of club experience that doesn’t come around often enough.