MUSIC
The Roots ★★★★★
Sidney Myer Music Bowl, January 1
Just when I thought I knew hip-hop, The Roots came to Melbourne and spun it around to see it from so many angles, it was dizzying.
Tariq ‘Black Thought’ Trotter performs at Sidney Myer Music Bowl on January 1.Credit: Richard Clifford
With a 10-man line-up that includes original founders Tariq ‘Black Thought’ Trotter on lead vocals and Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson on drums – not forgetting the showmanship of Damon Bryson (aka ‘Tuba Gooding Jr’) – the sheer energy of the band is enthralling.
Within seconds of them walking on stage, people are jumping and raising their hands as the band pulls them into hip-hop that dips into funk, visits reggae, toys with psychedelia and constantly calls on jazz.
It really could go anywhere.
A thumping beat from Questlove on the drums leads into the funk anthem Jungle Boogie and a riff from ‘Captain’ Kirk Douglas’ lead guitar turns into a cover of Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin.
The sheer energy of The Roots is enthralling.Credit: Richard Clifford
But what really gets the crowd going is the Philadelphia-bred band’s original songs, especially Step Into the Realm with the lift and fall of its slow-burn piano chimes and chorus crescendo.
The song hails from their 1999 album Things Fall Apart (named after Chinua Achebe’s seminal novel of the same name), and it’s just one of the many tracks The Roots call upon from their extensive back catalogue stretching to the ’80s.
