When I saw the roots for the first time, in 94, they put on a mind-blowin
show. The best I'd seen in a LONG time! Last night was cool too, but in
addition to doin little new material, and some hits from the album, again
they did remakes of classic and popular hip-hop tunes to keep the crowd
amped, and it worked! I was dancin around like everybody else--still not
very original though. The highlight of their set, was (1) their
band--always on point, and (2) Bahamadia's appearance. She rocked a couple
of rhymes from the new album and she really came off. They ended with a
freestyle set by a bunch of guys representin "Illadel"...
When the Fugees finally came on it was after 2am. I was hoping to see a
different show from them, as they'd just been to Atl. a couple of months
back when doing the Sony college tour with Groove Theory, George Clinton and
Maxwell. Anyway, they let the DJ get his props in first, then like the
Roots , they started playin the old-school hip-hop too! Is this somethin
new? It was OK until they started playin some of the same things the Roots
did...They did the 2 major cuts from the 1st album, and we all enjoyed the
stuff from The Score, L Boogie is almost always hoarse from what Ive heard,
but still she came off on "Killing me Softly". Though, I dont understand the
purpose of the dancehall set to end things, (w/The Godfather and that other
cat) It did keep my attention and my groove goin. They (The Fugees) couldnt
end with big blow out finish, cuz a lot of the audience was leaving on their
own...the show ended after 3:30am....(yawn)
Dane's rating: B
peace.