The Clive party is always hot.. but somehow, I always manage to miss that in favor of the Roots party. The event has outgrown the Key Club... the fire marshall's were there before the band even took the stage - making navigating from the main floor to the upstairs VIP atrocious. Not to mention the Nazi-like rent-a-cops manning the stairwells... I was standing behind Super Kwe while this guy told him that no one, not even the artists, could go from the stairwell into the VIP to the tables. Duh! SuperKwe remained calm, cool yet forthright as usual... until a security guard that recognized who was being declined entry was standing there with this numbnut with a walkie talkie. SuperKwe was kind enough to insure that a few of Dave Chapizzle's guests made it back on the other side where they belonged. True gentleman.

That's what makes this event worth it for me is that you can tell its a labor of love for these people. You get an opportunity to rub shoulder with people that you admire and love and they in return show you love... Its so laid back that you forget that you're a fan of their work... and in my case, that some of them are fans as well. I try to make sure I always invite a few friends to shows when I can so I can give them a bar for all other shows and events to come after that... The Roots put on a good show.. consistently. Why go elsewhere when you never know what you'll get? As Thought said during the concert, "You're listening to the best sound system in the world right here!"

I concur.

What'd you miss at the concert?? My personal fav was a Bob Dylan cover the band performed of the song "Master's of War." I had to throw up the Black Fist for that... it made me cry... having lost friends to this idiotic war. You missed the J Dilla Tribute... growing up outside the "D" I always felt a connection to him... and having lost my first Love's mother to Lupus I was affected on a different level by his death. Talib ran out on stage for Get By, Lupe kick pushed out on stage to do a full set, ending with Jilly from Philly coming out in these kick ass silver wood bottom platforms for "DayDreaming" followed by her own set of both old standards and new material. Of course, the opportunity to have Thought and Jill doing "You Got Me" together was not missed, (although seeing Jill and Erykah do the song as a duet on NYE at the HOB for my Birthday was hard to beat...)

The Brad 7 (or was it Brass 7,) made up of horn player JB (I want to say Jeffery Bradshaw... someone correct me here if I'm wrong on the name,) and 4 other winds, including by JBs introduction, "The sexiest Tuba Player in America, aka Tuba Gooding, Jr.," kicked ass with Questlove on a secondary set of drums at the front of the stage left (or was that right?) instead of his normal throne at the top of the stage. The crowd went crazy as the Tuba Player, the guitarist and Ahmir busted out their own little piece of musical heaven...

Did you miss out? Yeah... Of course you did. Prioritize next time... ;-)

~*~ Sinny ~*~