Before I start I just want to say...?uestlove, Hub, Kamal, Captain Kirk and Knuckles...thank you for opening up my mind. You made me want to pick up an instrument again and start playin music the old fashioned way. Watchin you guys on stage was magic. Blackthought and kate (sorry if I got your name wrong) I can't rap or sing for crap, but you guys were off the hook and I know my limitations.

First and foremost thank you and big ups to the Roots for putting in all the hard work for their tour here in Sydney. I listened in to ?uestlove's interview on triple J on Monday night and its astounding how they can do so much travelling and still get up on that stage and rock the best show I've ever seen.

I've gotta admit, when the Roots performed at the Hordern Pavilion (which is a crap venue) with J5, I left the gig somewhat a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong I really appreciated seeing the roots perform for the first time in Sydney, but having heard so much about how good the roots were live, I just expected a little more. Its cool tho, when you perform at a festival or are sharing the stage with another group, I guess not everyone is there to see you...

But damn this time around, I have to say the roots totally blew me away. I won't go into the set list and what not.. thats been pretty much covered by previous posts.... okay just one thing the re-arangement of the seed 2.0 caught me by surprise. Would kill to see Cody Chestnut and the roots perform that song together (no disrespect cap kirk).

I brought along a friend of mine who has been a big roots fan for a long time. However having grown up in indonesia where hip hop is at its infancy stage and has already been corupted by MTV, he had never seen a hip hop concert of such magnitude and by artists held in such high esteem. This was pretty much his first real hip hop show even though he fell inlove with hip hop a long time ago. Watching him seeing the roots for the first time on stage was almost as good as watchin the concert itself. He was in total awe. After the concert he had to run off to work where he washes taxi's in the dead of night. He called me at 3 in the morning, the album things fall apart blaring in the background, expressing to me that even tho he had to wash taxis in the fuckin cold this was the greatest day of his life.

I had the chance in 2003 to watch ?uestlove perform a dj set at the basement night club. I remember the night distinctly.. oct 11. I was so amped to watch ? in such a intimate venue. We were almost there when my best friends baby momma rang to let us know that she had gone into labour and was expecting any minute. I was both shattered and excited...but shattered kicked in when friends told me that the set was 6 hours of the most blissful music. Never the less I had a new baby nephew. So I was so happy to finally get to see ?uestlove perform another set at the basement this year and I was not going to let anything get in the way. How ? got to the venue so quickly I have no idea.. he arrived before me and I left straight after the concert. I haven't danced that much in a long time. Right till the end of the set. Thank you soooooo much Ahmir. I know you were hella tired and your band had already left to the hotel. You put in alot of work as the spokesman for the band and from a fans perspective I really appreciate the time you give to ppl who love your music. ?uestlove really summed it up when at the end of the night, at about 5 in the morning he let us take a photo with him...a friend of mine remarked "?uestlove you're a genius!!" with which he replied "I ain't no genius, Im just a hard worker."

For real... all the hard work is much loved and appreciated by me thats for sure.

peace.
rick
ps. I hear rumours of 2 Okayplayer artists performing in Aus Jan 2006....yeaaaaaaahhhhhhh.....