It hits you later how truly amazing it was. First, Akon was a good opener. He sounded clean, was brief, and did his thing. I enjoyed his set.

But the main event...well, let's see:




(SPOILERS to follow)








The Roots came in like they did at the RCMH show...with a full horn section, marching from the back of the venue. When they took the stage, they opened with Game Theory, and from there played Star, Proceed, Mellow My Man, Act Too, Long Time, and some others. The covers portion of the show was BEYOND hot...easily the best I've seen them do (and this will be show #9 for me, so I've certainly seen them do their share of Hip Hop 101). I'll try to remember all the covers done:

Hip Hop Is Dead
Made You Look
Award Tour
Get By (WITH Kweli...brought the place to their feet)
METHOD Man
Shimmy Shimmy Ya
It's Goin Down
Sexyback
Lost Ones
That's That
The traditional closing of Planet Rock into Push It

There were more, but I can't remember them. Regardless, hot.

Then Lupe came out to The Roots playing I Gotcha. RIDICULOUS, this guy. So much energy, and having the live band definitely fueled the show. Even though they were only there for the opener, he certainly felt it and it added a lot. Lupe then played:

Touch The Sky
Sunshine
Kick, Push
American Terrorist

And then out came Jilly From Philly who did Daydreamin with him, and then into her set. Jill's great, don't get me wrong, but I don't know much of her stuff. She did do The Way though. She's got a whole lot of presence and she's just so goddamn confident it's infectious. Toward the end of her set, you heard the familiar percussion of the $2 Dollar Bill/Block Party You Got Me...Black Thought then came out and went on with it.

AMAZING. Ridiculous. I'm so glad I've now seen that version live. From there, The Roots went into The Next Movement, did some soloish stuff and bounced. You knew they were coming back for the encore...so they did, and killed a version of Roxanne that ?uesto would probably be rejected from American Idol with, but it was still awesome :) From there, they did The Seed and a just insane closing song that you've gotta see to truly appreciate. In a Soul Train line to close out the show, we got a brief glimpse of Mr. Dave Chappelle and then they were gone.

Just like that...the show I've been waiting for for months is over with, but I couldn't be happier. The lowlights were not enough stuff from Game Theory (though I understand the abbreviated set), no real J Dilla tribute (I think we were all hoping for one), and not long enough (nothing you could do). The surprise of the night was Lupe for me...but lord did The Roots kill it. See this show...they truly haven't done anything like this before.