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The day recap:
I left San Diego at 9:45 with my friend Sean T. Go to Universal Studios around 12:15. Sean K (that's seandammit) and Jen met us at The Raiders Store at City Walk.
We figured we'd check in/grab tickets for Fallon and then head back up and take a bunch of photos of us wearing Raiders gear and maybe make a viral video of it and go back downstairs closer to show time. But turns out once we got tickets that we'd have to wait in a holding area until the show started. (Next time we'll make a video - I promise. Imagine me wearing a series of funny hats + all of us doing exagerrated touchdown dances inside of the shop at the mall.)
Then they split us up becuase there were not 4 tickets together at that point.
Three hours of waiting - three hours with nothing but Marco Rubio size Arrowhead bottles of water and Star Tours toilets --and nothing to do except listen to the the pages tell us how seats work, and watch as the construction workers walked up/down a hill with full/empty coolers of lunch food.
I'm sure the person I'm emailing about the guest list for the jam loved how many times I sent messages asking "are we on the list?" I bet she thinks I'm a charmer. Hey, I had three hours of nothing to do except email/text while waiting a white tent in the basement of the Curious George parking structure. And I stood the entire time - why? I don't know why.
Once they load us up we drive down to the studio in one of those trams - and the trams are playing those awful tram videos. We get to the studio and line up and wait another 30 minutes - but they had "real" bathrooms. So it's a wash.
They let us in and our seats (Sean T and me) are, well, perfect. I'm sitting on the inside seat right where camera that Jimmy speaks to for the monolog is. Could not ask for better seats.
Seth Herzog comes out and does the audience warmup - and then The Roots come out and play a bit. And then Seth leads audience participation games. I think I spoke with him way too much - but I did win a pillow and some drum sticks so I'd do it agin in a heartbeat.
I also see Keith and he stops by for a moment and says hi.
The show was fast - Jimmy only flubbed a single joke once. The 45 minutes of show were filmed in 65 minutes - really tight. The only slow part was Jack White's stage set-up - we thought it was going slow because Jack White wasn't there. But it turns out he was there - instead of a pasty looking adolescent wearing a hat for cult members he's now a good looking rockabilly guy who may even go out when the sun is still up.
?uest and Kirk came by and said hi on the way from the stage to backstage.
After the show we ended up waiting for another 20 minutes until we're let go to the trams. (Depends on where you sat how long you had to wait.)
After the show we at at some place called Salsa Bar (3791 Cahuenga Boulevard ,Studio City CA 91604) then go to Amoeba and buy nothing.
Got an email that said "yes, you are on the list." Very happy.
We posted up at the Hotel Cafe at 8:45pm. Sean K. and Jen show up at 9:00pm. Then a long line starts behind us - and a long line also starts in front of us.
I saw no one famous with these three exceptions: Morgan Murphy, Steve Mandel, and Kenny Lucas. (Well - it's not Kenny Lucas at all - but at that point I'm just a tired old white guy mistaking a black dude with baseball cap worn bill up, some glasses, and a plaid shirt for Kenny Lucas.)
Sean T sees Aisha Tyler. I don't.
We get in with zero problems - again perfect.
So I do what I always do at concerts - I post up way up front in an area that no one is going to get in front of me and I stay right there. i know there are celebs in the audience but i don't really care. I haven't seen The Roots play in like 4 years -I'm there for the show.
So I saw no one. My guess is that if you asked the RZA, or J. Lo, or Brandy, or Craig Robinson if they saw me they'd say "yeah - that dude was blocking our view." But I never see anyone. (Well don't ask them if they saw me, ask them if they saw a fat guy in business casual attir right at the front.)
Another hour waiting (no seats) and my 44 old feet and getting angry at me. But when the show starts I figure it'll be okay.
I can't remember the exact details - Seth Herzog does Wonder Woman and some banter, Zoey Kravitz as Lolawolf. Meek Mill. Nick Jonas. LaCrae. Queen Latifah. Jamie Foxx doesn't want to perform while waiting for Kool and the Gang but does anyway. A few others I don't remember , like who was the female with Kool and The Gang, and also let me apologize from mad-dogging the girl's breasts who sang Zombie - that was because I was tired and was looking for pillows - not trying to objectify her.
Black Thought is making the other rappers look like mere humans. Meek Mill had the non-Thought stand out verse of the night (which I didn't tape) but it here: http://realtalkny.uproxx.com/2015/02/topic/topic/videos/video-meek-mill-performs-roots-jam-session/
And by that point I didn't recognize a Brandy remix from 1994 
I think the guitar part Kirk was playing + the "Don't Front" got me thinking that it was some Silent Treatment remix we'd never heard. (I think the bass parts sound like Kelo's remix + the Don't Front parts are like Da Beatminerz remix.)
Brandy AND Queen Latifah both stayed away? Disappointing. (I don't recognize the verses, even now.)
So it's 1:30am, we still have to drive back to San Diego, and then they introduce Bilal. I'm sorry we had to leave - I was so tired that listening to Bilal might have killed me at the moment. He'd have been great at 11:15 - but at 1:30am I might die. It's like being in a Tower Records at 11:57pm and they put on the most experimental Jazz Butcher record.
Wish I could have stayed and said hi to everyone - but work beckoned. Made it back to San Diego and was in bed at 4:00am. Got to work at 9:15am.
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