The Roots, the innovative Philadelphia-based hip-hop group known for their intelligent grooves and lyrics, played in Leede Arena last night as the Programming Board's major concert of the Fall term. There were a large number of Dartmouth students in attendance, likely the result of a veritable dirth of live professional hip-hop performances in the Upper Valley.
The number of total concert tickets sold stood around 1850 out of 2000 available, according to Sebastian Restrepo '07, the senior chair of Programming Board.
"About 80 percent of the tickets were bought by Dartmouth students. We sold two-thirds of the tickets in the first three days, and this strong start indicates that most of the tickets went to students," said Restrepo.
The fact that the show was on a Sunday didn't seem to affect ticket sales, said Restrepo. "I think the fact that the show is on a Sunday gives it a relaxed atmosphere," he said. "There are fewer people drinking, and everyone seems to be having a good time."
The show began at 8 p.m. with the opening act, disc jockey Mike Relm, who took the stage with a set of turntables and a video projection screen. He proceeded to spin an interesting set on both the turntables and the video feed, often melding the two. He remixed and scratched over numerous hip-hop and popular songs, including songs by RJD2 and John Lennon.
What was most interesting was the way he manipulated the video playback to create a both a visual and auditory experience. Using video clips from popular movies and television shows like Saturday Night Live and "Fight Club," as well as music videos from artists as varied as Bjork and Jay-Z, he repeatedly slowed down, reversed and replayed numerous sections of these videos, using their audio tracks to create diverse and impressive beats. While at times he seemed as though he was pandering to the college-student age bracket with his choice of media, his talent for manipulation managed to make up for that.
After a break between the sets, The Roots finally took stage. To say that The Roots are a funk band with a rapper, while essentially true, is most certainly an understatement. Every member of the group demonstrated a sound understanding of their instruments, but, more importantly, they all worked together to create a unified hip-hop sound.
The vocalist Tariq Trotter -- aka Black Thought -- exhibited his very distinctive and skillful flow. His rhymes were never too fast but always intricate enough to be impressive.
Backing up Black Thought were the stellar instrumentalists of the group: Kamal on keyboards, Capt. Kirk on guitar, Hub on electric bass and, of course, ?uestlove on the drums.
?uestlove was the driving force behind The Roots' live performance. On their albums, he sounds as though he is programming his beats with a drum machine, simply because they sound too perfect to be true. (This is most definitely not the case.) During Sunday's show, he had the rhythm of a metronome and never wavered from the beat.
The audience's response was overwhelmingly positive. Many were swaying along to the music and the crowd in front of the stage often grew fervent. "I thought the concert was awesome," said Eli Meltzer '06. "It was the perfect length for the size of the crowd and venue."
Unfortunately, however, there was definitely something left to be desired in the sound quality in Leede Arena. The level of the bass was consistently too high to the point of overpowering, even in the bleacher section of the arena. The balance of the band was poor, and while the different instruments were audible, it was difficult at times to register what exactly they were playing.
Many students complained about the sound quality, although they were pleased with the actual performance.
"They played great and it would've been perfect if Leede wasn't the worst concert venue ever," said Gregory Kreischer '07. "The accoustics are miserable."
Despite the shortcomings of the venue, the show was extremely satisfying. As The Roots are a widely-respected hip-hop group whose popularity is growing among audiences not typically attracted to hip-hop, their show last night proved that good hip-hop -- the kind that is about solid grooves and intelligent lyrics and not about misogyny and the superficial aspects of youth culture -- is alive and well.
