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The Roots in Shanghai: Your ears still ringing, too?
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I think this show drove home in my mind how much Shanghai has become a destination for twentysomethings from Europe and the US...
I left the show a little confused. The Roots sounded very slick and confident when they played covers of other people's songs, and a bit sloppy and uninspired when playing their own. Overall, the "lengendary Roots Crew" seemed like a very talented cover band that should search for a new vocalist (Black Thought - you ain't no James Brown). The instrumental solos were incredible, the vibe was great, and when they stuck to funk and guitar-heavy rock it was dancable and fun. But as soon as BT took center stage and started blurting out muffled lyrics and actually RHYMING - things fell apart (no pun intended). He's just not a very engaging performer.
I thought the show was solid, with some great moments, but some fairly yawn-worthy spots as well. Security was all over the place like a rash, scanning the rows of seats with beady eyes, hunting for the merest indiscretion. It certainly made for a worse vibe in the room than for Ziggy Marley. I was middle of the lower floor and I thought the sound was 5 out of 10, particularly for the first hour and yes, particularly when Black Thought was on the mic (agree with you, JW). Bass was pretty muddy too (the solo was good, not great). Still, the guys can definitely play. It's just that on two occasions (start of "Award Tour" and start of "Immigrant Song"), I found myself wishing that a different band was up there. Never thought I'd say that about the Roots.
I feel Cheated. (I know,nothing new here in Shanghai.) However, I thought my 380 rmb for the second class of tickets would have paid for a half decent soundsystem. China West didn't spend anything on those puny speakers up front did they?
Granted, Black Thought sounded muddy, but I put that to the nappy sound system.
Hope they get something better than a high school dj's rig for the next show they put on...
This was to me, clearly not the Roots' fault, but a greedy promoter's...
I totally agree. For the RMB480 seats (i was in third row, center), you couldn't hear a damn thing in terms of vocals (though I did venture to the bathroom, where over the flush of urinals the lyrics could be heard loud and clear). I wonder if they even bothered to do a soundcheck, it was so bad. In terms of Black Thought, I think he makes for a pretty awful soul singer and a very mediocre MC (live). And, well, a terrible sound setup didn't help the situation much.
@ vadaga
I feel so ashamed ... I'm Western and in my 20s and I have never heard of them anywhere 'cept Shanghaiist !
I thought the sound system was OK, even though I'm no expert. If the solos sounded good then it might not entirely be the fault of the sound system. When I saw them a few years back in Mountain View the vocals were similarly difficult to make out, but BT was never really known for his MC skills. Maybe I'm just glad that they came.
Wow, I had a totally different impression (well, not of the sound system - that sucked. They were fiddling with the sound levels all night). I did have poor seats right in front of the speakers (for 480RMB I expected better then half a view of ?uestlove's 'fro).
However, I think black thought on the mic was really good, and the band battled through a lot of sound issues and rocked. the. house.
Maybe half of that is just excitement over seeing such a great group in Shanghai live, but still.
20-somethings? Sure they were there, I was confused by the large amounts of people that I've never seen near a Roots show in the US - I guess lots of people just bought tickets when they heard big time US group. Seriously, bearded guy with the IT khakis and TIE . . . you're a big Roots fan?* Really?
*Yes, I'm judging by appearances. Sue me.
OK! so the sound wasn't top notch, but that was a pretty sick show. Live hip-hop in Shanghai, actually any ( most ) live music we will take. The 280 seats center stage were the way to go. They had our crew getting down!
First off i jus wanna say it was a great GREAT show last nite, regardless of the sound system/speakers, they came out here and did their thing and rocked the house. I actually spent the day with them fellas,took them out shopping around JingAn and HuaHai Rd, they were all really nice down to earth peeps.
p.s how do i upload some pics?
Soysauce,
You can email pics to photos@shanghaiist.com. They will then automatically appear on our Contribute page.
Best not to email more than five at a time. Subject of the email shows up as the title of the photo. Any text in the email shows up as the caption.
Thanks!
Dan
The show was rockin, the best crowd atmosphere i've experienced at any Shanghai event! Or maybe it was just the fact that this city put on a rockin hip hop show without the stock-standard yo yo hip hop posers and break-dance battles...
The only downer for me was the after show arrangements... i know it was a monday night and all, but woulda thought an after party somewhere was in order. Or maybe i jus didn't get the invite....
Hoping this can be fixed for next Tuesday night after the Sonic Youth show. Shanghaiist crew should lead the charge, i guess that's how everyone knows about the SY gig anyway....
Here's to seeing more quality live music in SH before the Fuji Rock festival in July
The concert was fun. It has been awhile since I have been to a " hiphop show for white people" as one Shanghaiexpat commented. The crowd was largely expat and the show was ok. The sound equipment sucked bigtime. Having DJ'd events in the past in venues of that size I gotta say something was just not right all night. But its tough to soundcheck out all the problems for a one night stop in Shanghai. i am just glad I did not spend 480 on tickets as I dont see how any seats up front would have sounded any better, though the view may have been closer. Anyhow, ultimately I guess i am just happy to have gone to see them in a small venue in Shanghai. just wish it was a better show.
What are you guys bitching about? Real entertainment sucks so bad around here that event a luke warm show is much, much, much better than an endless rotation of DVDs or trying to update the iPod through the incredible flaming barrier, or worst of all...listening to local radio.
Maybe some people learned that they should not go to see things 'because it's cool' and they are supposed to.
The Roots rocked! Keep it coming Shanghai...
What's the deal with all the concerts being on weeknights? China West and Emma need to get it together. I thought the sound quality was not great, but you should never buy front few row tickets anyway because all you'll hear are the monitors.
We had perfect seats in the middle and 14 rows back, and the sound was still pretty muddled unfortunately. Great show though, I wish it sounded better.
yeah i've been there,but in the last row upstair.Still the atmosphere is very high up there.Its just like a dancehall.Lol!!I've wrote a report for this concert in chinese and uploaded some pic in my website.Anybody have interest could check it out!
micclubchina.blog.sohu.com/42370953.html
All in all,its a amazing show!!Hopefully we could see more in the future!
The show was great, I wish I had chosen the seats on the ground floor, instead of the balcony. And that I had enjoyed the show instead of filming it with the still camera (same sound quality as the above clip...). The crowd indeed seemed to like more the songs of other bands the Roots played than their own - I guess we all miss some good ole rock'n'roll...
The sound was terrible, no doubt about it - maybe Yunfeng is simply not a good place for hip-hop shows?
Now if Erica Badu would consider coming here...