Artists For Heat
Thursday Jan. 31 at The Trocadero

Those lucky enough to arrive at the Troc after the white boy blues of Everlast (who peaked long ago with House of Pain) had to settle for also missing jazz fusionist and TV/film scorer Stanley Clarke. (The once-promised host, Sandra Bernhardt, was nowhere to be found.) But then the Roots took the stage, and everything else faded from focus.

Their set, which at half an hour felt all too short, was heavy on Things Fall Apart, maybe because they’re performing it in its entirety for this year’s Popped! Festival. And even the Roots need to practice. One of them had to sing the Erykah Badu parts for the Grammy-winning “You Got Me,” but he didn’t seem to mind so much, and the crowd ate it up. A giant tuba was also employed, on top of the usual live guitar/bass/drums/keys, and ?uestlove wore a thick rainbow scarf and threw his drumsticks into the audience after. Black Thought was as tireless as ever, whether extrapolating Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everybody Is A Star,” reworking Cody Chestnutt’s “The Seed,” or laying into the R&B-friendly “Break You Off” from Phrenology (their best album). They were raucous, jazzy, steely, slippery, and utter Roots-y, even if they weren’t headlining.

That, of course, was left to Public Enemy. Them dudes are in a pretty weird place these days, between releasing an 11th album (!) and seeing the reality-TV-fueled stardom of court jester Flava Flav. Here more than ever, they were like a hip-hop Goofus and Gallant, as Flav barely contributed to the rapping and stumbled around on the verge of collapse while a very fit Chuck D was well-spoken (duh) and utterly confident. Example: Not long after Chuck D threw his mic in the air and caught it, Flav tried the same thing but, um, didn’t catch his.

Whereas the Roots didn’t go into depth about the role of Venezuelan oil company Citgo and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in this blockbuster concert to raise money for low-income families without heat, Chuck D praised Chavez and used the opportunity to lead a big chant of “Fuck George Bush,” which became “Fuck Dick Cheney” and “Fuck Condoleezza.” Meanwhile, he was surrounded by the band’s trademark storm troopers, the S1Ws (not a tax form), decked out in desert-style military fatigues. (Chuck D came out wearing the same, but quickly stripped down to gym shorts and a sleeveless shirt.)

The show was well-attended, if not sold out, with more people seeming to crowd into the upstairs for drinks than downstairs for a closer look. Aging white dudes mouthed or shouted every single word of Public Enemy’s familiar catalogue, reconfirming their status as rap’s hardcore band. Like the Roots, PE used live guitar/bass/drums, which helped immensely, but there was still a bit too much “make some noise / put your hands in the air / you’re at a hip-hop show” nonsense.

To be fair, that’s a small price to pay for seeing arguably the two greatest rap groups of all time play back to back with live instrumentation. And did I mention A Tribe Called Quest’s DJ/producer Ali Shaheed? He spun all the expected entries, from Marvin Gaye to OutKast to Sugar Hill Gang (minus Mayor Nutter), between sets. Considering the venue and the cause and the lineup, it was hard to find much fault in this year’s Artists For Heat event, regardless of how you feel about South American corporations and politicians.

— Doug Wallen

Previously: HUGOPALOOZA Not, Repeat NOT, A Hoax

This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 2:52 pm.