Before I even stepped onto the Ravinia Festival grounds, everyone around the area felt the energy that would be filling up the Pavilion stage Friday night. "Who's playing tonight?" a couple asked as they biked past me and as soon as someone responded with the evening's headliners, The Roots, their eyes lit up. With nearly 40 years as a band and 32 years since their debut Organix, The Roots have more than solidified their legendary status. The Roots' prowess and undeniable charm is unavoidable; whether you were in on the ground floor with their incredible and forward-thinking hip-hop, jumped in at the end of the last century/beginning of the current one when they dropped their most lauded records, or discovered them as Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show Band. Joined by Nai Palm of Hiatus Kaiyote, The Roots made Ravina their home for the night and threw an all-out house party for the dedicated crowd.
A good amount of that devotion was on display during Australian Nai Palm's fantastic opening set. From the second she stepped on the stage in her sparkly green tiger print jump suit, Palm had the growing crowd hooked on her every word. In fact several fans professed their fandom of Palm loudly and proudly as they sang allong to every song. Palm fronts Hiatus Kaiyote, so this solo set was a great way to experience her songwriting with the group and her own songs off Needle Paw.
Palm's voice was something to behold as she deftly wove between Hiatus Kaiyote and solo tracks, even sprinkling a great cover of "Have You Ever Been (to Electric Ladyland)" where her guitar work shined. all that energy resulted in a bit of a power overload as she was concerned she might have blown an amp right in the middle of her set. "Sometimes the power conversion between my country and yours is a bit spicy" she joked before ending her set with "Atoll" and "Borderline with My Atoms", leaving the crowd emotionally fulfilled.
With the crowd warmed up and filling up the Pavilion, it was time for The Roots to do their thing and completely awe the crowd. Honestly it took no time for them to strike that chord with the Ravinia audience as Black Thought came to the stage ready to set the tone. This was going to be a lot of old school jams as Do You Want More? tracks hit early on along with Main Source cover "Lookin' at the Front Door". Instantly the rapid nature of Black Thought's flow and the band's ability to just jump from song to song made the entire set feel like one long medley of hits. Something that is not difficult for The Roots as they are top tier musicians and so many of the songs are bonafide classics.
It certainly was a night of giving the longtime fans what they wanted as Things Fall Apart was the most represented album with only a few tracks recorded after that making the setlist. So while I'm definitely a 2000s-era fan of The Roots, it felt just a little more special that they focused on their earlier work and of course a bevy of covers. For every track like "What They Do" or "You Got Me," there was a journey to covers like Donald Byrd's "Change (Makes You Wanna Hustle)" and Fatback's "Dance Girl" (which is sampled in "Web" but elaborated on live).
On top of all that every member of the band got their due. This could easily just be the Black Thought-and-Questlove show but The Roots are first and foremost a band and everyone is a necessary part of the whole. The horn section featuring Dave Guy and Ian Hendrickson-Smith relished in their sax and trumpet abilities, Damon "Tuba Gooding Jr." Bryson as always jammed out and held everyone's attention with that monstrously large instrument he is nicknamed for, Raymond Angry in his embroidery Ravinia polo keytar'ed to incredible heights, and Questlove's powerful percussive energy rattled the Ravinia stage. And of course you can't forget Captain Kirk Douglas's guitar solos that were the life blood of the final surge of the night.
That final medley was everything you could want from The Roots. While the core of it was their own "The Seed 2.0" and covers of Curtis Mayfield's "Move on Up" and Kool G Rap & DJ Polo's "Men at Work", there was a plethora of references and dalliances to other songs, each one building on the other to make something special. A splash of Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby", a dash of "My Favorite Things", even a few iconic hip-hop samples peppered in; all showed off just how vast and talented the Roots are and will continue to be. The crowd refused their seats for this final stretch, dancing the set away as The Roots jammed on!
All photos by Julian Ramirez.
