Something felt completely off about The Roots as they wrapped up Sasquatch! Saturday. Such a large portion of songs in the first half of their set were so slow and unexciting that it caused a good chunk of the crowd, my group included, to leave before it was over. It was a shame to potentially miss out on some outstanding grooves from these legendary dudes, but at the time, it felt like the only thing that could be done.
To be fair, they did open their set with a first-class tribute to Adam “MCA” Yauch, channeling “Time To Get Ill” as if they were backing up the Beastie. There was also a pretty impressive cover of “Jungle Boogie,” but that tune was about as lively as the group got. And I gotta be honest – I was convinced band founder Questlove was MIA, and I was furious about it. Sporting cornrows, the gentlemen behind the drums looked nothing like Questlove and his infamous ‘fro, and he didn’t sound much like him either. It was somewhat embarrassing to see close-up shots of the show, days later, and realize that yep, it really was the original drummer up there that night. Now chalking it up as luckily baring witness to one of the rare times in history Questlove played a show without his prominent 'do and afro pick.