Metro City, Perth, Australia.

Having missed out on The Legendary Roots Crew last time around; here's what I can expect based on the experience of the formidable Tinman:
1: 6 red hot pumping musicians, a bass player the size of a tank, a guitarist with an uncanny resembalance to Miles Davis. with quotiant of his craziness and ?uest-Love in all his afro glory replete with comb-prong.
2: A sea of wiggas, all adorning themselves with 'tude. Hopefully no flare ups this time.
3: Heaps of stuff from all over their back catalogue with snippetts of "Led Zep, Beatles, Wu Tang, Marvin Gaye" thrown in for good measure.
4: A pretty fucking good evening.

Black Thought emerges to introduce his posse with the expected maximum verbosity, pausing in the home straight run of superlatiaves on the adjective "hardworking". It's worth emphasising. How many hip hop acts have made a decent 7th album? 9th including live sets? Competition is none. All achieved through taking the not unique, but different enough to make them plucky outsiders, approach of being a proper live band, hefty jazz influences and all. It sparks a freestyle intro into Here I Come that keeps on racing, legs-a-spinning, like some verbal roadrunner cartoon, piquing the crowd response with a dexterity I wasn't aware Black Though had in him. He might not rival the Nas', common's and MF Doom's of this world in pure head-twisting insight, but it compliments perfectly what's unfolding around him.

With barely a pause, they rifle through their gems, Proceed, Act Too... the Love of My Life, Long Time then slamming into Basement Jaxx Where's your Head at? for the first of many snippets wedged into their free-flowing charge. Its a stunner, everyone cuaght unawares. A medly piles up, like an early 90s car wreck, featuring the credible; Snoop, A Tribe Called Quest, Wu Tang Clan (ironically as they launch into Method Man a wisp of sticky green tickles my nose hairs) and the "you're not taking this seriously are you" quotient of Technotronic and Salt n Pepa. They may be showing their age, but the kids lap it up. Then the first of the solos, ahh the solos, with Hub on bass. I'd been warned about this in ye olde Jockey Slut review. I always thought the art of a good solo was knowing when to stop. Stopping isn't really as hard it seems. I once read that Miles asked Coltrane why his solos went on so long. "Man, sometimes you just can't stop", he exclaimed. "Try taking the saxophone out of your mouth", was the advice. But if the rest of the band has left the stage, stopping isn't really an option. It's sliding toward ponderous, but judging by the size of this dude I don't think anyone wants to argue.

Whilst not an overtly political band, many of the more serious cuts from Game Theory just don't translate as such. Long Time doesn't quite have the same bite. The deathly street atmosphere of In the Music is alluded to but not present; the tough little bassline pulls at the gut, but the chorus comes over more as a shout-it-out crowd pleaser. They splice it with Kool & the Gang's Jungle Boogie.In fact they play it twice. Several sounds they just don't seem able to recreate without the aid of the studio. As for more serious numbers in their back catalogue, they don't even deal 'em. They give us an all-out party jam, with morerandom snippets, including Led Zep, Technotronic, AC/DC (that gets a predictably massive cheer), Julie Andrews (My Favorite Things via John Coltrane), Gary Glitter (seriously!). Its not neccessarily a bad thing, as anyone familiar with the introduction to the Things Fall Apart might have learnt. Sure they may have lofty ideals, but they understand how to acquiesce to the Saturday night peoples.

We get A speeded up The Seed, You Got Me, with a lengthy axe solo and voguing, then the encore; a blast. A fully qualified bomb, riding a unified, free flow that's just that micron tighter. Black Thought struts the funy duck across the stage and they cease, with little stop-start bursts that has the guitarist throwing pose, leaning back, plectrum arm extended out like the Greek God for melodrama, It has the rest of the band in stitches. Some things are rehearsed. Some they do every night. Not this. Black Thought mocks an impersonation, but the guitarist tops him by doing the splits, vital parts hitting the stage harder than an anti-hero cop hitting the booze having been forced to turn his badge in. The bass player points agape, mesmerized. ?uestlove throws him a towel, as he remains motionless on the floor, face turned away. Its hard.

As they re-launch into another unasailble bang-jam rhythm that could Parliament hitting the Copacabana, it dawns on me, these guys really aren't hip hop; they're pure band. Maybe they missed their calling. Maybe they were just born in the wrong era. Sure they like rhyming, but how many in the hip hop game (pay attention RJD2) have this ability? Usually you get a couple of chumps strolling up and down the stage and a sourpuss DJ. I wish I had some more chums here, although the crowd is pretty vibrant by Perth standards. God knows what sort of a band they are? I guess after 15 years or so they might have figured tit out. Its probably a mistake to pidgeonhole them. In fact I'd suggest its the antithesis of their spirit.

No matter the label - bless 'em. They're the hardest working party goers I know.

Transcribed by Christopher H James

Check out Tinman's 2005 Roots Experience.