When The Roots welcomed Common on the stage early in its set last night, the best musicians on stage had just brought the best performer with them, and a bouncing crowd clapped to the beat.

At once, the two artists from the Beats for Peace Tour were together bringing their respective strengths. The Roots, its music; Common, his stage presence.

At Goldstein Auditorium on Tuesday night, Chicago-area rapper Common revved up the crowd before it jammed out to The Roots, the emerging Philadelphia-based hip-hop group. As the moment proved, each group played to its advantages.

The Roots stuck with its unique hip-hop beat, engaging the crowd with hardly anything but music. With a guitarist, bassist, bongo-player and drummer, The Roots gave the sold-out crowd of 1,500-something few other hip-hop bands can – non-synthetic sound. Common played an engaging host to a relaxing evening, sweet-talking the crowd with conversation between his heart-thumping beats.

When the two met on stage for one song, both talents blended together. And as the rappers called for it, Syracuse showed its love.

But even without conversation, The Roots immersed the crowd in its music. Hardly playing its popular songs and saving perhaps its most well-known single, ‘The Seed 2.0,’ for its encore, The Roots played to its die-hard fans. The band opened with a 20-minute version of ‘Web’ of the band’s ‘The Tipping Point’ album from 2004.

‘For me personally, I felt like Syracuse gave a lot of energy,’ said Hub, who played bongos. ‘Definitely everyone was enjoying the show and we liked playing music and making everyone jump around. We felt a lot of energy up there. So, for me, it was a pleasure being in Syracuse.’

Of course the advantage to seeing a band in concert is to witness its range. As one of the few hip-hop bands around, The Roots showed it, extending songs and incorporating each instrument. Lead singer Black Thought introduced each member midway through the set as the guitarist played Led Zeppelin’s ‘A Whole Lotta Love’ in the background.

‘The show was great,’ said Sherlen Archibald, University Union Concerts Co-Chairman. ‘I’ve already gotten a lot of great feedback. A lot of people I’ve talked to and UU people have talked to said it was the best show they’ve ever been to, not necessarily just on a college campus, but the best concert they’ve ever seen.’

By the encore, The Roots abandoned its own music and played an interlude of classic rock. As ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ started up, Black Thought hushed the band.

‘You’re gonna want a lot more cowbell,’ he said, imitating a Will Ferrell sketch from ‘Saturday Night Live.’ ‘Take it from the top, and really explore the area of the auditorium with that cowbell.’

They followed with bits from ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper,’ ‘Seven Nation Army’ and ‘Smooth Criminal,’ before playing the single ‘The Seed 2.0.’

‘This is without question the greatest show I’ve ever seen,’ said Ken Golden, a junior communications and rhetorical studies major. ‘The fact that their entire encore was basically them playing whatever music they wanted was unbelievable for them as a band.’

Said Archibald: ‘(The Roots) just loves playing music and they loved the students at the show. They were very in tune with what the audience gave them. They saw the energy and just wanted to keep playing.’

Though still treading between being a band with unnoticed talent and one on the brink of popular culture, The Roots looked like a mainstream band last night. With such a unique style, The Roots energized the crowd. If it was any indication of what’s in store for the band, The Roots’ popularity seems to be growing beyond its control.

Common opened, warming the crowd like a marshmallow on a campfire. At one point, he incorporated Carmelo Anthony into a freestyle rap (two years since Anthony’s exit, the crowd still went wild). He also name-dropped rappers Talib Kweli and Mos Def.

‘He said, ‘You’re going up to Syracuse?” Common said of Kweli, as bass beats and jazz notes whispered in the background. ‘They’re gonna be loud up there. They know hip-hop up there.’

The audience loved it.

Common didn’t just perform, he hosted a show. Most of it went beyond music. He called the show ‘The Basement Party,’ in which everyone was invited to relax and enjoy the music. He referenced and re-referenced it throughout his set.

He even brought SU senior Brandice Bell, a senior architecture major, up on stage, and proceeded to slow-dance with her and sing his song ‘Come Close’ to her.

With heavy base beats and subtle jazz undertones, Common’s set included few recognizable songs. But he played the song ‘Get ‘Em High,’ which drew the strongest reaction, and he offered a preview of his single ‘The Corner,’ which will be on his new CD, ‘BE,’ coming out in late May.

‘It was a live, strong, exciting show,’ Archibald said. ‘In The Roots and Common, we got two of the strongest hip-hop, or even just music, icons in the industry.’

Published on April 12, 2005 at 12:00 pm