The Roots rock hard in Bend

Published 12:00 am Thursday, June 20, 2019

The Roots are the hardest working band in show business. Yes, that’s a cliché. It’s also hyperbole — if you’re talking about pretty much any other band.

But The Roots have somehow managed to maintain their status as the world’s premier, touring hip-hop ensemble while serving as house band for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” for the last five years (10 counting “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”). Along the way, the Philadelphia group released collaborative albums with John Legend, Betty Wright and Elvis Costello; dropped the 2014 studio set “… And Then Shoot Your Cousin” and is prepping a follow-up album.

Forget about all that and the cliché still sticks, as the 10-piece proved onstage at Les Schwab Amphitheater on Saturday before a (some would say criminally) small-ish crowd of about 2,600. For two hours, the music never stopped: Old-school Roots bangers melded into neo-soul covers, jazz improvisation gave way to gnarled blues-rock riffs, sampled vocals floated under MC Black Thought’s rapid-fire rhymes. Drummer and bandleader Questlove did not stop playing once — and seemingly didn’t break a sweat through multiple solos, despite wearing a sweatshirt in the heat.

Most bands are nowhere near that generous with their time, and yet there still seemed to be a contingent in the crowd that expected more. A few comments overheard after the set: “Is that it?” “Are they coming back?” “The last time I saw The Roots, they played two sets.” Maybe this had to do with how early the set was (the sun was still out at 8:45 p.m., around the time the band wrapped up).

The evening got off to an inauspicious start as sampler Jeremy Ellis took the stage alone, pounding out a few beats on his drum machine to warm up the crowd. (As the evening wore on, you could almost always tell which sampled vocal bits Ellis contributed, as he would mouth along to his parts.) Moments later, the rest of the band appeared and launched into “Table of Contents (Parts 1 & 2),” led by Questlove’s solid stick-work and bassist Mark Kelley’s nimble lines. Then, in the blink of an eye, Questlove shifted rhythms into the more deliberate groove of “Respond/React.” As alluded to above, this wasn’t the last time this would happen.

“We’re going to revisit some of the classics,” Black Thought said at the start of the show (and reiterated numerous times throughout), and he held true to that. Much of the set derived from the group’s ’90s albums, with particular focus paid to 1999’s “Things Fall Apart” (the aforementioned “Table of Contents,” a rumbling, bass-heavy run-through of “Dynamite!”) and 1996’s “Illadelph Halflife” (“Clones,” “Section”).

That also included other artists’ classics, too. Given the band’s day job, it makes sense that it can shift from Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” to the jazz fusion of “Change (Makes You Want to Hustle)” and not miss a beat. The group also found room for Black Thought solo joint “Conception” and Main Source’s “Looking at the Front Door,” among other tasty surprises.

As the show wore on, the band steadily built to a number of satisfying climaxes. With so much happening onstage, it was easy to get lost in the huge presence of Questlove and Kelley, only to snap out of it and realize that the horn section had been blaring along the whole time. Saxophonist Ian Hendrickson-Smith and trumpeter David Guy, additions to the band in the “Tonight Show” era, proved their worth with a number of searing solos.

Guitarist Kirk Douglas’ moment came toward the end of the set. After lying low for most of the evening, Douglas finally made his presence known during a lengthy jam that eventually morphed into the instantly recognizable chords of “The Seed (2.0),” shredding away on snarling blues riffs. He sang every note in anticipation during an extended lyrical solo, and afterwards took the lead vocal on the hook of “The Seed,” proving his mettle in the singing department as well.

After two hours, the group left the stage, no encore in sight. And that’s just as well: There wasn’t much that could have been done to top the onslaught Bend just witnessed.

— Reporter: 541-617-7814, bmcelhiney@bendbulletin.com