The Real LIVE Thing

2/8/08 - “She put it DOWN that night”

Earlier this month I was lucky enough to see the lovely Ms. Jill Scott at the equally lovely art-deco Paramount Theater in Oakland. During the Friday concert she picked some great tracks from her library, often segueing from new songs back to old classics, each complementing the other, and all *ridiculously* better live than the studio cuts. Through a near perfectly paced set list (2hrs flew by!), Jill led the always-tight FatBack Taffy through the gamut of rock to blues to touching ballardy– busting out beyond the lazy categorization of “neo-soul”. With witty, sincere, sometimes hilarious spoken interludes between each song, Jill crafted an entertaining, thoughtful observation of modern, mature love (and, to be frank, sex.)

As y’all know, Jill above all is a talented storyteller, and one noteworthy example of this for me was the live version of “My Love”– already a touching song, made more-so by a spoken breakdown that recast the song not just as a simple plea for a love-lost, but a powerful re-declaration of “self-worth-found”. To quote the woman, it was “beautifully human” moment.

Actually, it was a beautiful night all around. Jill looked the definition of “grown and sexy” in a red afro, black empire-waist dress, gold necklace and killer strappy heels. The horn section not only sounded tight, but looked cute doing their little two-steps, and the lighting design this tour was impressive.

In the end, Jilly from Philly drew an adoring crowd of young, old, gay, straight, black, white, yellow, brown. That’s one mixed-up funky Family Reunion and I’ll *most definitely* be at the next one ;-)

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I wish I had the exact setlist, but I know it included: "The Real Thing", "Gimme" (Wow! A rare gem from "Live:Experience 826+") ; "Come See Me"; "Whenever You're Around" (w/ the better than album vrs. guitar solo); "Only You"; "Slowly, Surely" (which I think got a bluesy-revision that slowed deliciously down with each verse); "Do You Remember"; "How It Make You Feel" (and later, its counterpart "We Need You"); "Breathe"; "Crown Royal" ("Not going to take one sip... even tho it looks good, smells good... aw fuck it!"); "Epiphany" (which I did NOT think she'd do live); "My Love"; "Wanna Be Loved"; "The Way"; "He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat)";"Golden" (thankfully this time done "straight", without the disco-breakdown from last tour); "Hate On Me" (you KNOW those two back-to-back had the crowd grooving and sweating); and finally a beautiful poetry/sing-along piece as the encore that's floating around on YouTube.

Ch-check-checked it out.

My Man and me (and his friends) caught the show two weeks ago.
Beasties @ Berkeley Review.

MCA is some kinda Mr. Rodgers Jr. And it works for him.

Ad-Rock came dressed as Kevin Pollack on Season 1's "Celebrity Poker Showdown."

Mike D. The Jew Fro. He's one house coat and 10 cats away from being her.

First hiphop show where there wasn't ENOUGH bass, at least to my ears all the way up in the The Grown Folks section (again). Oh, and props to the drunk old white dude who was dragged out of said section while yelling "Play 'Girls'!" over. And over. Nice.

It's a whole lotta Q's and no U's here.

Well, crap. Just like the titular scrabble predicament, I bought a bargain wanna-be wacom tablet that came WITHOUT A PEN. Wonderful chinese product! Well, given the recent history I guess I should be happy that it wasn't made with cardboard or gave me chemical burns. But, man, I'm still burned. Dangit. No pen. On the upside I actually got decent service from ONE Fry's guy. And decent's all you can ask for, y'all know. I'd love to see the frakkin training video at that store. It's gotta be akin to Dave Chappelle's Kinko's skit. Sometimes I think of getting a job there just to verify my suspicions.

On to other topics. I came across this most excellent article on wired: How to Soundproof an Apartment to Muffle Your Wife's Drumming. Is that NOT PERFECT for me? Well, except the "wife" and "apartment" part. Well, let's bookmark this badboy and hope it'll be perfect for me in the near future. At least I got the drums. Actually congas are pretty easy to play somewhat softly (save the slapping... "your wife's slapping kept us up all night!"), but I played a brazilian repenique for a nanosecond and that involved a drumstick, slapping AND hitting the steel rim. Which in turn meant me trying wrap the drum in a towel and sit it on top of my bed, which only marginally muted the skins. I was going to say "And what's the point of playing softly?" but that brings me to...

Matt Wilson. He played with good ol Wycliffe Gordon @ Stanford and was he ever fun to watch. Improvising, melodic use of a kit, more enjoyable to watch him solo relatively softly on a cymbal than endure some machismo laden kid try and kill his drum set. And the guy's body language... as much fun to watch him and here him. Love to see him live again.

Would also love to see this famoso drummer y chica (the OTHER lovely Rita) in concert, but that ain't gonna happen either. DVD's are out tho, hmm. Hello amazon wish list!

Oh, right, there are supposed to be drawings here. Okay, eventually. I finally got the comp/net situation fixed, so I'll be able to easily scan images again. I know y'all have planned your lives around this momentous return... Scanned, sealed, delivered...

Ways, finally attended the first BBQ of the season, a family joint, and it was swell. Good food, karaoke, mahjong, and a little too competative game of badminton. Sh!t, if you haven't figured out we're asian, that description nailed it there. Ain't the normal "pork and too much beer"-fest, because we had youngins' in the house. Ah, summer's just started, plenty of time for such adult party shenanigans.

Speaking of party, ah the concierto, mis amigos... get a taste here. Had fun with M.O.F., holding up behind the railing in what we dubbed "The Grown Folks Area", while the college kids (and younger?) posted up by the stage. "Come Close" you say? Naw, Com, I'm good where I am. Those days of jockeying for position and trying not to get a stilleto heel in my foot are over, thank you. I'll just head knod over herr, meng.


(Truth is I probably couldn't handle being close to the stage. Can't stand near the sun. HOTNESS! Ahhh. I just turned 15yrs old for a minute there. Sorry.)

Anyway, good show, considering I expected it to be a phoned-in* afterthought, post Coachella. Mostly from the new album, a preview of the next that I can barely remember, plus the "Love of My Life" wayback trip with Snoop, Eric B & Rakim (I think?), and Pharcyde tossed in. Ah, I have that last one on tape somewhere.

Yes, I said "tape". Where's my walker? MAN! I'm feeling old. Getting to the point where on one hand I had old skool pride @ knowing the all the lyrics to "Passing Me By" and singing along when the DJ spun "411" era Mary J.(pre-cinanbon hair, woman!). On the other hand I bemoaned my dessicated, ancient state ("Somewhere in that crowd is the kid I gave up in high school!" YES I'm joking, crimmeny.)

Hell, I'm closer in age to the fool on the stage than the audience, so I had no reason to complain.

Fun show, great company, and no service fee on the tix. That, my friends, was a good day.

*Although the cell phone bit with Talib and Mos calling? CORNY!

Konono No1


What started out as a sitdown, indoor "jazz" (riiiight...) concert turned into a dance marathon...to the DEATH!

You know it's bad sign when someone approaches the festival director asking when the show's gonna end... and he SHURGS.

Thank god we brought water.