Bilal 8/12/11 Indianapolis @ Madame Walker Theatre (VIDEOS)

This post is a guest review by Leo Weekly’s Damien McPherson.

The Madame Walker Theater is showing its age. The room dates back to the 1920s, but since its renovation in the late 70s, it appears little has been done to modernize the space (though their website does mention fundraising attempts). It’s still a beautiful building, wedged into its intersection on the edge of downtown Indianapolis, and the missing “K” on the rooftop’s sign at least gives a bit of personality even in the face of sadness at urban decay from historical sites.

Maybe I was looking a bit too closely, but by the time Bilal hit the stage, he looked pissed off. The sound in the room wasn’t great, and the 935-seater was barely half-filled (we sat in the sparsely populated balcony so as to give you the astounding visuals accompanying these words). One of the keyboardist’s platforms wasn’t plugged into the mix, leaving out many of the songs’ electronic bleeps and bloops and leaving room for a roadie to hover at the side of stage laying cable, distracting to say the least. The guitar amp failed during an early solo, and it appeared the drummer was having a monitor issue. It wasn’t until almost halfway through the show, during “Sometimes”, that what approximated a smile crossed Bilal’s mouth and he looked comfortable. None of this took away from his vocal performance, mind you, as the man is a machine. His perfectly controlled vocal abandon is one of modern music’s marvels: soulful, jazzy, and church-infected. The guy could sing Nickelback songs and sound like a genius (don’t prove that, though, please).

Something To Hold On To, Make Me Over, Gotsta Be Cool, Lord Don’t Let It, For You, Reminisce (flipped with the J Dilla “The $” beat), Fast Lane, Sometimes:

The first half of his set was split between his debut, First Born Second, and his shelved-but-leaked followup “Love For Sale”. He seems perfectly at ease on stage with the audience’s familiarity with the material they shouldn’t know, and proves himself a bigger man than me. I’d play half of one of those songs, and the second I spot someone singing along, I’d probably stop the song and ask for ten bucks from the person. Glad he didn’t, though, ‘cause I didn’t have any cash on me, much as he deserved it. “Fast Lane”, the non-representative first single from his debut, finally got the arrangement it deserved outside of its Dr. Dre studio sheen.

“Sometimes” is always a wonder, the little song that could. It was never a single, but the crowd demands it and sings along as if it were a standard. The second half of the set is mostly from his latest, Airtight’s Revenge, and the crowd wasn’t as responsive (though this was definitely a ‘giving’ crowd, very loose and supportive) to this material. “Little Ones”, dedicated to his autistic son, was a definite highlight, the emotional connection to the song a tangible thing. He closed the main set with the incredible “All Matter”. While I’m partial to the arrangement on Robert Glasper’s Double Booked, here he worked magic on his Airtight version. This song easily takes permanent residence in my favorite songs of the last decade. Just listen/watch.

Levels > All Matter:

Beggars not being choosy, the crowd’s response at this point didn’t really require an encore. They seemed to give up their cheering rather quickly. Thankfully, Bilal’s show is built for an encore, as he hadn’t performed his biggest song yet or this tour’s epic closer. “Soul Sista” melted every woman in the room, as it’s done for a decade now, while the Led Zeppelin cover “Since I’ve Been Loving You” melted the walls. A great quickie road trip, another excellent Bilal show (my second of this album cycle), and here’s a near perfect visual representation to enjoy. -Damien McPherson

Since I’ve Been Loving You (Led Zeppelin cover):

R.I.P. Michael Jackson – Tribute Mix by RandyB

Michael Jackson Tribute Mix by RandyB – August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009

This is just something I did two years ago after MJ passed. It doesn’t have the slickest mixes and crossfades, its just a spontaneous selection of tunes mixed mainly from vinyl. I know that everyone and their mother made MJ mixes, and many of them are better than this. It was just an excuse for me to bug out for an hour by myself. Why not share it?

You can download the tracked mp3’s here: MEGA

R.I.P. Michael Jackson – Remember The Music.

01. Ain’t No Sunshine (intro)
02. I Wanna Be Where You Are (The Roots & Erykah Badu)
03. We’re Almost There
04. Heartbreak Hotel
05. Can You Feel It (live)
06. Dapper-Dan
07. Dancing Machine
08. Ease On Down The Road (with Diana Ross)
09. You Can’t Win
10. Can’t Get Outta The Rain
11. Things I Do For You
12. Off The Wall
13. Blame It On The Boogie
14. Working Day & Night
15. PYT
16. Somebody’s Watching Me (with Rockwell)
17. Wanna Be Startin Something
18. Another Part of Me
19. Human Nature
20. I Just Can’t Stop Loving You
21. Say Say Say (with Paul McCartney)
22. The Girl Is Mine (with Paul McCartney)
23. It’s The Falling In Love
24. Cinderella Stay Awhile
25. Never Can Say Goodbye
26. Jam
27. Smooth Criminal
28. In The Closet
29. Scream (with Janet Jackson)
30. Leave Me Alone
31. Who Is It?
32. You Rock My World
33. Remember The Time
34. I Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer (Stevie Wonder at MJ Memorial 7/7/09)
Bonus Tracks:
35. Stevie Wonder’s speech (6/28/09 Milwaukee)
36. Stevie Wonder’s We Love You Michael chant (6/28/09 Milwaukee)

The Roots Picnic 2011: Esperanza Spalding, Nas, Little Dragon

The Roots & Nas – Get Down / The Boss (James Brown cover) 6/4/11 @ The Roots Picnic

Funk It presents full audio downloads of 3 sets: Esperanza Spalding with The Roots, Little Dragon, and The Roots with Nas. Scroll down for the download links in both MP3 and FLAC formats!

Esperanza Spalding & The Roots
June 4, 2011
Philadelphia, PA @ 4th Annual Roots Picnic – Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing
SBD > WXPN webcast > Cool Edit Pro > WAV > CD Wave Editor > FLAC/MP3
01. Precious
02. I Know You Know http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHtvEAANA4o
03. Predator (Weather Report cover) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-D181tf5fk
04. I Can’t Help It (Michael Jackson cover) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8C-mOWjXlg
MP3 download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IQK9R09U
FLAC download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5JXH0KG0

The Roots & Nas & Brass Heaven
June 4, 2011
Philadelphia, PA @ 4th Annual Roots Picnic – Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing
SBD > WXPN webcast > Cool Edit Pro > WAV > CD Wave Editor > FLAC/MP3
01. Intro > Dilla Interlude > Proceed >
02. Quills >
03. Step Into The Realm >
04. The Fire >
05. Respond/React >
06. Stay Cool >
07. Concerto Of The Desperado >
08. The Mic (w/ Truck North) >
09. How I Got Over >
10. Here I Come >
11. Get Busy (w/ Dice Raw & Peedi Peedi) >
12. Jungle Boogie [Kool & The Gang cover] >
13. Get Down (w/ Nas) >
14. It Ain’t Hard To Tell (w/ Nas) >
15. The World Is Yours (w/ Nas) >
16. Made You Look (w/ Nas) >
17. One Mic (w/ Nas) >
18. Nas Is Like (w/ Nas) >
19. If I Ruled The World (w/ Nas)
20. Hip Hop Is Dead (w/ Nas) > Apache outro >
21. The Next Movement >
22. The Seed 2.0 >
23. The Bottle [Gil Scott-Heron cover] >
24. Men @ Work [Kool G Rap & DJ Polo cover]
25. Radio Outro
MP3 download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OMUHIGKE
FLAC download link: http://filepost.com/files/8631dd2m/RootsNas2011-06-04.webstream.flac.zip/

Little Dragon
June 4, 2011
Philadelphia, PA @ 4th Annual Roots Picnic – Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing
SBD > WXPN webcast > Cool Edit Pro > WAV > CD Wave Editor > FLAC/MP3
01. A New
02. Little Man (new song)
03. My Step
04. ??? (?new song?)
05. Feather
MP3 download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TX2N7YLE
FLAC download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HAQ5BN23

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