And also in reality, on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which has given us plenty of incredible musical performances. But you'd be hard-pressed to name one that tops last night's tUnE-yArDs appearance, at least in terms of the actual collaborative value. Fearless freak Merril Garbus played "Gangsta," one of several tracks on whokill that makes us want to start a drum circle around the burning remains of our middle-class comforts.
It's not exactly an easy song to keep up with, but obviously Questlove does just fine. No surprise there, but when Black Thought steps up near the three minute mark with a guest verse, the effect is both much more seamless than you might think and completely exhilarating. Holy crap; watch below.
Part of tUnE-yArDs appeal is the disjointed chaos -- it doesn't lack rhythm, but the whole thing does feel like its held together with a few strained stitches. Meanwhile, there are few bands capable of a more assured groove than the Roots. So there was some danger that this would be an oil-and-water affair, with the two meeting somewhere in the deadly middle ground. Needless to say, the end result did not feel like a compromise.
Though of course we were pre-disposed to like this: Both bands will be coming to St. Louis in the next couple months in two of the shows we're most excited about. tUnE-yArDs makes a stop at Off Broadway on November 8th and the Roots headline something called LouFest. What's that, Jimmy?
