After O.A.R., I wanted to see moe. at least once (they played five sets during the festival, so the odds were in my favor), so Face and I made it over to the Moonshine Stage to watch them. When Face and I got to the front of the stage to shoot them, we realized the crowd was crazy. Flaming Lips had a good crowd, and sure they were nuts, but I have to hand it to moe., they had them beat. The whole audience was with them, in whatever state they were in at the time.

The band started, and off they went. I think in the 105 minutes they played, they got through about five solid songs (one of which was Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill,” which was awesome).

Maybe I’m not the biggest fan of moe., but it seemed like they were a little off. A lot of times, their jams went nowhere, and while there were sections of songs that were cool, only the opener “St. Augustine” really grabbed my attention. The band was on, they were focused, and the music was intense. They were all on the same wavelength, playing as hard and as good as they could. The set started on such a high that it was impossible to top it, and unfortunately they didn’t.

The crowd ate it up though. Every minute of it, in whatever state they were in (altered or otherwise). Seriously, that was one of the best crowds I have ever seen at a show. There were balloons, blown-up animals and lots of other things going high above their heads (as well as some smoke…a lot of smoke…). It really was a good way to end Saturday night (oh, last thing, moe.’s light show was really really good), and was good to be able to relax a little bit before going to bed and such.

Plus, Sunday had Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic and The New Pornographers. Stay tuned…

After The Roots, Bob Marley’s reanimated corpse would have paled in comparison. Unfortunately, I got the more corporate, white version of just about everything that Marley stood for: Of a Revolution.

Before i go on, I may as well explain my history with O.A.R. I have, for the most part, considered them a cheap Dave Matthews Band knockoff. They have a lot of similar instrumentation, and it just seemed like a slicker version of what DMB has been doing well for many years.

That all changed when their last album, Stories of a Stranger came out. I was still not head over heels for them, but I thought the songs “Love and Memories” and “Heard the World” were good, and maybe, just maybe, O.A.R. had carved out their own identity.

On Saturday night, I was proven wrong. Their performance proved to me that these guy have no identity of their own, and musically it was just a bore. Every song seemed to have the pop/rock/faux-reggae feel to it, and what they did could not be considered jamming, it was rather the rhythm section vamping while someone, be it the keyboardist, guitarist or saxophone player, soloed. There were no dynamics, and after a while, it was hard to tell what song was which. I think of singer/guitarist a Marc Robarge as the jam band’s version of Mariah Carey. He has taken everything other people have done better, cleaned it up, and panders it to the audience as much as he can.

In addition, the band could be scaled down significantly and no one would be the wiser. Both Face and I caught various band members just standing there, smoking, “grooving,” which sometimes lasted for an entire song (saxophone player Jerry DePizzo was the worst, since let’s face it, a lone saxophone can’t always be used for texture. He was just standing there, minding his own business. That is not what you do at a show).

That being said, the band, for as big as they are, do not put on much of a show visually. There is little movement or band interaction. Every member seems to be in his own world, and it magically it “works.”

The band would benefit greatly if they followed what made some of Stories of a Stranger so great. If they want to be a band that is easy and doesn’t challenge its audience (which is what the best jam bands/bands in general do), they need to follow what they think is best artistically, and not what they perceive the audience wants. Also buy a distortion pedal…

Disclaimer: This was my fourth Roots show, and the best show I have ever seen by them was on St. Patrick’s Day 2007 at the Chicago Theatre. This show did not top that.

Even with the information in the disclaimer, The Roots’ show was one of the highlights of the festival. The band recently released another strong effort, Rising Down, and while the band indulged in some new cuts, the show was more of a medley of whatever came to their head at the time. The band played things from their entire career, including “The Next Movement” from Things Fall Apart, “Star” from The Tipping Point and “The Seed (2.0)” from Phrenology.

The band even indulged in a cover or ten, including a medley of hip-hop tunes ranging from Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” to Wu-Tang Clan’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya.” The band also scaled down to a three piece for an original cover of Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War.”

The band is getting tighter and tighter as they continue touring this year. In 2007, original bassist Leonard “Hub” Hubbard left the band, and The Roots got producer Owen Biddle to replace him. When I saw The Roots in March, Biddle still was finding his ground. Now, he seems to have found his niche, not necessarily the same way as Hub, but a good place nonetheless. In addition, it seems that every time I see the band, rapper Black Thought gets stronger as a vocalist. His deep-throated voice was at an all-time high on Saturday, and he kept it going with impressive stamina.

Sadly, Tuba Gooding Jr., The Roots’ sousaphone player, was M.I.A. Drummer ?uestlove acknowledged this by referring to Biddle as “Tuba Gooding Sr.” It was a minor quibble though for an overall awesome show (the major quibble is that The Roots only got 75 minutes to play, while O.A.R. got 90 minutes to play, and at night. Stay tuned…).