I and seemingly every expat in Shanghai was at the Yunfeng theater last night just down the street from my place for a performance by the Roots (holy shit, the Roots!). Today, after the concert, I still can’t believe that they actually came. If you had asked me three and a half years ago if there would be any chance that a group like the Roots would ever play a gig in Shanghai, I’d probably spit sheng jian bao juice back in your face. It’s a testament to Shanghai’s ever mushrooming cool factor in the eyes of the rest of the world that quality musicians (and I’m not talking about DJ Whatever) like the Roots Crew are willing to swing by.


The theater right before opening

The place felt like any theater concert I would have attended back in San Francisco. The crowd was diverse in the sense that it was equal parts hipster/Abercrombie. Seriously, it didn’t feel like China at all, and only when I glanced over at the “安全出口” sign did I remember that I was definitely still in Shanghai. Even the security dudes were foreigners; big, lumpy looking guys who parked themselves in the aisles and actually menaced people, something the standard Chinese security dude could never pull off.


The only slightly clear picture of Black Thought that I could take from my 9th row seat

All in all, music was solid, crowd was definitely into it, and it felt good just to be full of beer and smoke and joy with not a care in the world again. It had been a while since I last felt that way; that Jolin concert last fall definitely did not count. The evening ended with ?uestlove frisbee-ing an autographed drum plate right into Peter’s hands, but not before scratching the woman’s face in front of him.


Acting a fool during the show. Lydia’s new hat is from, where else, H&M

The Roots message has always been one of respect, peace, and awareness. ?uestlove had signed “One Love Forever” on Peter’s new souvenir, and I think we were all a little giddy from the show and the positive vibes as we walked out of the theater and back towards Jiazhou Road. It was then that a wayward taxi nearly slammed into a concert-goer who indeed had the right of way. The dude went ballistic, kicking the cab and circling around to the driver side screaming in English: “I’m walking here! Do you understand what I’m saying? That’s a green light!” Then, he nearly got hit by an oncoming bus as the driver, who definitely did NOT understand what he was saying, started calling out obscenities in Shanghainese as the peeved pedestrian stormed off.

As it is too often in Shanghai, “one love” is restricted to native tongue hip-hop concerts and pink-lit barber shops only; the streets of this town are devoid of it. Sigh. Here’s to hoping more worthy artists make their way out to the Motherland (Hieroglyphics, anyone?).

And so it goes.

More pics from Dan Washburn here on Shanghaiist. Yes, those are indeed first row tickets. I still have a ways to go