Posted on 02/02/2009
Remember your highschool's battle of the bands?  It's all so fuzzy but I distinctly remember the #1 hotty in the school crooning what surely couldn't have been a better version of Lou Reed's "Take A Walk On The Wild Side," although at the time it sure felt better. The girls swooned, and as I remember it the band actually kept the beat through the entire song.  Now take this basic band-battle model and interject one of the most powerful and interesting bands in hip-hop, The Roots, alongside the horn-heavy afro-beat outfit, Antibalas.  It's a battle of the bands wet dream.  Redbull had exactly the same thought, and this past Thursday, January 29th, after two full days of rehearsals, The Roots and Antibalas traveled to Boston for Soundclash. 

Picture it, two stages, one room.  Each stage is set on opposite ends of the venue, leaving a large amount of floor space in-between for the audience.  There's a host (Akrobatik) and a DJ (DJ Kon), and a whole bunch of rules, non of which anyone was trying to follow.  There was an intro, "The Warm Up" during which The Roots and Antibalas each played three of their own songs (you can picture the audience swinging their necks from one stage to the other).  Next was "The Cover" round, in which both bands cover the same songs (the DJ kicks off each song).  In an unprecidented move both bands decide to ham it up a bit with funky fresh versions of Cheers, The Jeffersons, and Knight Rider!  The crowd went wild.  Round 3, "Carjack," was when each band covered each other's songs.  I know The Roots threw "Star" and "Please Don't Go" across the room to Antibalas, who re-worked each into a heavy afro-beat version of the same song. Round 4 was "Style Wars," where the DJ would spin a specific style of song (think doo-wop, or gospel, or afro-beat) and each band would have to play a song in that style.  The Roots had fun with this one, jamming to "Apologize" in a reggae style, "In The Music" in a pure jazz style, and best of all, a gospel version of "The Next Movement."  The truly took it to church.

Round 5 was the "Joker!" or "Wild Card" round, where each band brought out their secret weapon.  Antibalas brought up Philly's own DJ Rich Medina, who also graced the stage with some beautiful spoken word, and The Roots came through with legendary saxaphonist Gary Bartz, who had also graced the stage during the Okayplayer Holiday Jammy.  Finally Round 6, "Kareoke" or "The Finale" which was when both bands played together on the same stage. They started with "Criminal," went into Fela's "Beast of No Nation," and concluded with The Doobie Brothers' "What If A Fool Believes" (I'm not lying people!).  Seeing this kind of talent trading songs across a jam-packed venue, never missing a beat, creating and innovating on the fly, covering each others work and re-working other artist's songs, well, it was magical. I documented the experience as best I could with the photos below.  Thinking back there will always be something special about that highschool battle of the bands in your dingy school cafeteria with a crappy PA system and some vodka hidden in your water bottle, but for real music heads this Soundclash was a once in a lifetime experience.

- gingerlynn




Listen to Antibalas perform "Dirt and Blood" from the show below: