2010 Olympics Day 14 pt. 2 – The Roots, Medals Ceremony

Continued from my previous post 2010 Olympics Day 14 – ALO and Galactic live on Stage.

After watching Galactic and ALO perform live on stage I was able to attend the medals ceremony at the Whistler Medals Plaza.

The Victory Ceremony tonight was one that I didn’t want to miss. Canada had won Silver and Gold Medals in the Women’s Bobsleigh so 4 lucky Canadian Women where awarded medals that night and as a Canadian it was pretty exciting to be there and see our proud women receive their medals.

The first medallists to hit the stage today where the medallists who placed in the Nordic Combined Individual Large Hill 10km. Taking home Bronze for Austria was Bernhard Gruber. Silver medallists Johnny Spillane representing USA, Gold medallists Bill Demong representing USA.

The next medallists welcomed on stage where the Cross-Country Skiing  Ladies’ 4×5 km Relay C/F medallists. Being awarded Bronze medal was Finland’s Kuitunen, Lahteenmaki, Muranen, Roponen, Saarinen. The Silver medal was awarded to Germany’s Sachenbacher-Stehle, NEUNER, Gossner, Nystad, Boehler, Zeller and the bright Gold medal was well deserved for Norway’s team of Bjoergen, Kristoffersen, Stoermer Steira, Johaug, W Skofterud

Up next where the Alpine Skiing Ladies’ Giant Slalom medallists. First to be awarded was the very excited Bronze medallist Elisabeth Goergl representing Austria. Being awarded Silver was Slovenia’s Tina Maze and the Gold medal was awarded to Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg.

Womens Bobsleigh 2 – Bronze medallists Erin Pac and Elana Meyers representing the USA, Silver medallists Helen Upperton and Shelly-Ann Brown representing Canada and Gold Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse representing Canada

After the medal ceremony the crowd was excited to enjoy a performance from The Roots. Now I’ve been a big fan of The Roots for several years listening to their music and enjoying their style as a group from Philadelphia to New York. The show started off with Jimmy Fallon who did a Neil Young impression/tribute at the beginning putting on a wig and picking up the acoustic guitar while strumming and singing to one of Neil Young’s songs.

After the beautiful tribute to Neil Young the Roots hit the stage and played a powerful performance.

The group originated with Black Thought (Traiq Trotter) and Questlove (Ahmir Thompson) when they became friends while attending the Philadelphia High School for Creative Performing Arts in 1987.

They began when they started doing shows around Philadelphia and New York with rapper MC Malik Abdul Basit-Smart aka Malik B and bassist Leon Nelson “Hub” Hubbard. Keyboardist Scott Storch. MC Kenyatta “Kid Crumbs” Warren, was a part of the group for their first album, Organix, but did not appear on any later albums. The Roots later filled Storch’s position with keyboardist, Kamal Gray who continues to be a member.

In 1999 Malik B left the group due to drug problems but has continued to record and makes occasional appearances on recent albums. Guitarists Ben Kenny did a short stretch with The Roots and contributed to  their Phrenology album but left the group to join Incubus.

Currently The Roots consists of Black Thought (MC), Questlove (drums), Kamal (keyboard), F Knuckles (percussion), and Kirk Douglas (guitar). They have also recently toured with sousaphonist Damon “Tuba Gooding Jr.” Bryson and Game Theory producer and current bassist Owen Biddle.

It was a treat to watch Tuba Gooding Jr. play the  sousaphone on stage with his seemingly high energy walking around the stage interacting with the band and the crowd while blasting the sousaphone.

A nice touch that the Roots brought to their show was welcoming the Canadian Gold and Silver Medallists from the Women’s Bobsleigh on stage to dance with them. It took the medallists a short while to warm up to the stage but in no time they where having a blast dancing with The Roots.

The Roots released Illadelph Halflife in 1996 which became the groups first album to reach the Top 40 on the Billboard 200 chart with the help of the MTV airplay of their “What They Do” video which was a parody of rap video clichés and “Clones” which was their first single to reach top five on the rap charts.

In 1997 The Roots where featured on the Men in Black Original Soundtrack with the song “The Notic” with soul singer D’Angelo. This would have been the first time I heard any of The Roots songs.

In 2004 The Roots along with several other performers  filmed Dave Chappelle’s Block Party which is a great funny (Dave Chapelle) and some amazing performances from Common, Mos Def, The Fugees, Laurny Hill, Talib Kweli to name a few. Heres a little clip of The Roots on the Block Party – its amazing check it out.

Another amazing performer on stage tonight on the Whistler Medals Plaza stage was The Roots Guitarist Kirk Douglas aka Captain Kirk, Rosco, Chasey Chapman. The energy this guy had on stage and his talent on the guitar and vocals was simply breath taking. Kirk jumped around the stage with so much charisma and was able to sing so many different vocal cords it was amazing to see and unbelievable to hear.

This culminated with the release of 2004′s The Tipping Point, the byproduct of several jam sessions.The Tipping Point peaked at #4 on the Billboard album chart.

The group hosts a highly-anticipated Jam Session every year the night before the Grammy’s. The Roots Jam Session, produced by Okayplayer, Goodtime Girl Entertainment and Keldof, has been attended by everyone from Jay-Z, Beyoncé Knowles and Tom Cruise to Don Cheadle, Jeremy Piven and Prince with impromptu performances from Snoop Dogg and Corrine Bailey Rae to Queen Latifah, Matisyahu, Fall Out Boy and Dave Chappelle.

In March 2009, The Roots became the new official house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, with “Here I Come” as the shows theme.

If you enjoyed this post you can check out my other posts from the Whistler Vancouver 2010 Olympics including;  2010 Olympics Day 11 – DEVO, Medals Ceremony – Olympics Day 9 – Animal Nation, Five Alarm Funk, Jully Black - Olympics Day 10, Sam Roberts live – Whistler 2010