I've seen the Roots four or five times now, and Saturday night's early show at the Showbox was easily the best of the sets I’ve caught. Illadelphia’s finest hip-hop crew played a nice mix of a nice mix of tracks from last year’s excellent “Game Theory” (my favorite album of ’06) and older favorites (“You Got Me,” “The Seed,” etc. -- see set list photo below.) And at spots they turned into the world's greatest cover band as they paid homage to the late, great James Brown, Kool & the Gang and Bob Dylan, among others, during sweaty, epic jams. And yes you read that right – a rap band covered Dylan – specifically “Masters of War,” performed with the weird arrangment of guitar, drums and tuba. And was that a few bars of Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun" thrown in just for fun? Nice.

In the past I've referred to the Roots as hip-hop's best live act. But now I think it’s safe to say the Roots are one of the best live bands of any genre. But I feel bad for the people who stood near the end of the line for the late show since it started behind schedule and people were still filing in 20 minutes after it started. I'd be ticked.

I also feel bad for the door guys at the Showbox. The weirdest moments of the night involved some crazy who tried to get into the show no less than a dozen times after initially being denied entry. I don't know what she was on, but she wasn't taking the whole "having her ID thrown in the street hint" or "having the bouncer that looks like Silent Bob restrain her" hint. Her strategy seemed to be to jump back in line and come back two minutes later. But, unfortunately for her, the bouncers had better short term memory than the average house cat and she kept getting busted. Cops were eventually involved. But not before she came over to me, insisting that I check her ID and let her in (this despite my lack of one of those handy "staff" shirts that tell people who's in authority.) She wasn't buying my "I don't work here" speil, no matter how slowly I spelled it out. So I had to walk away. 'Cause she had crazy eyes, and I wasn't about to wait around for her to suddenly get all stabby.