Laura Zepam Is Surprisingly Active / #10 Common & N.E.R.D. at Roseland

As usual, I missed the opening act Chester French. But I’ve heard good things. I didn't know what to expect from this show; I didn’t even know I had tickets until yesterday. I knew the Neptunes produced Common’s upcoming album (Invisible Summer), and I heard the first single “Announcements” which is bangin'. So with that new album in mind, I thought maybe the Neptunes and Common would be performing together somehow. I guess it’s a crazy idea; I should have known Pharrell and that big ego he carries would need at least 40 minutes on stage by himself. I know, I’m a hater, especially when the reason behind the hate is Pharrell’s overconfidence. And he has a reason for the overconfidence: he’s just really feeling the love of the fans, which is a good thing.

I like Pharrell, and I used to have a huge crush on him until I noticed how small he is in real life, and then there's his cockiness. And there's this other thing that always bothers me: he thinks he can sing falsetto. I like his voice, he can sing well and he's a great musician all around. But he cannot sing like that. We all know he can’t, and neither can Kanye. (So listen up: if you’re not D’angelo or Prince, please don’t do it. You sound weak.) There are a few exceptions, but that's my rule of thumb. Aside from maybe 8 bars of falsetto, N.E.R.D. was great. The light show was awesome until the strobe lights got too intense for me and triggered my old friend Migraine. Luckily I was able to grab a seat, and by the time Common was up, I had figured out my new camera:
Common did his thing, and Pharrell joined him for a few songs. Both NERD and Common had DJs, plus full bands of fantastic musicians. Common’s stage setup involved a fake bar with a fake bartender and fake supermodels drinking at the fake bar. The songs were separated by boring, pointless 'skits' about drinking at a bar. I don’t understand why they did that, except that maybe they just wanted some hot girls in dresses and high heels on stage, to feed Common that fire. He certainly has it in him:

I didn’t get the point of the skits, but those aside, Common delivered everything I wanted. He had crazy energy; he gave us some new songs, some freestyles, some old hits, and some remixes. But in the back of my head, I kept thinking there must be some other special guest, it can’t be just Common and Pharrell. I had high hopes of Jill Scott coming out for “8 Minutes til Sunrise.” But sure ‘nuff, The Soul Machine Cee-Lo Green strolled out on stage for one song. I don’t have photo of that song because it’s really hard to take photos while dancing, jumping and screaming. That was a new lesson for me-- now I know.