PHILADELPHIA – Is that all there is?
Live 8 was an outrageously oversized idea: Let’s put on giant concerts in the world’s richest industrialized nations and somehow we’ll transform Africa into a better place.
That sounds monumentally naive, but Live 8 was the public face of a political movement that hopes to harness the power of pop – what Bob Geldof calls “the lingua franca of the planet” – to put the plight of Africa’s poor on the global agenda.
On that level, Live 8 was a success before Kaiser Chiefs played the first note Saturday on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. However, as a musical event of historic proportions with a legendary predecessor, Live Aid, Saturday’s concert had enormous expectations – and it did not meet them.
Over the course of a seven-hour day, there were highlights – Jay-Z meeting Linkin Park on a rap-rock mash-up, Alicia Keys at the piano holding the crowd rapt with “For All We Know,” Kaiser Chiefs bursting with energy. Kanye West was impressive, Toby Keith rocked the house, Will Smith and the Black Eyed Peas got the crowd juiced.
Live 8’s Philadelphia show set itself an almost impossible task: to put together a bill of massively popular country, rock, hip-hop, easy listening and R&B acts that reflect the fractured state of pop music in 2005 – and make it really good.
AND make it inspirational, which was the real problem. Live 8 needed to exude moral authority, make people look outside themselves and look on others with compassion.
Needed moral voice
But the American bill had no compelling moral voice. Jay-Z made some pointed remarks, Dave Matthews mumbled something that was hard to understand. On the video screen, Philadelphians saw Bono singing “One” from Hyde Park, letting them know what they were missing. The brief live sets – three or four songs apiece – made sure almost nobody had time to catch fire.
Stevie Wonder, who closed the show, was on his game. The renaissance soul man, draped in a white robe, served up a titillating slice of his forthcoming album with the funky “So What the Fuss?”
And he delivered the hard-grooving ‘70s classics – “Higher Ground,” sung with Rob Thomas, and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” with Maroon 5’s Adam Levine – working up a crowd that had been dead on its feet.
But the show ended without a climax. Rob Thomas and Adam Levine? Really? Is that all there is? There was no sing-along with Michael Jackson and Usher (as hinted by producer Russell Simmons), no surprise appearance by Bob Dylan or Aerosmith, the hot rumor of the day. It ended not with an all-hands-on-stage bang, but an underwhelming whimper.
The day began promisingly with the least-known but perhaps hippest band on the bill, British indie popsters Kaiser Chiefs, who launched into their boisterous hit “I Predict A Riot.” The five-piece nouveau New Wavers followed that with another terrific nugget of ear-grabbing pogo pop, “Every Day I Love You Less and Less.”
With lead MC Will.I.Am and bandmates Fergie, Apl.de.Ap and Taboo bounding about the stage like aerobics instructors after a quadruple latte, the group jacked up the crowd with “Let’s Get It Started” and “Don’t Phunk With My Heart.”
Big-screen ads
Anybody who thought Live 8’s free tickets didn’t come at a price was mistaken: the lull before Destiny’s Child was filled by big-screen ads for the feel-good event’s corporate sponsors: Apple, Volvo, Microsoft Xbox.
The Live 8 audience was empowered to change the world, but they had to sit through the commercials first.
Destiny’s Child came out all in white, with Beyonce Knowles in a shorter-than-short white skirt and cohorts Kelly Rowland and Michelle Willams in pants. They did two old hits, “Survivor” and “Say My Name,” and “Girl,” from the trio’s new (and last) album, “Destiny Fulfilled.”
Chicago rapper and producer Kanye West was backed by a nine-piece female string section including harp, all in black dresses and black blindfoldlike masks.
Will Smith played the crowd like a pro, as if this were a West Philadelphia block party. Smith took the stage to the “Rocky” theme and stroked the crowd – “North Philly in the house?” – while keeping it light and cutesy, “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” and the new “Switch” while giving DJ Jazzy Jeff Townes time to stretch out on the wheels of steel.
At least when Dave Matthews was on it felt like a music festival, not a TV show. The South African-born guitarist’s down-easy groove swept over the Parkway like an unhurried breeze – at least until “Too Much,” which made his 27 minutes seem just that.
Then Live 8 got seriously good, for about 10 minutes. Alicia Keys did an elegant, lovely version of the jazz standard “For All We Know.” One song and she was gone: Come back, Alicia, we hardly knew ye. Hot on her heels, Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter of the Roots, the hometown heroes who deserved a prominent place on the bill, showed up at the mic, and threw down a freestyle rap, “Imagine.”
The big winners were Chicagoans Linkin Park, who delivered a solid rap-rock set, then brought on Jay-Z, which was when the show took off. The funked-up beats and muscular riffs meshed perfectly with Jigga’s syncopated flow on “Dirt Off My Shoulder,” “Big Pimpin”‘ and “Encore,” which made it feel as though something vibrant and adventurous was going on.
Jay dropped the most pointed – and to the point – political commentary of the day: “We’re spending billions and billions of dollars to kill people. Let’s spend billions and billions of dollars to let people live.”
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