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Justin Timberlake, Ariana Grande, The Roots & More Shine at Dave Matthews' Music and Unity Concert
A fedora perched on his head and black capri pants high on his calves, Justin Timberlake
peered out at the capacity crowd of approximately 40,000 at the
University of Virginia’s Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, VA. He and
his 14-piece band, The Tennessee Kids, had just performed a fiery
version of “Cry Me A River” that had concertgoers on the floor
attempting to imitate his slick dance moves. But now JT wanted to make a
point.
“As you may or may not know I’m a new dad,” he said,
prompting screams from ladies in the mostly white audience. “I just got
on a plane from Nashville and kissed my son goodbye. I know that 15, 20,
30 years from now he’s going to see this somewhere, and he’s going to
remember, and you’re going to remember. So give yourselves a round of
applause for making history. This is what unity does.”
If, later in his life, young Silas Randall Timberlake does happen
across footage of his father at the Concert for Charlottesville, the
night of ‘Music and Unity’ that Dave Matthews,
Matthews’ manager Coran Capshaw and Live Nation put together in the
wake of deadly August riots there by white nationalists, he will almost
certainly swell with pride (save, perhaps, for dad’s choice of pants).
In a night of stellar performances by Cage The Elephant (the first band
to volunteer for the event), Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland of
Coldplay, Chris Stapleton, The Roots with Bilal and Brittany Howard,
Pharrell Williams, Ariana Grande and the Dave Matthews Band -- with and
without surprise guest star Stevie Wonder -- Justin Timberlake owned the
night.
JT's set showcased his impressive musical range and
tastes, beginning with a soulful cover of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna
Come,” followed by “Drink You Away” and “Suit & Tie.” By mid-set,
he was a human DJ, slipping in verses of JAY-Z’s “Holy Grail” and
Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” during his performance of “Cry Me A River,”
segueing into Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” during “Can’t Stop The
Feeling,” and even beginning “SexyBack” with Rock Master Scott and The
Dynamic Three’s “The Roof Is On Fire.”
Those wouldn’t be the only
throwbacks. Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, backed by The Roots,
performed a taut version of The Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion” that
was one of the highlights of the day, and a much looser cover of Curtis
Mayfield’s “Move On Up.” The formidable Tonight Show band, this
time with Bilal and MC Black Thought on vocals, performed their
ferocious take on racial divisiveness, “It Ain’t Fair,” from the film Detroit.
During
a weekend when President Donald Trump added more countries to his
travel ban and kicked up a media storm by denouncing NFL players who
protested the National Anthem by kneeling or sitting, the concert could
have been peppered with diatribes against the president and his
white-supremacist supporters, but the artists who took the stage mostly
let the music do the talking with songs that hearkened back to the fight
for Civil Rights in the turbulent ‘60s, or with songs that acknowledged
life and the world are fucked up without giving up hope. Matthews set
the tone at the start of the show when he walked onstage alone with his
acoustic guitar to perform “Mercy.”
“Don’t give up, I know you can see/All the world and the mess that
we’re making/Can’t give up and hope that God will intercede/Come on
back, imagine that we could get it together/Stand up for what we need to
be.”
Matthews then brought out Susan Bro, the mother of Heather
Heyer, who was killed while protesting against the white nationalists
who besieged Charlottesville on Aug. 11 and 12. “Sing your hearts out,”
she told the crowd. “Feel the music and fill the void left by those we
have lost. I will be right here with Heather singing.”
And that’s
what Grande, Stapleton, Pharrell and especially Matthews, who not only
organized the event in a little over a month but had the difficult task
of following Timberlake, did. He and his band turned in a visceral set
that included “Don’t Drink The Water” and “You Might Die Trying.”
“If
you give, you begin to live,” Matthews sings repeatedly at the end of
the song, and it should be noted that he, along with Martin, Grande and
Wonder, have become familiar faces at concerts that benefit the
disenfranchised and disaster-struck -- whether it was Matthews Stand
with Standing Rock concert in November 2016, Grande’s One Love
Manchester concert or the Hand in Hand hurricane relief telethon in the
aftermath of Harvey.
Given the political and racial turmoil of the
past year and nature’s recent vengeful whims, more of music’s finest
will be needed to answer the call.
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