The Roots: Backwards and Forwards

The Roots: Backwards and Forwards

The Roots to give all in S.F. New Year's Eve: Aidin Vaziri | When the Roots played Davies Symphony Hall earlier this year, the long-running Philadelphia hip-hop outfit turned the home of the San Francisco Symphony into the city's most happening party venue. Marching down the aisles, riffing on Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" and hosting an impromptu break-dancing exhibition as it banged out more than 15 years of headphone classics, the crew pulled out all the stops. So what will it do for a follow-up at the Warfield show on New Year's Eve? We asked drummer and bandleader Ahmir Thompson, better known as ?uestlove, who also filled us in on the Roots' unexpected decision to become the house band on NBC's "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" and the real reason the release date for its new album keeps getting pushed back. Read more.