At 8:30pm,my brother and I stopped by the Artscape Festival to check out Robert Randolph & the Family Band.  They kicked off their show with the irresistible funk-rock of "Deliver Me", featuring some blazing guitar riffing by Robert Randolph himself!  "I Need More Love" was more of the nasty blues-rock stuff with Robert tearing up on lap steel guitar and the band jumping into the Michael Jackson classic "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' ", which everyone was lovin'!  Actually, the band dedicated a good bit of the show to the memory of Michael Jackson by playing 4 MJ songs.  After a slower-paced instrumental jam, Robert's sister came out and did lead vocals for MJ's "Man in the Mirror"...the song was performed in a more blues-rock fashion (similar to RRFB sound, almost in the vein of "Soul Refreshing").  

During a hot instrumental jam where Robert invited some girls onstage, there was an amazingly funk bass & drum spotlight (Danyel Morgan & Marcus Randolph)....JUST TOO FUNKY!  The blues rocker "Jesus is Just Alright" featured Danyel & Nigel on lead vocals.  The band performed a lively instrumental of the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" (with the melody played on Robert's lap steel guitar).  MJ's "Billie Jean" was next with Robert again playing the melody....interesting part of the performance was watching this kid (couldn't have been no more than 9 years ago) onstage breakdancing and pop-locking....VERY GOOD!  Then, the band performed a jam called "I Don't Know What You Come To Do", using a call-and-response interaction with the audience.  The band walked offstage for a minute....and the moment came when the familiar synthesizer sample filled the Baltimore sky...the sound is part of the popular song, "Ain't Nothing Wrong With That", which the band did perform....fans were jamming to this.  The last song of the night was also another blues-rocker that the fans really dug..."Thrill of It".   The Robert Randolph experience was over at 10:00pm.