Last night, Kanye West’s Glow in the Dark tour rolled through Paris with the legendary Roots crew opening. Manager Rich Nichols reached out to me the day of, and I made the show plus the Champagne afterparty back in the bowels of Bercy stadium. It was a throwback evening, totally reminiscent of so many others from back in the go-go 90s, when killer music, free drinks, celebs and flirtatious freestyle conversation were weekly affairs in my life. Not that I don’t love changing diapers. (snicker)

I’ve seen the Roots too many times to count, and matter of fact, Thursday night was my third time this year. (No. 1, the Apollo Theater in February; no. 2, Rock en Seine three months ago.) I still miss Hub, and I still don’t get the sousaphone guy, but the Roots never, ever disappoint. Their cover of Kool G Rap’s “Men at Work” always gets me thinking: “Black Thought’s rapid-fire flow is hard enough to follow for an English-speaking audience; what are the French getting out of it? Do they even know it’s G Rap?” Their tour bus flipped the night before, and it’s a blessing that the Roots weren’t hurt and still soldiered through on some “the show must go on.” And I hear the group is about to be Jimmy Fallon’s house band when he takes over for Conan O’Brien, shades of Branford Marsalis and The Tonight Show.

(Side note: Black Thought and I had, let’s say, “a girl in common” back in those late 90s who we never discuss when we speak. I always get to wondering if he still remembers. There was a lot of that going around then. I don’t attract groupies, but somehow some of the women I was with had also been linked to Prince Paul, DJ Premier, Aaron McGruder and others. But anyway.)

Kanye did his thing. I’ve been getting this question a lot – I guess it’s a debate going on right now – but for the record, I’m not mad at Ye singing. He closed with “Love Lockdown,” one of the year’s best singles. (And by the way, the Roots’ Rising Down is one of 2008’s best albums.) I’d seen him at Le Zénith years ago but never got to hear him do Graduation material; I prefer Late Registration much better. Le Zénith seats 6,000, but Bercy was much more like Madison Square Garden.

Claire Sulmers of The Fashion Bomb blog schemed with me using our backstage passes to rush Kanye’s “private” Champagne mixer afterwards, where a splendid time was guaranteed for all. Ye told me he’s not intentionally after a Grammy this time with 808s & Heartbreak, as he tried to figure out whether Claire and I were “together.” Beer, cham, wine… I’m still nursing a hangover. I’d do it all over again.

Labelle at the Apollo is next on my concert agenda: December 19.

So I sat backstage under the Heineken tent at Paris’s annual Rock en Seine outdoor concert festival tonight, waiting on Amy Winehouse’s 10:15 set. Her headlining appearance was supposed to make up for last year’s fake-out, when she didn’t show up after Rock en Seine’s usual months-long summertime promotion. Well, she did it again folks. After the Raconteurs finished up their encore, the screen in the tent area flashed thfollowing message for all the disappointed VIPs: AMY WINEHOUSE: ANNULATION DE DERNIERE MINUTE (Translation: cancellation at the last minute).

Love Herbie Hancock, but the Grammys had it wrong; Back to Black was obviously everybody’s real-life album of the year. I read of a decent show Winehouse did recently at Glastonbury, where she at least showed, but ended up elbowing some fan in the forehead. I can’t say I was surprised she wasn’t there tonight. I just hope Spin‘s crowned “queen of soul” gets it together before things fall any further apart for her. Evidently, Winehouse’s band arrived was there at the Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, but got word two hours before performance time that she wouldn’t be turning up. This time around, Rock en Seine organizers intend to sue.

Tricky played yesterday; sorry I missed him. But before the Raconteurs, the legendary Roots crew delivered an energized set that couldn’t leave anybody that mad, but it’s obvious that they’ve got a special “European outdoor festival” set list. True, I’ve seen Black Thought & co. have the guts to pull off Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” smack dab in the middle of 125th Street at the Apollo Theater, but Parisians hopped up and down for choice bits of Guns n’ Roses’ “Sweet Child o’ Mine” and Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” stuck in the middle of their Grammy-winning “You Got Me.”

I was late to their set – which also included a little “Bad to the Bone” rock snippet, “The Seed (2.0),” and a superscintillating version of the Kool G Rap classic, “Men at Work” – but I was especially glad to hear “Get Busy,” from their latest disc. I don’t know how the numbers are doing for Def Jam, but Rising Down is seriously the Roots’ best work since Phrenology, two quiet classics for the guys. Drummer ?uestlove deejays tonight at Bellevilloise in the 20th arrondissement. Am I on my way?