Steve Marchese blogs at Scissorkick.

1) Who would you have asked to be in the concerts?
I guess eight seems like a reasonable number of artists to include in the, uh, Live 8, so I think one fantastic group of eight huge performers would be:

The Big 8
Stevie Wonder
Jay-Z
Eminem
Metallica
U2
R.E.M.
Radiohead
The Foo Fighters

The "Indie" 8 (not all acts are actually on independent labels)
Arcade Fire
Postal Service
The Killers
Snow Patrol
Bloc Party
M.I.A.
Fischerspooner
Daft Punk

The Scissorkick 8 (had to)
DJ Shadow
Boards of Canada
The Gotan Project
Royksopp
Mr. Scruff
Jaga Jazzist Dangermouse (with Gemini & Murs)
DJ Jazzy Jeff

2) Who would you drop from the current lineup?
Too many to name, but I'd start with Mariah Carey and Bon Jovi. Does Bob Geldof really have to play? Isn't he too busy organizing things?

3) If you could choose any one of these concerts to go to, which would it be?
Probably go to the London show. Definitely the best lineup. But the fact that each concert has been designed to appeal to the broadest audience makes most of them simply unappealing. For instance, fans of the Killers, U2, R.E.M., the Cure and Snow Patrol would have to sit through sets by Elton John, Madonna, Mariah Carey and Sting. Just doesn't seem to work.

And where is the world music contingent like Oliver Tuku Mtukudzu or Konono No. 1?

Yancey Strickler maintains a blog here.

Since when is Rome the capital of country music? Did Bob Geldof take the name of Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson's posse (the Music Mafia) literally? I'm flinching just thinking about Tim McGraw's slow-mo fist pumps and ironed-on jeans in front of an Italian crowd, although maybe he and Faith Hill are perfect for Rome, as they have all the subtlety of Silvio Dante and Victoria Gotti.

I wouldn't attend any of these concerts, even for the spectacle. The chances are at least 90 percent that every one of these things will end in a self-basking round of "Kumbaya," "Give Peace a Chance" or, at the very least, Pink Floyd's "Money." There are a handful of artists on here whose philanthropic past suggests that their involvement is something more than simple self-promotion. And then there's Velvet Revolver, whose frontman Scott Weiland has single-handedly kept Afghanistan's poppy crop thriving.

The artist I would most want to see among the Live 8 participants is definitely Lauryn Hill, because she's crazy great and there's nothing I love more than getting preached at by a millionaire. It's telling that she's appearing in Berlin -- one of the more distant locales, surpassed only by Philadelphia -- because her history of stage fright and media paranoia is like some unholy combination of Van Morrison and Richard Nixon. A close second is Mariah Carey, another artist stricken with the "crazy" tag (If she were a man it would simply be "eccentric" or "genius." Brian Wilson, say hello), because I'm a lifelong fan, and her new record is unbelievably great, even if she seems to have awoken one morning to decide that she's Beyoncé (who is also wonderful, but isn't fit to mop up Mariah's spittle).

The group who proclaimed the London lineup as "hideously white" was half-right, as "hideous" alone would have sufficed. As the U.K. charts regularly attest, black music is still a mystery to the Brits, unless it's being played by a slightly pudgy white dude with bad hair, worse clothes and a voice like a pickled hen. Speaking of which, where is Oasis, anyway? Chances are, Elton John and Paul McCartney were going to be playing Hyde Park that day for the press and spare change regardless, so their presence doesn't really count. And what's the over/under on Madonna getting mistaken for a roadie?

Jay-Z -- who has "retired" like a Dashiell Hammett detective -- alone makes Philly the show to see, while the rest of the lineup makes it the show to miss. Would it have been too much for Geldof to arrange for Terrell Owens and Allen Iverson to duet while Donovan McNabb vomited just offstage? Unless they can pull something like that off, this is just another awards show, albeit dedicated to a cause more worthwhile than celebrity self-glorification, although in their heart of hearts, many of the performers would undoubtedly disagree.

Few of these artists have ever taken anything even close to a true political stand beyond "love one another" and the patchouli-scented like -- a huge disappointment considering the amount of attention these concerts will receive, and the tremendous opportunity it presents those who are performing. Numerous articles have been written about pop music's irrelevance post-9/11 -- aside from country's jingoistic anthems, where was the unifying reaction to the horror? -- and this concert only furthers that perception, as artists with genuine political convictions (System of a Down, M.I.A. and, shit, even the horrifyingly-fascist-but-musically-great Montgomery Gentry) are kept just offstage so as not to offend. But the Western world should be offended by its complete ambivalence toward Africa and all developing nations. And if Geldof and the rest aren't willing to admit that, how much can this concert really accomplish?

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