jukeboxgraduate.com

farewell to the phantom

Danny Federici, for 40 years the E Street Band's organist and keyboard player, died this afternoon, April 17, 2008 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City after a three year battle with melanoma. [brucespringsteen.net]

safe journey, danny.

long live the e street band.

elvis costello - spectacle

I am so out of the loop i only barely heard that this was happening, and saw the opportunities for tickets and dismissed them.

Until the one came through listing as follows:

APRIL 15
Bill Clinton

APRIL 16
Lou Reed

We had a baseball game Tuesday night and in any event, in our house, the latter will always be more important. I sent off an email and to my utter shock we were confirmed.

What I didn't even stop to think about was - what is the format? What is the ethos of this show? It wasn't until I was sitting in Studio 8-H (yes, *that* Studio 8-H) at 30 Rockefeller Plaza that I remembered when David Letterman was out due to his heart surgery and Mr. McManus was one of a list of rotating hosts. And that he was so completely perfect for the role everyone wondered why he hadn't done this before.

the highway is alive tonight

this is what happens when you don't get to the venue an hour before showtime and actually have time to REHEARSE and SOUNDCHECK.

i agree with those who claim that this trumps vedder; from what i can see, i wholeheartedly agree. outstanding.

funniest. interview. ever. no, EVER.

[thanx]

Seattle review now up at brucespringsteen.net

Subject says it all. If you come late, you may need to scroll down a bit. (Philistines with no anchor tags.)

windows are for cheaters

2008-03-29 Springsteen Seattle 1190
Originally uploaded by albabe.

I like to think that I am flexible, that my mind can change, given the right context or a good argument. On Friday afternoon, driving to Portland in what can only be described as blizzard-like conditions, I was all full of diatribes against the encore (omg do I still hate "American Land" with a passion not seen since my hatred of "Dissident" in Pearl Jam setlists), about how Bruce is taking things too easy, that I appreciate his need to spend time with his children but dear god in heaven, get on the f'ing charter jet one hour earlier and yes we all know that you don't go onstage at 7:30, but to go onstage at 8:40 is unconscionable...

...and no, I don't need to go to any more shows. I am happy to be here with my friends but the boyfriend can head down to the Carolinas, I will wait for the last arena run.

Famous last words.

IS THERE ANYBODY REALLY ALIVE OUT THERE?

rose garden, portland, or, 3-28-08
Happiness is: getting wristband #668 and having number #670 pulled as the start of the line.

good friday

on Gothamist today.

because the night

bruce springsteen & the e street band
nassau coliseum, 3-10-08

I feel like a lapsed member of my religion, not paying attention to setlists and show reports (at some point I realized I was in setlist blackout so decided to stay that way until Seattle and Portland). We weren't even going tonight, until the better half announced that we should, and found us two tickets behind the stage for under face. It was unexpected and I feel unprepared and a tiny bit out of place, until the band comes onstage and slams into "Night." Hey, ma, I'm home.

So I am still not consulting setlists, although I do know that tonight's rarities were not the rarities that sparked the purchase of tonight's tickets. However, needless to say that a setlist where I get "Night," "Adam," "Incident," "Jungleland" and "Because The Night," "She's The One" and (even) "Ramrod" certainly is well, well worth the money, even if the energy onstage was more than a little off. When Bruce came to the back of the stage for "Living In The Future" all I could think was how tired he looked. But, as we discussed on the way home, average performance + super-rarities = excellent. I would be feeling much differently, and much less charitable towards "Waiting On A Sunny Day" (hey, at least it wasn't "Out In The Street" as the family of five [two parents + 3 Bruce-bait] in the front row were requesting) if it had been this sloppy, out of sync performance with a very average setlist.

saturnalia on location

look at the booklet for saturnalia, and then compare:

taken over a year ago, two blocks from my house.

BORING OLD FARTS RULE.

...because getting old means we get shit like THIS on PBS:

[RECOMMENDATION: Watch with volume down so you do not have to hear inane announcer explain Why The Clash Were Important]

The Clash Live: Revolution Rock aka "Don Letts Finally Opens The Vaults". Coming to PBS next month!

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Let's hope this is followed by something called "Bob Gruen Opens The Vaults On All That Kickass New York Dolls Footage We Used To See Him Show At The Rockages Record Conventions In the 80s"]

via

my kind of email

subject: Bruce in Asbury

Today they rehearsed several rarities and new things for the setlist. Including a few things that I believe neither of us have ever seen live.

book review: "All Over But The Shouting"

It is odd to eagerly anticipate a book about a time or place or event you were part of. By "part of" I mean nothing more than I was one of the great unwashed, one of the thousands of people who discovered and fell in love with in the Replacements while v1 of the band were still an active, functioning unit. I never stopped to count back then but by a rough guess I must have seen them at least two dozen times, and that would include travel to outposts like Philly and Trenton and Boston and other locales within that magic three-hour radius from NYC that translated into "reasonable after-work drive" back then.

If anyone should have been the one to write this book, it was Jim Walsh. He was there on the front lines, in the hometown, knows the leading actors and the bit players equally. He knows the geography and the landscape. He knows the history by rote. His eulogy of Bob Stinson still brings tears to my eyes. I have been waiting for this book, eagerly, since I heard about it. I put the release date on my calendar so I could get it as soon as it was available. (The last time I did that was for the Strummer biography, which I wanted so badly, I ordered the import from the UK.)

The book is billed as "an oral history of the Replacements" and I for one thought that on the surface, this was the absolute, 100% true and right concept for a book about this band. They were the people's band, so let the people talk. Given that there was an active, vocal community of 'Mats fans online from the second the internet was available to people who weren't rocket scientists (one of the first things I ever did online was to subscribe to The Skyway), I knew there was no shortage of people willing to talk and share... and existing material to pull from.

gutter twins: debut

Bowery Ballroom, NYC
02-14-08

So there was no way this project was going to be half-assed, or unprofessional, or in any way not worthy of your time, or somehow not together. And I have seen Dulli in every incarnation now (although, thankfully, missed some of the truly fucked up ones) and while he is someone who has earned carte blanche in my house, I can still be critical (although the remarkable fact is that I have never had to be).

But this, my friends, was outstanding.

I don't ever think Greg isn't working hard, or trying his best, but sometimes I think that it is - not easy, but not difficult for him to do what he does. He shows up, he works hard, and he's got discipline. The old adage about 50% inspiration and 50% perspiration is true more often than not.

My odd thought about tonight was that this show was just - grown up. I haven't seen the lyrics and haven't lived with the songs enough, but this is not about Are you here to make par-tay or even the themes of loss and, well, loss that have hung over acres of Twilight Singers material. Don't get me wrong, this is still a collaboration between Dulli and Lanegan and it's not rainbows and puppies and roses, and it's plenty fuckin dark. But it was just at another level, and maybe because Mark's ass is also on that line (and not just Greg's), but I have never seen the band this whip-smart and sharp and just totally together, like Greg can put up one hand and conduct the band and they turn on a dime.

It was outstanding, even beyond the gimme that Dulli's earned and Lanegan deserves. The voices in perfect shape, Lanegan more than ever that cask of deep rich whiskey you just want to float in. Greg moving from frontman to sideman to piano to guitar and back again, inhabiting the songs like he was conducting them with his body.

We got the record, and then a break, and: "Would you like to hear something you know?" The assessment from a colleague in the audience pre-show was: a good mix, and that it most certainly was. I'd like to see a little more redemption and a lot more hip-shaking at the end, though; the NY audience was well-behaved and attentive and gave the new songs the space they deserved, actually acting the part of: we are here to see this and if we get anything else that would be cool, yo.

Greg only broke a smile a few times and I would have liked to have seen more visible signs that he was enjoying himself. But when he did, you know that grin, and you enjoy it more knowing that he is too.

Only regret: too close at Bowery, which means the mix was mud to me. Less than a month to Webster Hall, where, again, the mix will be mud because I cannot stand to be anywhere that is not close. The price we pay.

tomorrow is the best day.

Pitchers and catchers report, and the Gutter Twins start their tour right downtown.