The Boss is Back, Fall Wish List, Dylan's Neverending tour, Radio Beat
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Sept. 1, 1999) -- It's great going to a concert with a huge cloud of doubt and being totally taken by surprise. That's what happened two weeks ago when I drove to the Fleet Center in Boston to see Bruce Springsteen. Last time I caught the Boss, in the early-'90s when he was touring behind his dual albums, "Lucky Town" and "Human Touch," I left woefully unimpressed. The stage magic that infused his performances going back to the mid-'70s when I first saw him was gone, replaced by a sense of entitlement. Springsteen had ditched his E Street Band in favor of a bunch of hired hands and he seemed to want to put the past behind him. The only problem, of course, is that he wasn't offering anything of value in return for his past glories. Which is why this summer's comeback tour is garnering so much praise and excitement. Not that Springsteen is trading on past achievements alone. He is far too old to pretend he's 25 again, and to do so would put him in the precarious position of being his own caricature - the Mick Jagger phenomenon. No, instead, Springsteen has figured out a graceful way to incorporate age and experience into his performance while still investing it with the full range and complement of passion that fans have long come to expect from him. He dug deep into his early catalog for well-worn, mini-rock suites like "Jungleland" and "Thunder Road" (but, alas, not deep enough for "Rosalita" or "Incident at 57th Street," - at least not on the night I went) to please long-time fans, and threw in some rare cuts from his "Tracks" anthology to please fanatics. Where did that leave me? Well, sheepishly close to the latter, I suppose. Here's the set-list from the approximately three-hour, opening-night show (the first of five) at the Fleet Center:
Wishing they were here Before the fall concert season gets fixed in stone, here's a list of performers - most of them already out on the road - who we'd like to see stop by our neck of the woods, preferably here in the Berkshires, if not in the general vicinity: Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, Bruce Springsteen, Flaming Lips, Sting, Tom Petty, John Zorn, Lucinda Williams, Beth Orton, Gillian Welch, Robyn Hitchcock, Eurythmics, Chemical Brothers, Luscious Jackson. Backstage bits Next Tuesday, Sept. 7, the night before she shares a double-bill with R.E.M. at the Saratoga (N.Y.) Performing Arts Center, Patti Smith plays a rare nightclub date at Northampton's Pearl Street at 8:30…. Singer-songwriter Dar Williams, who calls Northampton home, kicks off the fall concert season at Williams College (no relation) in Williamstown one week from tonight, on Sept. 9, at Goodrich Hall…. "He not busy being born is busy dying": You'd think Bob Dylan would take a well-deserved rest after his barnstorming tour of America with fellow-'60s singer-songwriter Paul Simon? Think again. Shortly after the Dylan-Simon roadshow completes its swing through the American South at the end of this month, Dylan will head back out, this time on a co-bill featuring Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh and unidentified "friends." While no dates are confirmed as of yet, it looks like the tour will begin in the Midwest at the end of October and make its way to New England the second week in November. Stay tuned…. Ani DiFranco, who like Patti Smith is a veteran of one of Dylan's recent tours, is making her way back to the region, with a concert scheduled for the Bushnell Auditorium in Hartford on Oct. 1 and Albany's Palace Theatre on Oct. 3…. It can now be revealed - the headline act for next spring's Williamstown Jazz Festival is the Tom Harrell Quartet. The avant-garde trumpeter will lead his band into Chapin Hall on April 8, 2000.… Radio beat Another snapshot of the most-played CDs - new, old, and in-between, on our imaginary radio station:
[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Sept. 2, 1999. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1999. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy rogovoy@berkshire.net music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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