Posted on 06/15/2006 3:37:09 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Pete Seeger sings songs of peace, hope and the working class. Bruce Springsteen's idea to reinterpret the Seeger songbook with broad strokes of street jazz and gospel is a noble thought. Unfortunately, Springsteen's Tuesday night "Seeger Sessions" concert was outsourced to the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park.
Everything that was so right about the music was so wrong for the venue.
Springsteen and his raucous 17-piece band failed to even fill the pavilion. Roughly 5,500 fans showed up, and the $92 ticket price knocked out the working-class audience that Springsteen and Seeger have championed. This is First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, as in cha-ching. A Corona beer was $10. "Seeger Session" programs were $20. I know many fans who would have taken a chance on the show had tickets been $50 or less. So who's left? People who may not share Seeger and Springsteen's political beliefs.
How do I know this? Springsteen's first encore was an evocative version of "Bring Them Home (If You Love Your Uncle Sam)," which Seeger wrote in 1966 as an anti-Vietnam War song. Back then, thousands of people sang with Seeger on the chorus: "Bring 'em home, bring 'em home, but I got a right to sing this song. ..."
But after Tuesday's rendition, there was a smattering of applause to a message that is as much about freedom of expression as it is against war. The starchy atmosphere was not lost on the Boss, who earlier in the concert remarked, "Tinley Park. I don't know where the hell that is -- some big black box outside of Chicago?"
So Springsteen tried his best, especially in the second portion of the 2-1/2-hour show. (In what is becoming a Springsteen tradition, he kicked off the concert almost an hour after the advertised 7:30 p.m. start.) He rearranged "Ramrod" into a Tex-Mex-meets-ska roadhouse number with tuba solos, and "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)" continues to embrace the zydeco seasonings Springsteen deployed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
New Orleans is still much on Springsteen's mind. He wasn't as vocal about President Bush as he was in New Orleans, explaining that he doesn't "like to kick a man when he's down." But Springsteen's hard-rockin' reworking of Blind Alfred Reed's "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live" continues to be an emotional cornerstone of the set.
Springsteen added his own post-Katrina lyrics to the 1929 blues song that reflected on the Great Depression. On Tuesday, he sang of "bodies floatin' on Canal and the levees gone to hell" with raw conviction and empathy. Moments earlier, Springsteen shared vocals with Marc Anthony Thompson (Chocolate Genius) as they recast "Long Black Veil" through pure country gospel.
The stage was basked in shades of red, and I found the three chandeliers above the band very ironic. Here's a news flash: There are places in Chicago like the Auditorium Theatre and Orchestra Hall that have storied chandeliers, where Seeger and the Weavers actually performed, and are more accessible for older folk music fans than a shed among the little boxes that Seeger himself sang about in 1963's ode to suburbia "Little Boxes (Ticky Tacky)."
dhoekstra@suntimes.com
Maybe he could do "The View".
Springsteen was the Boss until my female roommate decided he had a "cute ass". I swore off Bruce after that. He became another Michael Bolton.
Let's see, less then half of the place sells and the people who do show up, you insult. Good plan!
These thirty-five years, bought to heavily in to the '60's. The only person that I ever met that aced the SATs, 1964.
"How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live at 92 bucks a pop?”
I was going to suggest that maybe he could open for the Dixie Chicks with their new, realigned schedule.
Yep. *Platinum* anger and *Sold-Out* rebelliousness can only be maintained for so long before *SOS* reality sets in.. looks like he's going to have to go for the *retired* man blues if he wants to sell tickets. Ever heard "Born in the USA" on accordion?
"Tramps like us, Baby, we were born to run."
The unions picketed Springsteen's Milwaukee show because he performed in a non-union hall.
Gotta love irony, it can be so ironic.
My wife says Bruce looks like a troll; I can't disagree.
I think Cracker put it best:
"What the world needs now is another folk singer, like I need a hole in my head."
Yea, maybe both groups can draw the same number of crowds that they used to before they opened their mouths.
a disease of choice,
.Yes sir.
Dufarge goes half berserko just seeing a picture of Seeger. Bobby Kennedy Jr. is tied in with him on the River Keepers scam.
I saw Springsteen at the Stone Pony back in the 70's.
That was a nice evening at least what I remember of it.
It also doesn't help that "The World" (I mean, First Midwest) is a horrendous, God-forsaken venue (Why did they ever tear down Poplar Creek??). It couldn't have sounded very good, that's for sure.
"Front row seats for Jimi Hendrix' Band of Gypsies at the Fillmore East, New Years Eve 1969 - 8 dollars."
Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti tour at MSG. 6 dollars.
>> the $92 ticket price knocked out the working-class audience that Springsteen and Seeger have championed. <<
Wow. Amazing. Hypocrites only!
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