Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | I had the good fortune to see this show from about 30 rows back last week. In a word, awesome. If you are a fan of americana music, you need to go see this show. Springsteen played only acoustic guitars, and was backed by a 15 piece band, including two fiddlers, a second acoustic guitarist, bass player (electric and standup), 4 piece horn section (including one irish flavored number with a tin whistle), keyboards (and concertina), banjo, drummer, multi-instrumentalist and three backup singers with percussion. The show was very high energy, almost revival-like. Springsteen put his own unique arrangements on classic old songs, some dating back to the mid 1800s. Some were from the 20's and 30's, including "Blown Away", about the dust bowl. He opened the show with a killer "John Henry". Most unique somg of the night was a version of "Froggy Went A Courtin'". He didn't play many of his past songs, but one stood out ... a complete new arrangement of Atlantic City. I'm sure many of the folks there were disappointed he didn't retread all of his hits, but for me, it was a great tribute to american music. It was without a doubt the best damn show I've ever seen. If he played the Grand 'Ole Opry with this show, Nashville would proclaim it the best show ever. Tight and incredible musicianship from start to finish. Springsteen played a variety of acoustic guitars, mostly Gibson jumbos. There was a Takamine in there from time to time. Finally, on the final number in the encore of this nearly 3 hour show, one of the horn section finally brought out an Ovation ... and yes Witko, it was a uke. |
Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 396
| I saw the show. About the 5th time I've seen Springsteen and he is still the man when it comes to performance. I thought the show was good but not great. The venue wasn't the best for seeing this type of show. Got off to a bad start. A Tuesday night and I was exhausted; the show was scheduled at 7:30 and the boss started at about 8:40. The Biggies always have a delay, but over 1 hour is insulting. A good show, but for me, not even close to great. It wasn't intimate enough with too many of the band members appearing to me to be too far removed from the performance. A few numbers, like John Henry, were killer. I was exhausted that night, the venue wasn't the best, and there were some bizarre folks in my section. perhaps it was me, not the boss, that wasn't great that night. |
Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band
