Bob Seger

Saw Bob Seger last night and it was an absolute delight.  I’ve been a Seger fan for years and it have always wanted to see him live… the show last night lived up to every last high expectation I had.  Great band (10 piece band), killer tunes, heartfelt lyrics, emotional performance, two plus hours plus double encore… Seger is in his late 60s and he’s still got it, bouncing all over the stage, singing with authority, playing piano, guitar, telling jokes and wearing a black sleeveless shirt with a bushy beard.

Bob Seger still brings it live after all these years. Photo courtesy Bob Gianettino & Segerbob.com Guy. www.segerbob.com

It is a a rock n roll show with no pretension. It is a very earnest and honest performance. The jaded need not apply. I appreciate this because these days I feel I am rarely exposed to genuine quality. No angles, no subterfuge, no pathetic irony…

Seger loves his fans and lays it all out on the line in performance. And because of that the fans love him back.  The kind of performer that has die hard fans.  Got to meet a few of them.  Standing in the beer line, talked to this older long haired dude who was baked out of his mind with bloodshot eyes, wearing an Eagles tour shirt from the early 80s.  He’s seen Seger twenty plus times and he gave me a great overview of how the show would be…. met a a little trashy biker chick in her late 40s who looked like she had been rode hard and put up wet. She had on a bandana, excessive makeup, cut off Seger shirt from the Night Moves tour, and some daisy dukes.  She traveled six hours for the show with her girlfriend. She was downright giddy because her boyfriend/husband (she couldn’t remember if she was married or not) didn’t want to go so it was a girls night out.  She accurately predicted the emotional ferocity of the moment when the band kicked into Main Street and the lead sax player stepped out into the spotlight, playing those mournful notes. People went crazy.

Rock n roll from the American Midwest, done right. Photo courtesy Bob Gianettino & Segerbob.com Guy. www.segerbob.com

Turn The Page hit me right in the gullet.  Bob sitting at a baby grand piano, the harsh spotlight down on him, growling every word, not a doubt in the word that he really meant it.

Bob has really written some great songs that stand the test of time in the American rock n roll canon.  He sings about persevering through hard times, temptation, redemption, love, longing and lust.  Throughout the night, this lyric or that lyric would bubble up out of the songs and I would just smile and shake my head, because I was right there with him, we were on the same wavelength… I believe in the soul cleansing, emotionally empowering release of a good rock n roll song.  And Bob does, too.  That’s what he does, he creates these little musical vignettes that help all his fans make through the day and onto tomorrow.

Couldn’t find a setlist for last night, but here’s a recent show that is similar to what we were treated to….

Greensboro, NC – April 23, 2011
Setlist submitted by Tom Joseph aka “Dr. T”
Roll Me Away
Tryin’n To Live My Life Without You
Fire Down Below
Mainstreet
Old Time Rock & Roll
Her Strut
Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man
Betty Lou’s Getting Out Tonight
Shinin Brightly
Travelin Man/Beautiful Loser

Intermission

Nutbush City Limits
Come to Poppa
Her Strut
Real Mean Bottle
Weve Got Tonite (dedicated to his nephew)
Turn the Page
Sunspot Baby
Horizontal Bop
Katmandu

1st Encore

Against the Wind
Hollywood Nights

2nd Encore

Night Moves
Rock & Roll Never Forgets

hard lessons in old, old mexico

OK, I am going to paint with broad strokes and you can draw your own conclusions on certain details, that is, until I arrive at points of contention that I truly believe in, and then, in those instances, you will have to indulge me in excruciating description that validates my perspective. Got it? No? Alright, well, this is the kind of thing that corporations have to say before they attempt to violate antitrust laws. In these circumstances, Vegas must say that gambling is only for fun and family development. And Arizona must declare, as a part of the George Strait addendum, that they really don’t have any ocean front property to sell.

The point of all this is as follows… I had a blind date with a beautiful Canadian from Newfoundland and Labrador. In San Antonio. After I had finished several days of wheeling and dealing on behalf of my j-o-b. So I just wanted to have a nice time with this attractive lady, this slender woman with a shock of well-coiffed red hair, piercing blue eyes and long legs that were long and smooth and slinky, drawing the attention of every ball cap wearing imbecile within a 100 foot radius every time I had to leave her immediate vicinity. Granted, the River Walk is not the best place to walk around with a sophisticated woman whose beauty is only surpassed by her intellect, but man, I just wanted to get drunk with a cool chick with a wit that lapped mine.

But my fantasy of conversation about Neil Young and Czech fiction writers who sought refuge in Vancouver after the Soviets acted like morons was repeatedly pierced by the incessant marching of reality. Oh, and by the fact that the River Walk was now populated by a convention of beer distributors.

All this meant was it was important to go to the piano bar known as Howl at the Moon, where one can listen to two pianos play compelling renditions of Don McLean, Elton John and Motown classics. A place where one can get one’s head together, and slowly begin to wrap it around the absurdities of the day.

To me, this picture is crystal clear.

I guess I am just off kilter with current reality. Because instead of such soothing piano plinking I was subjected to two hours of bad cover band shit (versions of Nickelback and Collective Soul songs come to mind). Ol’ Howl at the Moon had the bright idea to supplement their dueling pianos with a drummer, a bassist, and a guitarist, all of whom could best be described as tone deaf. I mean, seriously Howl at the Moon, if I wanted to hear dull-thudding versions of Metallica’s Seek and Destroy, Van Halen’s Jump, and Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Baby Got Back, I could easily visit The Zone in Abilene. I’m really not that high-class, I’m just against things that are so terrible that they inspire nothing but fisticuffs. And I was so ready to just punch myself in the face………..

T B C, perhaps. . .

The Alamo says one thing, but we must ponder, are we really free?

relationship resurrected

The Houston Dynamo started their season with a loss. We started their season with 16 shotguns of beer.

So this blog has been sitting here neglected. Remorseful yet prideful. Quiet yet pissed off. And so finally I got around to speaking with this blog again. And I was like, “I wasn’t dissing you because I didn’t like you. I wasn’t returning your phone calls because of some faux pas you committed. You did nothing wrong, my dear blog, I promise.”

And I wasn’t lying. I was merely lacking in inspiration and direction. And what I needed the blog to understand is that I thought our relationship really had some promise, but I didn’t want to drag the blog down some dark alleys of uninspired mediocrity. I didn’t want to go through the motions with this blog. Cause this blog, it is kinda pretty, and has great taste. And I wanted to be the man that this blog could fall in love with.

And now I can be. So keep an eye on us for the next three months. We are really going to be a power couple of some distinction. We’ve got all our shit worked out and now we make each other better. We smile in the morning and furrow our brows collectively at night. Bookmark us so you can follow our missteps, our joy and our first impressions. And invite us over for dinner when you can.

If this don’t give you goose bumps, then you are clinically comatose

Andres Cantor, the great Argentinian soccer announcer, calls Landon Donovan’s goal that seals victory for the US against Algeria… goose bump city….

One more cool link and then I will bid you adieu. We met these interesting folks at a bar after the US-Slovenia match. They drove from Cairo to Jo-burg for the start of the World Cup and recorded all of their experiences in between. Lorrie Fair, the main protagonist, is a former US women’s soccer player who won an Olympic gold. She traveled with a doctor, a journalist and a photographer and yes, they have a few stories to tell. .The link is here

Oh, and we saw Bill Clinton at the stadium yesterday. He loved the match so much he changed his travel plans to stay for Saturday’s game. He also gave the US team a pep talk after the game. Clinton is the key schmoozer to help the US get the World Cup for 2018 or 2022. I think this is the perfect job for the former president. Bill Clinton is the guy I want championing an underdog story, offering stem-winding Southern preacher-esque words of encouragement and convincing shifty corrupt international bureaucrats that the US is the place for an upcoming World Cup. With Bill Clinton as the point person and, I kid not, Jerry Jones hyping the new Texas Stadium as a great place for a World Cup final (evidently fat cat FIFA president Sepp Blatter visited the new Cowboys home and his eyes grew big at the amenities and the possibility of drawing 100,000 fans to the pinnacle event of his multinational organization), I think the World Cup will again be visiting American soil.

Finally, tonight is the last night of my life I will ever be in Pretoria. Tomorrow we embark for our third visit to Rustenburg. On the way we are going to stop off and pet some lions. Then attempt to pick up our tickets for Saturday’s match from a dodgy FIFA ticketing center. Then it’s on to the game lodge for drinks at the bar and final deliberations before we awake at dawn to decide to the best way to slither into the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace.

photo dump usa vs algeria III

Blue Man Group has fled Vegas...

Yours truly making nice with the enemy

ants marching to honor the south african called dave matthews

photo dump from usa vs. algeria II

This team gives me high blood pressure

The Algerian fans were actually pretty cool...

The USA pre-game outside of a pancake house...

More of that USA pre-game...

photo dump from usa vs. algeria

In front of the US embassy in Pretoria

Algerians down low...

the cuties from north carolina that hearted clint dempsey

just trying to collect my thoughts post match and these gals wanted a pic