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Shooter, Elvis and the Jack of Hearts
By Rob | October 31, 2007
Yeah, I got this blog title from a track off of Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” album. It’s appropriate, though, because I’ll be talking about Dylan later on.
So, this past weekend I took a road trip to Milwaukee to see Shooter Jennings play a club called The Rave. It looked a hell of a lot like the place Wayne & Garth went to see Alice Cooper in the first movie, so now I have to watch it again to verify that. Anyway, it was a decent venue with a small crowd, but a hell of a show!
The opening act was a gentleman by the name of Eddi Spaghetti, frontman for Texas punk band The Supersuckers. He came out with his guitar player who was dressed like a 70’s porn star, but played like a rock star. Spaghetti did some acoustic versions of Supersuckers songs, and even covered an old Merle Haggard song called “Misery and Gin” which was the highlight of his set.
Then Shooter came out. Shooter may be best known as the spawn of country music legend Waylon Jennings, but is a great musician in his own right. I had listened to his albums “Electric Rodeo” and “The Wolf” before the show, and I can honestly say they’re both damn good country-rock records.
What I wasn’t prepared for was his live performance. I’d expected a toned down guitar rock show, but what I got was pure brilliance. He was good. Damn good. He put on a better show in this club than most bands play in an arena.
And the band - let’s just say that the lead guitar was better than Jimmy Page on a good day. I could have sat there all night listening to him solo. I’d pay to see this performance again.
Monday.
I paid a visit to the Chicago Theater to take in a performance by rock legends Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan. Amos Lee opened, which was ok, but I wasn’t paying much attention to him. Other people at the show informed me that he was fantastic.
Costello took the stage and played an acoustic set for about an hour. I don’t really know a lot of his music, but what I heard has inspired me to check him out further. He played one tune which may have been called “I Want You” which had me riveted.
Then Bob and his Band played. I wasn’t expecting much because Bob is, well, Bob. His voice isn’t what it used to be. He growled though his first two songs, “Cat’s In The Well” and “Lay Lady Lay” - but as he went along, he seemed to come to life and sounded a whole lot better. I was thrilled to hear “You’re A Big Girl Now”and “Highway 61 Revisited” and even more surprised when he closed with “Like A Rolling Stone.”
He, Amos Lee, and Costello came out for the encore and did an excellent rendition of “I Shall Be Released”, then went into “Thunder on the Mountain” and closed the night with “All Along The Watchtower.”
I’m not going to give the performance a good or a bad review. Bob can’t do a bad show, because he’s Bob Dylan. He’s a music legend.
Topics: Music, Uncategorized |
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