Tribute to the Music of Bruce Springsteen - Carnegie Hall, New York
During an extended Easter break in New York - I managed to score a couple of tickets to the Springsteen tribute at Carnegie Hall. As a reasonably famous venue, I was pretty excited to finally see somethine at Carnegie Hall. It did have amazing acoustics and viewing sightlines - even from our fairly high-up seats.
The line-up was a bit fluid for this charity concert - raising funds for Music for Youth an organisation dedicated to funding music programmes for disadvanted and undeprivalidges kids.
Overall the show was fantastic - I've included the full set details below - but my highlights were:
Steve Earle - looking very much like Allen Ginsburg, kicking things off with "Nebraska". The Surprise appearance of Patti Smith with "Because The Night". Marah, including a guest on bagpipes, with a rollicking "The Rising" - good to see some contemporary Bruce material represented. Juliana Hatfield performing "Cover Me" solo on electric guitar, which really emphasised the vulnrability in the lyrics. Pete Yorn's solo acoustic "Dancing In The Dark" which emphasised the dark over the dancing. Odetta delivering a dryly comic "57 Channels" from her wheelchair. Highlight for me was The Hold Steady's main set closing "Altantic City" where they managed to walk the line of staying true to the original, but also stamping their own style on it - in particular turning the "last night I met a guy and I'm gonna do a little favor for him" line into a mantra.
The encore featured a surprise appearance from Springsteen himself - in great form, joking "The good news is, I'm still alive," explaining that the evening felt like the kind of dream where you watch people talk about you, then discover you're at your own funeral. After a great acoustic version of "The Promised Land" and an abbreviated acoustic "Rosalita" where Springsteen abandoned the verses to bring the story up-to-date. Amongst the other highlights: the hero got the girl, broke up his band to sing happy songs which no one liked, put the band back together to sing sad songs which made everyone happy.
All the nights performers, including house band Elysian Fields then came back from a reprise of "Rosalita" which saw Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, Badly Drawn Boy, and Jesse Malin all trading verese with Bruce. A fitting, if ramshackle end, to a fantastic night.
The full line-up was as follows:
Nebraska - Steve Earle
Streets of Philadelphia - The Bacon Brothers
Streets of Fire - Elysian Fields
The River - Josh Ritter
Because the Night - Patti Smith
The Rising - Marah
My City of Ruins - Holmes Brothers with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City
Brilliant Disguise - Robin Holcomb
Jersey Girl - Jersey Guys with Bobby Valli
Spirit in the Night - North Mississippi All-Stars
New York City Serenade - Uri Caine
Cover Me - Juliana Hatfield
One Step Up - Low Stars
Thunder Road - Badly Drawn Boy
Born in the U.S.A. - Joseph Arthur
Dancing in the Dark - Pete Yorn
Hungry Heart - Jesse Malin with Ronnie Spector
I’m Goin’ Down - M. Ward
57 Channels - Odetta
Atlantic City - The Hold Steady
The Promised Land (acoustic) - Bruce Springsteen
Rosalita (acoustic) - Bruce Springsteen
Rosalita (full-band) - Bruce Springsteen with all performers
The line-up was a bit fluid for this charity concert - raising funds for Music for Youth an organisation dedicated to funding music programmes for disadvanted and undeprivalidges kids.
Overall the show was fantastic - I've included the full set details below - but my highlights were:
Steve Earle - looking very much like Allen Ginsburg, kicking things off with "Nebraska". The Surprise appearance of Patti Smith with "Because The Night". Marah, including a guest on bagpipes, with a rollicking "The Rising" - good to see some contemporary Bruce material represented. Juliana Hatfield performing "Cover Me" solo on electric guitar, which really emphasised the vulnrability in the lyrics. Pete Yorn's solo acoustic "Dancing In The Dark" which emphasised the dark over the dancing. Odetta delivering a dryly comic "57 Channels" from her wheelchair. Highlight for me was The Hold Steady's main set closing "Altantic City" where they managed to walk the line of staying true to the original, but also stamping their own style on it - in particular turning the "last night I met a guy and I'm gonna do a little favor for him" line into a mantra.
The encore featured a surprise appearance from Springsteen himself - in great form, joking "The good news is, I'm still alive," explaining that the evening felt like the kind of dream where you watch people talk about you, then discover you're at your own funeral. After a great acoustic version of "The Promised Land" and an abbreviated acoustic "Rosalita" where Springsteen abandoned the verses to bring the story up-to-date. Amongst the other highlights: the hero got the girl, broke up his band to sing happy songs which no one liked, put the band back together to sing sad songs which made everyone happy.All the nights performers, including house band Elysian Fields then came back from a reprise of "Rosalita" which saw Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, Badly Drawn Boy, and Jesse Malin all trading verese with Bruce. A fitting, if ramshackle end, to a fantastic night.
The full line-up was as follows:
Nebraska - Steve Earle
Streets of Philadelphia - The Bacon Brothers
Streets of Fire - Elysian Fields
The River - Josh Ritter
Because the Night - Patti Smith
The Rising - Marah
My City of Ruins - Holmes Brothers with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City
Brilliant Disguise - Robin Holcomb
Jersey Girl - Jersey Guys with Bobby Valli
Spirit in the Night - North Mississippi All-Stars
New York City Serenade - Uri Caine
Cover Me - Juliana Hatfield
One Step Up - Low Stars
Thunder Road - Badly Drawn Boy
Born in the U.S.A. - Joseph Arthur
Dancing in the Dark - Pete Yorn
Hungry Heart - Jesse Malin with Ronnie Spector
I’m Goin’ Down - M. Ward
57 Channels - Odetta
Atlantic City - The Hold Steady
The Promised Land (acoustic) - Bruce Springsteen
Rosalita (acoustic) - Bruce Springsteen
Rosalita (full-band) - Bruce Springsteen with all performers
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