concert reviews

Review – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in Louisville

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After his last trip to Indianapolis in 2008, and only drawing 12,000 or so fans to his show at Conseco Fieldhouse on his “Magic” tour, it was pretty clear Bruce Springsteen would not be making a return appearance in Indy.

And that has, sadly, been the case.

While he’s playing nearby Midwest cities (Chicago, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Detroit, Omaha, Neb.) on the current tour promoting the Wrecking Ball album, Indiana fans of the Boss found Louisville to be the closest stop.

On Saturday night, he brought his 17-piece E Street Band to Kentucky’s largest city, and was met by a full house, and gave back with a 26-song, three-hour performance equal parts gospel music, bone-crunching rock and loose-limbed rock and soul. In his first six songs, he and the band played four songs from the new album, including an explosive “Shackled and Drawn” as the opener.

Making his first appearance at the new downtown KFC Yum Center, Bruce was greeted by a boisterous, ready-to-participate crowd.  He and the band rewarded them with no less than five tunes not on the printed setlist, and invited fans on four different occasions to jump, sing, dance on stage and bask in the once-in-a-lifetime thrill of being under the lights with the band.

It was those moments of unscripted joy and the inherent danger that comes with pulling people out of the crowd to share the moment in front of 20,000 people that set this show apart from others on the tour.  He had a pack of pink cowboy hat-adorned young women on stage to dance during “Darlington County”, honored a request to perform “Growin’ Up”, and allowed the 20-year old birthday boy to maniacally duet on the final verse and chorus. He  invited three young brothers up, and they nailed the chorus harmonies during “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day”, and allowed a pair of women get up and shake it during “Dancing in the Dark”

Smiling broadly when each group left the stage, Springsteen showed he has mastered the art of keeping a scripted show loose while reveling in the places that don’t go as planned.  Late in the concert, he and the band lost their place during a song for a moment, and he bellowed “We fucked that part up!  But the E Street Band is at it’s best when we are fucking up!”

In between the audibles, the brought forth a modern-day version of a rock and roll review.

He crowd surfed during “Hungry Heart”  to the front of the stage from a small riser midway back on the no-chairs, general admission floor.  He and sax man Jake Clemons (who joined the band after his uncle Clarence’s death last year) faced the large contingent of people in the seats behind the stage during “Spirit in the Night”.  Bruce played preacher during “My City of Ruins”, talking about New Jersey, the hurricane and how we are all connected.

Midway through the set, the show turned from really good to transcendent with an eight-song flurry, beginning with a rarely played “Street of Philadelphia” (never outside of Philly in the past 13 years).  “Because the Night was the hardest rocking song of the night, lit by a Nils Lofgren guitar solo, and followed by a roof-raising version of “She’s the One” from his Born to Run album.

By the time he turned in a heartfelt version of “The River” to close this mini-run, the show was already a winner.  And this was before he had let loose with crowd favorites “Badlands, Born to Run”, and spirited version of “Rosalita”, the aforementioned “Dancing in the Dark and encore-closing “10th Avenue Freeze-out.”

The show concluded a four shows in four days run, necessitated by a date change of a New York show because of Hurricane Sandy, and the addition of a performance in New York City the previous night as part of an NBC benefit.  It’s simply amazing the stamina, sweat and passion Springsteen delivers, 40 years after releasing his debut Greetings from Asbury  Park” album.

Why doesn’t Indianapolis embrace Bruce as it does other rockers like Bob Seger, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp? Politics?  Anti-East Coast bias?

It is odd.   It is sad. But who did I stand beside on the floor of the arena?  Two people I had never met.  One guy from Indianapolis, and the other from Fort Wayne.

It is our city’s loss, because many Indy fans don’t get to experience the joy of watching one of the greatest rock and roll performers bring the power to Indiana.

So we drive 100 miles to get it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZaQSJAvBgo]
Setlist:
Shackled and Drawn
Lonesome Day
Hungry Heart
We Take Care of Our Own
Wrecking Ball
Death to My Hometown
My City of Ruins
Spirit in the Night
The E Street Shuffle
Streets of Philadelphia
Atlantic City
Because the Night
She’s the One
Growin’ Up
Open All Night
Darlington County
Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
The River
The Rising
Badlands
Land of Hope and Dreams
* * *
Rocky Ground
Born to Run
Rosalita
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out

Review: "The Wake" – four Indianapolis American rock bands turn it up

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Dubbed “The Wake,” the four-band bill at The Earth House in downtown Indianapolis on Friday night was a well-paced night of throwback Midwestern heartland rock, updated for the times. Held in an old church (with the gospel influence that brings) is most certainly a good thing in rock and roll.
All four bands were almost entirely Indy-based. The Weakenders, with only a guitar player not from Indy (he was the from-the-gut guitar-playing, long-haired Nashville cat) were the final band of the night, and brought home the two-guitar rock and roll turned-up-to-11 noise.
The Dead Hearts showed the promise and original music that warrants following the Tom Petty/Bryan Adams/Springsteen vibe they throw off when they play. Attakula was a surprisingly diverse and mature roots rock version of Arcade Fire. And Henry French and The Shameless worked as a three-piece; French wrangled rock and roll grit and beauty out of his Telecaster guitar and was helped along by the cranked-up drums.
The show was a model of efficiency, moving from one band into the next in about 15 minutes each; it roared to a start with French, whose sound channeled a rocked-up version of Son Volt. They tore through just over 45 minutes of originals. French, who has said he is taking a break from the band and music for a while, was most effective when taking a song’s energy, and twisting it higher as the song roared. A neo-Bo Diddley beat, and Henry stomping his right foot while facing the drummer during the last song of the set, was goose bump-inducing.
Attakula, six-piece band of nuanced roots rock, revealed themselves as a contender for best local talent working in the Americana genre. They can come with twin guitar attack, or bring on a mandolin to replace the Gibson Les Paul. A full, intricate sound and Petty blues mixed with The Band country-rock moments were highlights.
With “Not What I Wanted to Say” coming early in their set, The Dead Hearts brought the most accessible songs of the evening. They, as all the bands did at some point in their set. worked moments of beauty mixed with barbed wire electricity, By the time they reached “Bad For You” at the end of the 50-minute set, singer Brandon Perry had found sweet spot of chunky rhythm guitar with Brian Gropp’s gospel-tinged Hammond B3-like keyboards. The band is only one year old, and they’re still growing in confidence. If they find a way to let loose a bit more during performances while continuing to write, I like their future,
The most polished, and also pleasingly Shooter Jennings-like rugged, of the groups was the Nashville-based The Weakenders. Three of the four members are from Indy, and have recently moved to Tennessee. Guitarist Eli Chastain led them through “Sink or Swim,” echoing a Neil Young rawness; the two hard-strummed guitars worked together with slamming drums to show off the band’s efforts to take their musical game up a step by moving to Music City. Their effective harmonies and a nicely rehearsed set closed the show, using high-energy rock and roll with country-via-“Exile on Main Street” touches to pull the crowd in.
Were there things to that could have been better? There were moments with each band when lyrics needed to be sold harder, as they stopped being words and blended into melody. I would have loved a cover tune from each band; sometimes I need one, even on a night of originals. And the crowd of a 100 or so felt large enough to make it seem like the night was appreciated, but they did hang back until The Weakenders took the stage.
In reality, these are minor qualms with a show that was meant to refute the notion that American rock and roll is scarce — or dying — in Indianapolis.
As Brian Gropp of the Dead Hearts told me between sets during the show “American rock is out there” — at house parties and in basements; it’s just harder to find.” For one night, it seemed lost no more, and instead found in an old church in downtown Indianapolis.
And it may be in the hands of these four – and the others who mine the same sound — to keep playing, elevating their on-stage energy, and continuing to honor their true voice. We know it is rarely a one night or one week or one month endeavor to get anywhere worthwhile in life, professionally or otherwise.
It’s up to one band to make themselves heard with American rock in Indy. If any one of these bands, or others who were not at this show, takes their musical game to the next level — in popularity and with creativity — then others could follow. This was a good step in the process. What’s next?

Best of 2011 – The Dead Hearts, Seger, Huey and a Hoosier guitar player

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(Originally appeared in NUVO Newsweekly Year-end Wrap Up)
Here’s the question I get more than any other about bands and music: What do they sound like? And when I write about musicians and their music, I relay influences I hear without making it seem like a singer or a band is only that.
It’s also my job to figure out what might make them unique; why we should care about them. For 2011, what resonated was the wide swath of sound encompassed by roots music in Indianapolis, whether we call it Americana, alt-country, folk or simply American rock and roll.
I leaned on some of my favorite moments of the year. New music and concerts that resonated by pushing ahead while respecting what came before. That’s when roots-rock music is, at its best.
Best New Local Band: The Dead Hearts
Brandon Perry and his buddies put together a group of Indiana guys playing crunchy Midwest and Memphis rock and roll. They made the Q95 Next Big Thing contest, and have a look and sound that harkens back to power pop crossed with Fogerty. This is unapologetic, Petty rock.
Best Local Album: Tim Grimm – Wilderness Songs and Bad Man Ballads
Part compilation album, part new material, Grimm’s new album invites you in with his warm, conversational, roughly gorgeous voice. He keeps you listening because the songs richly describe the details of the characters who live there.
Lucky to See Them Here: Civil Wars at the Earth House
Huge. That is what they are. The success they have had this year, both critical and commercial, was on display on a sweaty July night when the duo poured beautiful harmonies into the old church. They played late in the year at a larger venue (the Egyptian Room), but this is the show that the fans will talk about in reverential terms in 10 years. It was a magical and memorable night of music for the soul.
Two Unexpectedly Great Live Shows: REO Speedwagon at Rib America and Huey Lewis at Clowes Hall
The Champaign, Ill., boys of REO turned Rib America into a sing-along that was propelled by a surprising classic rock energy from Kevin Cronin and his band. They pulled out some old stuff (“Son of a Poor Man”) that felt good, and celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Hi Infidelity album with multiple cuts from that smash. Great sound, great energy and one of the nicest surprises from an old rock band this year. Lewis, on the other hand, has partially reinvented his band as a Stax/Memphis soul and rock group. Mixing his hits with the soulful sound of the South, Lewis thrilled a Clowes Hall crowd, looked good and proved how you can maintain your integrity as a performer 20 years after your most recent hit song.

Guitar Player Taking it National: Thom Daugherty
Fresh from the breakup of The Elms, Daugherty has done some production work and caught on as a sideman/guitarist with the uber-hot The Band Perry. As the DVD/album “The Last Band on Earth” shows, the guitarist and his crunchy chords were a large part of the legacy of The Elms. He has taken that start and vaulted himself to a place that takes him on a cross-country trek, meeting some of his heroes and allowing him to play for more people than The Elms ever did.
Last Time Around For Two Legends: George Jones at the Murat, and Glen Campbell at the Palladium
Campbell is wrapping up his career with a tour and battling Alzheimer’s disease, while George is simply an old guy who has lived nine lives. Both revisited their hits for audiences that sensed they were watching history.
Maybe Not The Last Time: Bob Seger at Conseco Fieldhouse
His show in May was a greatest hits extravaganza, but how could it not be, with his ubiquitous radio status? He forgot the words to “Turn the Page” and laughed it off. That’s because the other two and a half hours were filled with the rock and roll soundtrack of the lives of any rock fan between the ages of 35 and 60. Seger tours without a flashy stage set up – no big screens, no lasers, no fire bombs. He just brings the band and rock and rolls like it’s 1980. God bless Bob Seger. He’s back out on the road and putting a new album together.

Review: Huey Lewis and the News at Clowes Hall in Indianapolis

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Huey Lewis and The News
Saturday, Oct. 22 at Clowes Memorial Hall
For a band that has released just three albums in the last 17 years, Huey Lewis and the News have found a way to stay together and also stay true to themselves as a touring act. They dug into the old Stax/Volt catalog and found, if not the fountain of musical youth, a wealth of fantastic, mostly forgotten soul songs that they have dusted off and given new life.
That’s the show and sound they brought to Butler’s Clowes Hall Saturday night, to a nearly full house of 2,000 fans. Lewis’ most recent album, Soulsville, features 14 songs from the glorious and gritty Stax days, and the singer and his band hit the crowd with many of them as they opened the show with nary a Huey hit until halfway through the set.
Yet it wasn’t a disappointment; it kinda felt right. While this wasn’t a greatest hits set by the 80’s band that experienced huge radio and sales success, it was a lesson in reinvention and playing to your strengths as performers.
Together 35 years, the band had guts to play new stuff, make it work live and still take care of the fans.
Featuring four horns and two female backup singers in addition to a core guitar/drums/keyboards/bass setup, Lewis paired a rock and soul presentation with his still-intact, distinct voice.
Early highlights included the church blues of “Free” and Solomon Burke’s “Got to Get You Off My Mind.” The two female singers were in the spotlight with the most familiar of his Soulsville covers, a fiery gospel take on the Staples’ “Respect Yourself”
The Soulsville album was recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, and the musicians’ feel for the songs is evident live. The band is a cohesive, experienced unit; three original members besides Huey still tour in the band.
The crowd waited until the tenth song of the show before hearing one of the hits. “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” had less gloss and was ingested with some of the soul music still lingering in the air.
A two-song a capella set included “60 Minute Man,” before the band, minus horns and backup singers, fired up ”Heart and Soul” from Lewis’ massive 1983 album Sports. Seven million copies of Sports were sold. “I Want a New Drug” included a guitar solo echoing the spirit of the arena days, with a bit of bombast.
Originally tagged as a bar band that made it big, the front half of the show showed how tight and soulful they have become in the most recent years. The back half of the show served as a reminder of how that same bar band got big.
The four-song encore satisfied the audience’s desire for a run of favorites. “Power of Love” led into an eight minute Phish-like (!) version of “Jacob’s Ladder,” followed by a grooving take on “Bad is Bad” loose enough to be a Slippery Noodle jam session, and finished with an energetic “Working For a Livin’.” During the last song, Lewis pulled out his harmonica, an instrument he sprinkled liberally and effectively throughout the set, and jammed while standing on the stage monitors.

Review: Avett Brothers at Lawn at White River in Indy

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Avett Brothers rock Indy

As the Avett Brothers powered through what will be remembered as one of the best shows to hit Indianapolis in 2011, the band put on display an all-too-rare ability to take the recorded version of songs to a higher musical level on stage.
Seth and Scott Avett’s North Carolina voices — ringing and true, forceful and elegant — cut through the 40-degree night air, hitting hard before a 7,500-person audience. The crowd knew the words to the songs, roaring and singing to a set evenly paced with rockers and ballads.
The Avett’s opening salvo — “Go to Sleep” and “The Fall” — saw band members bouncing, swaying and stomping the stage, taking the audience into their music and drinking in crowd’s energy. “Shame” turned into an anthem — many of their best songs sound anthemic — with a twist on the recorded arrangement.
The Avett Brothers have mastered the art of tension and release. Think Arcade Fire. Or Springsteen. “Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full Of Promise” was one of the early highlights, powered by radio familiarity and a band that just killed it.
Known for mixing up the setlist each night, Indianapolis heard a show that was equal parts arena and living room. The relative rarity “I Would Be Sad” lyrics hit painfully and perfectly. The neo-bluegrass of “Laundry Room”, a joyful and guttural “Kick Drum Heart”, a breathtaking “Colorshow” and the deserved hit “I and Love and You” closed the regular set.
A three-song encore included a true-but-different cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Angie” and “Talk on Indolence,” which charged forward with flat-out punk energy, concluding the 105-minute show with Ramones-ish pizazz.
Truth & Salvage Co. opened with a 45-minute set of roots rock, sparked by the lush and ragged harmonies of “Hail, Hail,” the Midwest mid-tempo gem “Heart Like a Wheel” (by Indiana’s Tim Jones) and the deceptively-melancholic “Old Piano.” “Call Me” connected with the early crowd, and “Pure Mountain Angel” let the boys show of their five-part harmonies.
A band that thrives in the sweaty clubs, Truth & Salvage Co. nicely brought a good bit of that rebel energy to the more cavernous setting. They return to Indy to open for JJ Grey and Mofro at The Vogue Nov. 4.

Review: George Jones at the Murat

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When George Jones took the stage at the Murat Theatre on Saturday night (Sept 17), there was an air of awe mixed with melancholy. Jones is 80 years old, and with the country legend’s voice more raspy than ever, this may be the last full show tour of his career.
Here’s one thing I know about Jones: In the early and mid ’70s, his voice was always on my Grandma’s radio. I would stay at her house all night, and her country radio always played the crying pedal steel and drink-my-troubles-away country music of Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Ray Price, Red Sovine, and Merle Haggard.
All night long. That’s my DNA with country music. I expect many listeners had similar experiences, particularly if they hail from a part of the country that had respectable country radio.
Now to the show, at which Jones delivered a nice mix of old and more recent hits, fronting a crack seven-piece band that made the ride easy. Band members brought some energy — a dance step here, a silly, over-the-top face-mugging for audience affection there. The pedal steel cried appropriately, the fiddle fit perfectly, and the country Telecaster was clean and precise.
Jones’s best moments were a song about his Dad, “The Man He Was”; the weeper “You’re Still on my Mind”; the kicked-up “White Lightnin'”; the anthemic duet “Golden Ring”; and a wasted medley that still included good stuff, like a bit of “She Thinks I Still Care.”
The painfully beautiful “He Stopped Loving Her Today” closed the set, after which came a one-song encore of “I Don’t Need Your Rocking Chair.”
Jones’s nickname of “No-Show Jones” no longer seems appropriate. He’s an elder in the house of country music, and his wild days of riding a lawnmower to the bar replaced by an advanced age that now sees him taking, as he put it from stage, “all kinds of pills, for every part of your body.”
Jones satisfied the more-than-half-full crowd — the theatre was about 70 percent filled with a mix of hard-core fans mingling with those who wanted to see a legend. “I love you George” rang out repeatedly from audience members during the 90-minute show.
Here’s what the Indy show was: a night with a legend who may never travel this way again. A dip into timeless country songs. A chance to remember 30 or 40 years ago, when you were listening to the radio, and when his one-of-a-kind voice was the authentic, swaggering, soulful sound of country music.