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bobfrombob

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    Roger Ebert

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    The food essay is great.

     

    I'm generally oblivious to stuff anyway, but since in addition I'm nowhere near Chicago, somehow I wasn't aware of his health. That's very sad. I have fond memories of watching him and Gene.

    Meeting the band

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    I have run into (stalked?) all the current members, most more than once. Jeff, Nels, Glenn and John have always been charming. Mikael has been hit and miss, and Pat mostly just miss, although I only ran into him once and I certainly sympathize with the fact that it's not his job to meet me. And he wasn't rude or anything - just preoccupied. They all come across as very down to earth and genuinely appreciative of the support and their success.

    Your top concerts of 2009!

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    I didn’t see as many shows as normal this year but these were certainly all memorable:

     

    - Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band, November 7, 2009, – entire Wild, Innocent and E Street Shuffle album – in New York New York

    - Wilco, October 16, Massey Hall

    - Elvis Costello and Sugarcanes, August 28, Massey Hall

    - Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band, November 22, 2009 – entire Greetings from Asbury Park album in Buffalo

    Fan fiction in the voice of Kobe Bryant

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    http://www.hobartpulp.com/website/january/greenfeld.html

     

    Fan fiction in the voice of Kobe Bryant

     

    by Karl Taro Greenfield

     

     

     

    One of the things that most fans don't know about NBA superstars, is that we like to meet in the off season and fight to the death. So, this past Saturday, I called LeBron James while I was watching my immense LCD. LeBron answered, "What's up, Mamba?"

     

    I kept silent on my end. (I like to intimidate in every area of my life, including when I'm on the phone.)

     

    "Kobe, are you there?"

     

    Still, my ominous silence.

     

    "I can hear you breathing."

     

    Damn. "What's up, Bron?"

     

    "Kobe, you called me."

     

    "So, Bron, I was thinking we should meet up and have a fight to the death."

     

    "Okay."

     

    Then I added, to further intimidate him. "It's on, Bron, you just signed your death ticket."

     

    "Don't you mean, 'death certificate'?"

     

    Was Bron questioning my word choice? "No, I mean 'death ticket', as in, you just bought one, a one way ticket to death."

     

    "Okay," Bron said, "but that's not even a real thing. A 'death certificate' is a real thing, but, okay Mamba, whatever."

     

    * * *

     

    We chose to have our fight to the death in an abandoned factory in China. I flew over in my private jet and made sure I preserved my vital combat energies by abstaining from totally consensual intercourse with my perfect-10 stewardesses.

     

    Instead, I reminisced about other NBA superstars who I have killed in action: Mel Turpin, Joe Barry Carroll, Benoit Benjamin, Stanley Roberts, Arvydas Sabonis, Mike Giminski, Bill Wennington and Edward Martini, who is not technically in the NBA or a superstar but a male nurse I mowed down in an unsolved hit-and-run homicide.

     

    But fighting with LeBron was obviously a different matter. For one thing, he was a small forward, not a center like the usual NBA players I've fought and killed, so he was probably faster, would require a different type of lethality. And another aspect of LeBron James was that he is an active player as opposed to the retired players I prefer to fight and kill, so that would mean I would need to be at the top of my hand-to-hand combat skills. Yes, this was the game 7 of hand-to-hand combat, fight-to-the-death situations, only instead of win-or-go-home, in this case, the loser would be dead, and the winner would go home. (I did not plan to stay in China after the fight.) So it would be lose-or-go-home. I decided to say that to Bron before the fight, for extra intimidation.

     

    * * *

     

    I like to fight in the nude. LeBron initially objected to this, so I agreed to wear a thong. But I didn't tell him that I also like to cover myself in sea slug brine that makes it impossible for my opponents to get a good grip on me and makes my tattoos shine in the stark light.

     

    Well, we were both surprised that instead of an abandoned factory, this was a fully operational sneaker factory where the uniformed Chinese girls were stitching the leather on Nike's Kobe Bryant sneaker. The irony was completely lost on me.

     

    Bron objected to fighting in a functioning factory, pointing out the potential to injure innocent bystanders.

     

    "If they are bystanders, then they are not innocent," I replied.

     

    "Okay, again, Kobe, that doesn't make sense."

     

    I had stripped down to my thong and revealed my glistening, totally ripped body. Bron was intimidated, and really, the fight was over before it began, or shortly after it began, or certainly before it was finished, as I kidney punched him, gouged out his eyes, shoved his nasal cartilage back into his brain cavity, and used my hands like daggers to rip into his rib cage and remove his still beating heart, which I ate.

     

    I fed his body into a wood chipper, and the Chinese girls and I poured his gooey residue into the dye they are using for my new sneakers. Nike's special edition Kobe Kills Lebrons will be on sale February 13, the start of NBA All-Star Weekend.

    Wilco PreSales

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    Don't give up early. If it says there are no tickets at 10:01, that doesn't mean you won't get a pair at 10:08 or 10:15. Keep trying. And be patient if you do get tickets. It takes forever for them to ship them. I still don't have my Ottawa tickets that I ordered about 2 months ago (luckily the show isn't for over a month).

     

    Good luck.

    Springsteen tour is over (for now)

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    I haven't been following this most recent tour much, but is that one of the first times they've done I'll Work For Your Love? It's probably my favorite off of Magic and I'd love to see it. Looks like you saw quite the show!

    He pulled it out from time to time on the Magic tour but this was the only performance on the WoaD tour.

    Springsteen tour is over (for now)

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    Not much point in me writing a full review since it's been done very well already. It wasn't the best show of the tour - I think the show I saw at Madison Square Gardens was "better" and people who saw more shows than me point to other great nights in 2009. But at 3 1/2 hours of music and 34 songs, the show in Buffalo Sunday night might have been the most amazing show of the WOAD tour. And it was clearly the most celebratory show of the tour. An epic night. I laughed. I cried. I sweat (the pit was pretty hot in HSBC). Here's the review from Backstreets:

     

    http://www.backstreets.com/setlists.html

     

    November 22 / HSBC Arena / Buffalo, NY

    When Backstreets interviewed Bruce Springsteen shortly before this Magic/Dream E Street Band trek began, back in 2007, the Boss had this to say: "I envision the band carrying on for many, many, many more years. There ain't gonna be any farewell tour. That's the only thing I know for sure."

     

    True to his word, two years later, that's exactly how he ended this tour: no time for sentimental goodbyes, mentions of a "last dance," or even a glance at the notion of retirement. There were still too many other good stories to tell. Some showgoers were expecting "Blood Brothers" or something like it here in Buffalo, and for good reason, but Springsteen seemed determined not to put any kind of real punctuation mark on the evening. Excepting, of course, the exclamation points spread throughout this 34-song, nearly three-and-a-half hour show.

     

    Of course, everyone in the room, onstage and off, was well aware of the momentousness of the occasion. In "Working on Dream," there was considerably more weight to the usual building-a-house spiel: "The E Street Band has come thousands of miles tonight to be here one last time... for a little while... to fulfill our solemn vow to rock the house!" He soon added, "Really, it's been just about the best time in our band's work life. We want to thank you for supportig our old music, our new music, our tour."

     

    But up next, they plowed forward, doing something they'd never done before — "Tonight! One time only!" — the Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. album, start to finish. Whatever partciular significance the night's album choice might wind up having — in terms of ending where they began, if tonight was indeed any kind of ending — went unspoken. Springsteen merely put the record in context, as he has with other album performances on this fall leg. "This was the miracle," he said, "This was the record that took everything from way below zero to... one." That got a big laugh. Bruce went on to speak of John Hammond, "one of the great legends of music production," and of manager Mike Appel, whose "incredible talking" got him a crucial audition with said legend. Tonight's album performance was dedicated "to the man who got me in the door. Mike Appel is here tonight — Mike, this is for you." He added, "We've never done it... hope we can do it!"

     

    Each of the full album performances on this tour have come loaded with their own questions. Born to Run — for starters, who would handle trumpet on "Meeting"? Curt Ramm has since elevated every show, through tonight, with the addition of his horn parts. The River — would Springsteen and the E Streeters be able to maintain the intensity required for a 20-song sequence? Absolutely, it turned out. And for Greetings, would Springsteen finally grace "Growin' Up" with a full-blown story once again? The answer came with three magical words: "There I was...."

     

    There have been plenty of near misses in recent years, just as Springsteen almost revisited the "Sad Eyes" portion of "Backstreets," so has he come close to true storytelling in "Growin' Up." But tonight, the interlude was fully realized, and it was one of toight's most powerful moments.

     

    "It was a dark and stormy night in Asbury Park, New Jersey," Bruce began, "Me and Steve were in a litle club on the south end of the street." He proceeded to once again tell the story of his first meeting with Clarence Clemons, starting with the door blowing off in the Big Man's hand. "King Curtis?" Bruce recalled thinking, "King Curtis has come out of my dreams and landed right here!" Here in Buffalo in 2009, Clarence joined Bruce at the center to reenact that fateful night. "He walked to the stage and said" — Clarence speaking now — "I wanna play with you." "What could I say? I said....'Sure!'" Then, step by step, Bruce and Clarence recreated the pose from the cover of the Born to Run album right there on the HSBC Arena stage. It was a wordless act, unfolding slowly, inevitably, engendering one big smile throughout the building. The full-bodied laugh would come shortly, as Bruce concluded the story: "We got into a Cadillac at the end of the nght, drove out to the outskirts of town.... we got very sleepy and we fell into this long, long, long, long, long dream. And when we woke up, we were in fuckin' Buffalo, New York." Crowd goes nuts, in no small part due to the way Springsteen just compressed 35-plus years of E Street Band history. And tonight it does feel like a dream.

     

    A furious solo from Bruce on "Lost in the Flood" has to be another of the night's highlights — Garry, meanwhile, playing complex runs behind him, the bassist being the guy who can easily fade into the background if you let him but who, anytime you choose to pay attention, is always doing some seriously interesting shit — and Bruce's solo contines, building, as Max matches his intensity, the two facing off until the end. Roy brings it all back home, spotlight on the white baby grand.

     

    Another question that came with the Greetings performance: could Bruce actually make "Mary Queen of Arkansas" and "The Angel" compelling? A resounding yes on both counts, particularly "The Angel." With Bruce lit up at center stage, the only other accompaniment for most of the song came from Roy Bittan, who segued right into this number from his "Lost in the Flood" coda. Roy gave the song a Born to Run-era majesty, capped by the surprise addition of a viola toward the song's end. Much of what made it work was Bruce's vocal — as a friend of mine turned to me and said, "He knows how to sing now." Coupled with Roy's piano work, it came off as a beautiful, lost '70s vignette... which I guess is exactly what it is. "Mary," too, was surprisingly successful, with Bruce on acoustic guitar in Devils & Dust mode, accompanied only by Nils on harp.

     

    And of course Bruce and the Band brought all the right moves to the remainder of the Greetings sequence, including a rollicking "Does This Bus Stop" with a stand-out solo from Charlie; a full-band "For You," as opposed to the solo piano version Bruce has been doing lately; "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City," ending with Bruce and Steve facing off, flashing guitars like switchblades, while Max is a perpetual drumroll machine.

     

    And that's just one of the night's stories. After "Sunny Day" and "The Promised Land," it's on to the next: "We've got a birthday boy in the house tonight!" Yep, Steve Van Zandt's birthday just happens to coincide with the final night of the tour, and Bruce decides on an extended fete.

     

    First up: "Restless Nights." "Stevie is... my age, and for years he's been asking to play this one song. This is Stevie's very favorite song of all time, it's very obscure, it's on the Tracks record. We're gonna do this for his birthday tonight." If The River at MSG seemed like a gift for Steve, this outtake performance was the icing on the cake. "By request!" Bruce said at song's end, pointing at his old pal, "Dammit, he might have been right all these years!"

     

    But the party wasn't over. Speaking of cake, guitar tech Kevin Buell emerged with a guitar-topped birthday cake, covered in lit candles. With a little help from Max, the crowd sang "Happy Birthday" while Bruce and Steve blew the candles out together. "For Steve!" Bruce cried as the smoke rose, taking the band into "Surprise Surprise." And while some fans have heard this Working on a Dream song as too frivolous, it was hard not to appreciate the apropos lyrics at this moment:

     

    Well today is your birthday, we traveled so far we two

    So let's blow out the candles on your cake and we'll raise a glass or two

     

    Bruce fed Steve a piece during the song, and by the end was still licking icing off his fingers, mouthing to Steve, "Not bad!" Darned if the song didn't serve as a fitting benediction, too:

    And when the sun comes out tomorrow, it'll be the start of a brand new day...

     

    But again, tonight there were other stories to tell. After the "Green Onions" sign collection it was a holiday double-shot, with Bruce taking "Merry Christmas Baby" right into "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town." In between, channeling Christopher Walken, he said, "I feel Santy fever coming on. You know what this night needs? More Santy. We need more jingle bells...." The second of these came with a sign so nice, "I'm gonna put it on my front door!"

     

    A left-field request from some Italians, Chuck Willis's "(I Don't Want to) Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes," brought us close once again to some closing night sentiment: "This sort of captures the theme of our feelings this evening," Bruce said beforehand. But the song was a blast, blowing away any poignancy with it's full-throttle rock 'n' roll. And followed by "Boom Boom," also by request? We're back in the moment. "My Love Will Not Let You Down" and "Long Walk Home" continued this forceful stretch, Steve shining as always on the latter. Following the setlisted "Born to Run" set-closer, Bruce called an audible of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out" for another theme he wanted to hit, hollering, "I wanna tell you the story of the band!"

     

    For the encore, Bruce led off with his take on what the tour has meant to him, a nice reprise from the Magic tour: "It's been a pleasure being out here working for you.... I'll work for your love any day!" By the time we got to "Higher and Higher," with special guest Willie Nile, there was no longer any escaping the inevitable. "We don't wanna go home!" said Bruce from the rear-pit platform. But at the end of the song: "We ain't going home yet!"

     

    And amid speculation about the last this or the last that, talk elsewhere of retirement of the E Street Band, one more song kept the ending on a high note, John Fogerty's "Rocking All Over the World." It was a celebration of the tour, of the band, of rock 'n' roll... not of a band on the verge of retiring, but of a band firing on all cylinders at this very moment. Bruce's final words matched the mood: "We appreciate you coming out to see the E Street Band. So we're gonna say goodbye, but just for a little while... a very little while... because... because..." before singing again, "I like it, I like it, I like it!"

     

    After acknowledging fans who came from all over — other states, other countries — to take part in these shows, Springsteen said, "I want to thank our crew, who work all day and all night to bring this show to you in your town." He thanked the E Street Band, the road crew, the truckers, carpenters, and everyone in every department by name, from security to sound, video, production, management... and while tonight was certainly the end of something, and no one's quite sure what he means by "a very little while," the overwhelming feeling at the end of the show was summed up by a sign that Bruce and Steve grabbed and paraded across the stage during the encore, laying it to rest below Max's drumkit, Steve every once in a while checking to make sure it was still visible:

     

    It's only rock 'n' roll, but it feels like love.

     

    Amen.

     

    - Chris Phillips reporting

     

    Setlist:

    Wrecking Ball (with Curt Ramm)

    The Ties That Bind

    Hungry Heart

    Working on a Dream

    Blinded By the Light

    Growin' Up

    Mary Queen of Arkansas

    Doe This Bus Stop at 8nd Street?

    Lost in the Flood

    The Angel

    For You

    Spirit in the Night

    It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City

    Waitin' on a Sunny Day

    The Promised Land

    Restless Nights

    Surprise, Surprise

    Green Onions

    Merry Christmas Baby (with Curt Ramm)

    Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (with Curt Ramm)

    (I Don't Want to) Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes

    Boom Boom

    My Love Will Not Let You Down

    Long Walk Home

    The Rising

    Born to Run

    Tenth Avenue Freeze-out (with Curt Ramm)

    * * *

    I'll Work For Your Love

    Thunder Road

    American Land (with Curt Ramm)

    Dancing in the Dark

    Rosalita (with Curt Ramm)

    Higher and Higher (with Curt Ramm and Willie Nile)

    Rockin' All Over the World

     

     

    If that's not enough for you die-hards, here's a link to Stan's thoughts:

     

    http://talk.livedaily.com/showthread.php?t=682051

    Springsteen at Giants Stadium!

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    Bob you going to the show!? I am jealous of anyone at this show! This was the one I was waiting for! I can't make it though :upset I will need to hear this boot! Wow!

    Yeah, I am planning to go. What are the chances that I'm seeing 2 full albums performed and it's going to be Greetings and WIESS. I'm pretty pumped.

    Tyler quits Aerosmith?

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    haha. gotta love Wikipedia!

     

    In November 2009, Joe Perry stated that Tyler had not been in contact with the band and could be on the verge of quitting Aerosmith.[150] In a later interview, Perry confirmed that Tyler told the other members of the band that he quit the band after the November concert in Abu Dhabi.[151][152] Aerosmith are currently on indefinite hiatus.[citation needed]The band recruited Matt Erhartic as their new vocalist November 11, 2009. Erhartic has been quoted in calling Tyler a "little pussy" and has recently admitted giving his daughter Liv Tyler the "Pirate", a deviant sexual act where a man ejaculates on the eye of his partner and kicking her shin causing her to limp around with one eye open giving the appearnce of a pirate.

    So official annoncement tomorrow? I hope the press release explains "the pirate" manoeuvre.

    Tyler quits Aerosmith?

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    "Rocks" is my favorite with "Toys" a close second. I always liked the story below.

     

     

    How Aerosmith's Rocks Changed My Life

    By Slash

    Harp Magazine

     

    Alright, it was Aerosmith’s Rocks, and I first heard it when I was about 14 years old. I used to race BMX bikes and the older guys put it on, and it just grabbed me—F%@&, this is bad. I only got to hear it for like a second the first time. The second time I heard it was—there was this girl that used to hang around a certain group of friends, and she was probably the best-looking girl in school and in the neighborhood, and she’d just broken up with her boyfriend. I tried desperately to pick this girl up for the longest time, and finally she invited me up to her house.

     

    I was aspiring to get in this girl’s pants, more or less, so I go up to her room, and she’s got tapestries on the wall and incense and pot, her stereo—a typical teenage-girl’s room at the time. She put on some records; we listened to Zeppelin; we listened to Yes; and then finally she put this record on that I recognized immediately from like the first f%&*#n’ note.

     

    It was Rocks. I must’ve listened to this record in that girl’s—her name was Lori—bedroom probably a half-dozen times, from front to back, over and over again, and I completely ignored her. The whole purpose of my being there completely went out the window. Finally I think she said, “I think it’s time for you to go.” And I was like, “Okay, see ya.” I got on my bike and I took off and she never spoke to me again.

    Love that story

    Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, 11/7/09 NYC

    in After The Show

    Posted

    I didn't know that he recently joined them.

     

    I may have the history wrong but I think Davey left on his own, and had some success on his terms, whereas Vini was asked to leave. Having said that, I think Bruce still has a soft spot in his heart for Vini and Vini is still "around" a little bit. If you go to Bruce's site now http://www.brucespringsteen.net/news/index.html he is promoting the Steel Mill reunion http://steelmillretro.com/

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