Bruce Cockburn - Tour Dates & Setlists

TOUR DATES & SETLISTS
---21 October 1997 --

1997 Index

GENERAL INFORMATION

DATE: 21 October 1997
VENUE/SHOW: Players Theater
LOCATION: Sarasota, Florida, USA.
SHOW COMMENTS:
This was only the second or third time Bruce had played in Florida in his whole career. One of those other times is rumored to be in the early 1980's, opening for Warren Zevon.

SETLIST

First set:

The Trouble With Normal

If A Tree Falls

Listen For The Laugh

Fascist Architecture

You Pay Your Money And You Take Your Chance

The Embers Of Eden

Night Train

Mines Of Mozambique

Birmingham Shadows

Second set:

If I Had A Rocket Launcher

Stolen Land

The Charity Of Night

Encore 1:

Sahara Gold

Get Up Jonah

Encore 2:

Silver Wheels

Tie Me At The Crossroads

COMMENTS/FURTHER INFORMATION

Rob Caldwell reports:
Quite simply, it was an excellent concert. One or two funny moments, a good crowd, lively playing, and a great song selection. For the fashion spotters out there, it was The Men In Black. The whole band. Black.

I figure the best thing to do would be to go through the set list and then add any other interesting things from the show after:

-Trouble With Normal- He walks out playing this incredible burning guitar solo that eventually segues into the song. I'm tellin' ya- this should have been on the E.P. too...
-If A Tree Falls- the standard version, but still great
-Listen for the Laugh- the fast, sorta surf music version
-Fascist Architecture- band treatment
-You Pay Your Money- awesome, the extended middle eastern flavored guitar intro is a nice touch. Who ever woulda thought you could do this song on an acoustic?
-Embers of Eden- A fairly dark song, I wouldn't call it one of his best, but its definitely up there.
-Night Train- standard version
-Birmingham Shadows- the long jazzy solo in the middle got a big cheer from the crowd; really groovy.
(Intermission)
-Mistress of Storms- no vibes, though I'm starting to like both versions fairly equally...
-World of Wonders- I had *no* idea what song this was for the first few minutes until he started singing. Totally revamped, finger picking guitar style. Just incredible. Worth the price of admission alone.
-Mines of Mozambique- standard version with spoken intro.
-Bone In My Ear- when he first picked it up, I thought the feather hanging off the charango was a price tag... D'oh! (Homer Simpson sound). The audience *really* liked this song.
-Live On My Mind- the red lighting in the beginning worked really well with the song, great bass solo too.
-Strange Waters- lots of emotion in Bruce's face during this one, eyes closed, ripping on the guitar.
-Rocket Launcher- standard version, though it seemed like he was trying to add a few new things to the guitar solo.
-Stolen Land- almost a "Hendrixian" guitar solo with feedback and wailing. Breathtaking. He even sorta "growled" the words in parts.
-The Charity of Night- a great mellowing down after the previous three songs.
(Encore 1)
-Sahara Gold (!)- I had hoped he'd play this one. Fits really well with the Charity Of Night songs he's doing.
-Get Up Jonah- The one song of the new ones I'm kinda tired of. A good version, nonetheless...
(Encore 2)
-Silver Wheels (!)- Yes!, and with a little new guitar intro, too!
-Tie Me At The Crossroads- The band really got into this one; a rousing version.

So, that was the set list. A few other moments:
During one part of the show, two people (one very drunk) yelled out the name of a high school in Ottawa. A little later, Bruce commented something like "So, we have people here who went to school in Ottawa?" To which one voice replied yes. Bruce said he thought he heard two previously. The one remaining yelled "She passed out!" (meaning the drunk sounding one from earlier). :-)
Anyway, so then Bruce says he still always hates walking into high schools, looking down those long corridors of lockers gives him a little twitch. He says something to the effect of that its a good thing its not socially acceptable in Canada for people to go up in towers with guns or he would have been one of them. Anyway, it was all said in jest of course. Another funny moment.

After the show, me and my friend who I went with go with Ramcey (from the Humans list) and his nephew out to the tour bus to wait for Bruce. Only two other people thought of this besides us! Didn't even have to wait long, Bruce came out in about 10 minutes and was as laid back and cool as usual. He graciously signed the postcard picture (from Gavin's Woodpile) for me and then signed Ramcey's stuff. I knew I should have brought more!

They were headed to New Orleans right after the show, so we bid our farewell and headed off into the Charity of Night.

I still think a great piece of tour merchandise would have been Charity of Nightlights...

ARCHIVE RECORDING

KNOWN RECORDING: Yes
SOURCE: Audience
QUALITY: Very Good
COMMENTS:

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1997 Index

This page is part of The Cockburn Project, a unique website that exists to document the work of Canadian singer-songwriter and musician Bruce Cockburn. The Project archives self-commentary by Cockburn on his songs and music, and supplements this core part of the website with news, tour dates, and other current information.