SETLIST
SETLIST
COMMENTS/FURTHER
INFORMATION
Submitted by John Peregrim, who also supplied the photos. Doug also
submitted the following:
The treat for a consecutive concert goer such as myself was found in the encores. Bruce played the Manzer for The End of All Rivers, and it was spellbinding. I have heard If I Had A Rocket Launcher almost too many times in concert, but the song was brought to life by the percussion — fantastic, creative drumming.
Bruce said this
was the first time he had played Peace March live, and appeared prompted
to do so by the reminder earlier in the evening that this was the anniversary
of the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. He played a baritone guitar,
and it was beautiful, with perfect interplay between drum and guitar. All
The Diamonds was even more beautiful still. What a beautiful, mystical
song, done in a way that was as haunting as I have ever heard. Baritone
guitar, beautiful keyboards and backing vocals by Julie. This was a wonderful
way to end the evening.
Overall, the show lacked some of the kick from the previous night in San Francisco.
This was probably the result of several things. First, the venue, although
beautiful and with wonderful acoustics, was a more formal site, which appeared
to result in the audience acting more formally. Two, there was a member (or
two) of the audience who got a bit carried away in attempts to engage in a
dialogue with Bruce, with loud comments after several of the earlier songs.
Bruce seems far more comfortable letting his music speak for itself, and chats
less and less with each passing year. The call-outs from last night — a
couple of which took place just moments before the song began — seemed
to irritate Bruce (and some of the
audience). Finally, although the number of folks in attendance was
not too far off from the night before, the Great American Music
Theater looked fuller because it is a smaller venue. Last night's
show was probably only 2/3 or 3/4 full because of the size of the
venue, which probably made it seem to the performers that there was
not as supportive of an audience watching the show.
In spite of/in addition to the observations above, the musicianship
and professionalism of the performers (this comment includes the
fabulous Sarah Harmer who opened the show) made this a very high
quality musical night. I was particularly impressed with Bruce's
guitar playing. Besides his work on the more complex musical
numbers, his work on some of his "simpler", quiet acoustic songs
— Mystery, in particular, comes to mind — is so rich and complex,
with
each guitar piece in each song developed to add to the texture of the
song in ways that elevate the melody and words to much higher levels.