Jackson Browne

[Prettymaid]

Thanks WC!
Yeh....I do not like that song....

[sodascouts]

Yeah, that song's not doing it for me either, PM! And he looks odd in that video for some reason.

Ann - glad to hear you had such a great time!

[Prettymaid]

Well, he's young there. I think he's supposed to be acting like the TV is hypnotizing him sort of.

How about this one? I might request this one...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD1ppnP8np8[/ame]

[Prettymaid]

Okay, it's getting very close to concert day for me, so I'm going to post a recent video. Here he pays homage to the Eagles. Although it's not nearly as good as the Eagle's version it's enjoyable to listen to. At one point Jackson even says, "It's hard not to sing it like Glenn Frey".

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz3TMQPt77w&feature=related[/ame]

[Koala]

Thanks! Like this version from Peaceful Easy Feeling!

[Prettymaid]

Here's one of my top contenders to request Saturday night. I'm not crazy about how the song starts out, but I love it once it gets going. And what a message! JB wrote this for his son, but the relevance is there for all of us. It's called The Only Child.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h417hG26VuA[/ame]

[Prettymaid]

Back home from my JB concert at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, IN (about 20 miles from Chicago). Though the concert was great there was one big glaring disappointment which I will get into in a minute.

Hubby and I decided to make a weekend of it and stay overnight. We drove directly to the casino yesterday and had lunch. We then proceeded to lose almost every cent we had brought to gamble with. Actually, Hubby did better than I did at first, but it all ended up the same. Before heading to our hotel to change for the concert we walked up to The Venue, a small theatre located in the casino to check things out. This was probably around 2:30 and the show was to start at 7:30. The doors were closed but there was an attendant nearby so I asked if the sound check could be heard from outside the doors. She told me no, so we headed on out, drove to the hotel and freshened up a bit.

Got back to the casino and decided to sit in one of the bars (this place is huge) and have a drink. Since we had eaten a full lunch, we decided to hit one of the restaurants and have a salad for dinner. One last trip to the restroom and it was time to head into The Venue. Our seats were just as good as I knew they would be - 2nd row, dead center. On stage was a wooden chair with a guitar sitting beside it, a keyboard on the right and 18 more guitars behind them!

7:30 came and went. I looked behind me. There were a LOT of empty seats. I was practically shaking with anticipation. I'd been looking forward to this for so long. 7:45. Now the seats were starting to fill. The lights went down and everybody started applauding. Here we go, I thought...

The Show

Jackson walked out with no introduction and bowed to our applause. He was wearing blue jeans and a gray button down long sleeved shirt with the cuffs rolled to the wrist. He sat down on the chair, picked up the guitar and began playing Barracades Of Heaven, one of my faves. When he finished he began fussing with the cords to his earpieces and asked one of the sound guys on the side of the stage to bring him a clip. When one guy brought him a clip he proceeded to try to attach it himself, a very difficult maneuver as this was behind his head. All the time he was talking to us good naturedly, explaining the benefits of the earpieces. When he couldn't get that clip attached he asked for the one in his dressing room but the other guy was already bringing it out. Ahh, that seemed to work. Jackson joked about this being a high tech show and proceeded into his next song, These Days. Now, Hubby and I had discussed on the trip up which songs we had decided to request. Hubby's choices were Love Needs A Heart from the Running On Empty album or Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate, which is a beautifully moving song from The Pretender, although we laughed as he practiced 'shouting it out'. It can be a tongue twister. For myself, I had decided to use the strategy of picking Looking Into You if he was at the keyboard and The Only Child for when he was playing guitar. I'd make it easy for him.

After he finished the second song he mentioned that this tour was one with no set list and that he would be playing whatever he felt like or whatever we wanted. There, that opened the door to start requesting. I made sure though that I did not 'shout out' until somebody else had first. Then Jackson explained the reason for all of the guitars behind him. He said that different guitars were tuned for certain songs, therefore there would not be the need to constantly stop to tune the guitar. I found this interesting, as I had never given tuning a thought, thinking the reason for the multiple guitars was tone (although I'm sure that was also a criteria). He probably only played about six of them during our show.

His third song was Farther On, another one that I love and that based on the past set lists we knew he would do.

But the angels are older
They can see that the sun's setting fast
They look over my shoulder
At the vision of paradise contained in the light of the past
And they lay down beside me
To sleep beside the road till the morning has come
Where they know they will find me
With my map and my faith in the distance
Moving farther on

It was about this time that JB announced that this show would have no intermission "since it's at a casino and all." WHAT???!!! No intermission means a shortened set list! We were devastated, although we kept a happy face. How much shorter would it be? What does being in a casino have to do with it? I continued my request strategy, knowing every time he didn't play them my chances were getting slimmer. Jackson told a few stories before some of his songs, but unfortunately I had already heard these stories from his Solo Accoustic CDs. I wanted to hear different stories about different songs, however I understand why Jackson wouldn't want to talk about something that was very personal to him. He seems to share stories about women he wrote songs for in the past, but not his wives.

Shortly after 9:00 he did The Pretender, thanked us for making him feel welcome and started playing Running On Empty, although he had to stop twice at the beginning because it seemed he couldn't get the chord right. I knew this show was close to the end. He stood, bowed again and left the stage. Fortunately, he doesn't play the waiting game very long before he comes out for his encore. He sat at the keyboard and sang Somebody's Baby. Then he grabbed a guitar, sat down and said, "Well, I can leave you with an upbeat song or we can end this on a depressing note. What's your pleasure?" We all called for something upbeat and he did Take It Easy! It was a sing a long and at one poing he stood up and danced around a little as he played, but he shortly had to sit down because that's where his microphone was. Just before 9:30 it was all over, Jackson once again bowing and then touching his hand to his heart. He walked off stage and the lights came up. It was over - way too soon.

I had been taking set list notes and I counted 17. We got 17 songs to his usual 24-27. As we left all I could think was, at least I get to see him again in a couple of weeks in Peoria, where he should do a full set, including intermission.

BTW, Hubby did get Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate, but he didn't request it - someone else did!

Here's the set list:

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/jackso...-4bd39342.html

[TimothyBFan]

I'm bummed for you PM! I'm sure you enjoyed it and all but I wish you would of known it would be a shortened show. Maybe someone who knows more about casino shows (Mike? Jess?) knows why that has anything to do with a shortened set. Were the tickets cheaper? Just curious. Hope it was worth your long drive and overnight stay tho. Keeping my fingers crossed for Peoria!

[luvthelighthouse]

What you did get sounds great! I love the "no set list" living room feel. To me, that speaks volumes about his talent. He just wants to play and doesn't need all the fluff. I love the "real person" aspect he brings to the stage.

I'm sorry it was a shorted set... I would have been very dissappointed in that too. Hope Peoria is an even better time!

[Brooke]

Thanks for your review, Pm! I'm also sorry about the shortened set list. Very disappointing for you. Hopefully, Peoria will be better.