Impressions from last night

we were fortunate enough to be at the vote for change tour finale here in washington dc last night and here are my scattered thoughts about what ended up being a five and a half hour show...

• john mellencamp kicked things off.. obviously its always tough to be the opener as people are busy shuffling in... boy am i glad we got there a few minutes into his all too brief set.. the set was anchored by three well known numbers: paper in fire, authority song and pink houses which was one of the highlights of the night.. it was evident mellencamp no longer has the range he did 20 years ago but he more than made up for this in spades with smarts... the band arrangement's were quite tight... we were left wishing he had played more...john summed up my thoughts when he finished his set with a reference to how it just is not right that in today's america your patriotism is questioned when you question your government...
• bonnie raitt played some mean slide guitar.. she shared the stage with keb mo (no guitar slouch himself) and jackson browne who was elated to be a part of this....bonnie though stole the show on this bill.. her personality just overpowered all around her...
• REM came on and got the house rockin' with a wonderful "the one i love".. michael stipe flailed around like a lunatic but what stuck in my mind is how well his voice has held up... his voice sounded exactly like on the record 20 years ago.. "losing my religion" really got the crowd involved.. there is no doubt that other than springsteen stipe was the best frontman of the night.... eddie vedder came out rather sheepishly for a duet as did springsteen.... the cries of "bruuuuuuuce" made it amply clear that a large contingent of his fans had made the trip down from jersey/philly.....
• it was nice to hear james taylor..another old guard singer songwriter clearly glad to do what he can..he made a few astute observations which i paraphrase: "i really hate hearing people say we should not change horses in midstream... i mean when he's drowning and clearly in over his head.. and we've got a perfectly good mule (kerry)".. and "people ask me what you say to undecided voters about how to pick a president... well i say.. you look at the two candidates..and.... you pick the smart one! its not that hard!"..the dixie chicks played a nice arrangement of dylan's "mississippi" utilizing an arrangement closer to the sherryl crow version than the dylan "love and theft" version
• dave matthews played a pretty long set (definetly the longest set of the night without guest stars)... at the beginning on "don't drink the water" i thought the DMB sounded like a bad imitation of peter gabriel era genesis but as the set went on and they began to throw in some of their classics they really won me over and they really had the crowd going....
• if you notice i've skipped over pearl jam its because their set for one reason or another was largely forgettable... i am convinced that they are one of the best live bands around but last night i just did not get into them.... vedder closed with dylan's "masters of war" which made me think "where is dylan anyways?".. i don't think the parallels with the bush administration were lost on anyone..
• and then springsteen and the e street band came out... what most everyone had been waiting for...no one left the MCI center before the boss finished up around 12:30.... springsteen began with a semi-solo (some keyboard backing) rendering of the star spangled banner on steel string guitar.... i appreciated this as i think republicans have this horrible tendency to seek to appropriate the symbols of our country for themeselves (all the while weakening the country) and challenging the rest's patriotism... from the star spangled banner springsteen moved to a passionate goose bumpage causing "born in the USA", "badlands" and kerry's campaign song "no surrender"..... at this point the crowd was going crazy...john fogerty came out after a nice introduction and played his new anti-irak war song "deja vu all over again"... which took the crowd down about 10 notches... however he kicked it back up for a rousing "fortunate son" (could there be any better song to describe bush and his policies?).... then the boss proceeded to convert himself into a minister for john kerry..

(to be completed)