Bob Seger is one of favorite artists and had been wanting to see him and he has rarely toured much the past 15 years save for couple of treks. He last toured in in 2006 behind his previous album. I didn't really pay attention and wasn't feeling the best at the time. Plus it was in December as well, but I was kicking myself for not going.
This Spring he kicked off another tour behind a potential new album(which turned out to be another Greatest Hits collection) and played KC. I dragged my feet again and only had nosebleeds left, plus there were open dates around it and I figured he'd be in St. Louis a day or two around then. No date and I was kicking myself again. But thankfully the rumors of a Fall tour turned out true and St. Louis got a date. I even joined his fan club to get presale access, which was a total fucking joke, for the most part they gave people shitty selections farther away. I screwed around and came back an hour later and got pretty good floor seats, 12 rows back on the right side. I knew Bob didn't use large video screens, so I knew I better get a good view.
Me and Dad got there before seven and they wouldn't let people in til then so we were freezing our asses off, in partially closed area. Finally they started lining us up a little, when it started getting crowded. They also started scanning tickets and then moving us around and only asking us later, if they were already scanned. Dad said, "I think if you planned it right you could have gotten in without a ticket."
The other part, people were already buying beer at ten bucks a pop. This was a nice common theme throughout the night. The people that wound up setting in front of us, a group of four made at least three trips for alcohol. How the hell do you people do this? I think I've made up my mind I couldn't date anyone stupid enough to pay that, unless of course they are totally loaded financially.
We made our way to our seats, waiting the hour before start time and saw the second drum kit, meaning there was an opening act. I guess with a hockey game the next night, they were keeping it colder, but it was freezing down there.
And the other part I've mentioned before, it's amazing with a metro area of 3 million or more? and probably with other people traveling for afar like us, how is it that in an audience of 15,000 all these idiots know one another? I guess it's just the 1% thing, maybe those occupier nut-jobs are on to something.
At 8PM Whitey Morgan and the 78's came out. The group is a country rock group(two Telecasters and a pedal steel, baby) from Flint, Michigan and they played 9 songs for 35 minutes or so. And overall they were enjoyable, they had a good sound. He gave a shout to St. Louis club venue Off-Broadway. "We love coming here. Everybody says that, but we're not bullshitting." He threw in some covers that were nice, Springsteen's I'm On Fire("This one's for the ladies...who I'm kidding, they're all for the ladies."), Merle's Workin' Man Blues, a snippet of John Prine's Paradise and closing with a song by Dale Watson, Where Do You Want It?
Set list I copied from the Philly set list, but think there's a song missing
Crapped Out Again
(Stay Away From) The Cocaine Train
Crazy
I'm On Fire
Another Round
Paradise (snippet)
Workin' Man Blues
Sinner
Where Do Ya Want It?
The set change was done fairly briskly and ready for a Nine o'clock start time, with an announcement that Bob would be on stage in five minutes, though it was a few minutes after. But the lights dimmed and the man appeared with his band.
On the opening number, Roll Me Away, I was a little worried as the sound sounded muddied and Bob's voice was hard to understand. It didn't help he kept getting the crowd to do the chorus. But by the second song, Tryin' To Live My Life Without You, it wasn't as bad. And overall it stood up during the nearly two hour, 22 song show.
But there were times his voice wasn't as strong. He was fighting a cold, coughing quite a bit and a continued smoking habit doesn't help. Overall it was fine, but to me his voice sounded best on the slower and softer numbers, like Mainstreet, Turn the Page and We've Got Tonight, which he introduced saying he was inspired by a scene in the movie The Sting.
It also didn't help, he had a wall of sound behind him. There were three female back-up singers, plus a group of four horn players augmenting his six man band. There's definitely the feel of a Motown influence, which Seger said himself that he loved the blues.
The band was polished and stellar, featuring long time members Chris Campbell and his version of Clarance Clemons, Alto Reed. Or maybe Clarance Clemons is Bruce Springsteen's version of Alto Reed, since Alto and Bob were together first. Plus Grand Funk Railroad members Don Brewer and Craig Frost were part of the band and Jamey Johnson producer Jim "Moose" Brown.
Set List
Roll Me Away
Tryin' to Live My Life Without You
The Fire Down Below
Mainstreet
Old Time Rock and Roll
Downtown Train
Ramblin' Gamblin' Man
Hey Hey Hey Hey (Going Back to Birmingham)
Travelin' Man/Beautiful Loser
We've Got Tonight
Nutbush City Limits
Come to Poppa
Her Strut
Real Mean Bottle
Turn the Page
Sunspot Baby
Katmandu
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Against the Wind
Hollywood Nights
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Night Moves
Rock and Roll Never Forgets
Highlights for me, well seeing Bob Seger mainly and with his catalog of songs, he got most of the ones I wanted to hear. I knew full well after looking at previous set lists, that Like A Rock wouldn't get played. Of course that was the one my dad most wanted to hear. You'll Accomp'ny Me is probably my favorite of his that he didn't play.
But he played Sunspot Baby, the song I was waiting for, that I just love to hear over and over. Against the Wind, was probably the best song of the evening and he was still cutting the vocals lose with "Let the Cowboys Ride!" during the choruses at the end. Turn the Page was up there too, which he played at the piano, where he usually gave some insights into the songs. That one was written in a motel, not a hotel, in Wisconsin in 1971 and later recorded in Leon Russell's studio in Oklahoma. Her Strut was inspired by Jane Fonda. And usually featured some of his clearest vocals. And the whole band shined on the Travelin' Man/Beautiful Loser segue.
And of course, once that piano intro of Old Time Rock and Roll came, the whole place was wild.
The only minor complaint about the performance was that the banter seemed too automated, many times at the beginning he'd give the album and asked us, "If we remember this one?" I was more worried about him forgetting them. And his shout to St. Louis was just a prefunctionary mention of how he loved flying here and seeing the Arch.
I'm curious if he gets his lyrics fed to him through an ear piece, because during Tryin' To Live My Life Without You, he gave pretty much verbatim of the talking part of the live version on Nine Tonight.
Of course the other people at a concert are the worst part. And I think the older ones are the worst when they're drunk. Dancing around, falling on one another, raising their glasses trying to sing along. Sigh....
But overall it was great. It was pretty neat for most of the songs, everyone was singing along. I haven't been to many shows like that. True at times I wish Seger himself would have been heard more clearly, but still special. And at 66, he was still up there giving it his all. This is the real Rock and Roll poet of the American working class, not that guy from Jersey.
St. Louis Post Dispatch Review
Riverfront Times Review
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