Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band Live in Houston, Texas

Last night, after many years in the making, The Blot attended his first Bruce Springsteen concert at the Toyota Center in Houston. After listening to friends from the northeast talk for years about what an amazing concert Springsteen and The E Street Band put on I finally started considering going to a Springsteen show back in ’05. Springsteen was coming to Dallas and my buddy Lippy and I were going to go…that is until we found out Springsteen’s Devils & Dust tour was a solo tour without The E Street Band. That was a deal breaker for us both since neither of us had seen Springsteen before and we wanted our first show to include both the hits and The E Street Band.

Flash forward three years later to Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band’s Magic tour in support of the Boss’ latest album Magic. Once I heard the group was coming to Houston 5 months ago I jumped at the opportunity to get tickets. To be honest, I don’t know that many Springsteen songs, but figured once we were there I’d end up knowing a lot more than I realized (kind of like my experience at the John Cougar Mellencamp concert a few years back). Boy was I wrong! Between not knowing most of the new material from Magic and my limited knowledge of Springsteen’s extensive catalogue The Blot was clueless to most of the song’s played.


While knowing the songs definitely enhances the experience, I’d still give the concert an A+. Besides being one of, if not the, biggest crowds I’ve ever seen at the Houston Toyota Center for a concert, it was by far the loudest. Almost every song found the entire arena singing along and feeding off of Bruce’s every word. The crowd was definitely amped up to a 10 and from the looks on the people’s faces around me everyone was having the time of their lives.

Springsteen played the almost three hour set, with only a slight encore break, with the same intensity throughout. The Boss, along with The E Street Band, definitely put on an impressive performance. It seems like age has not slowed this great musical act down one bit and time on the road has not taken away their love of performing. After the encore brea, Springsteen first brought on stage Alejandro Escovedo to perform “Always A Friend,” the lead single from his upcoming release Real Animal. Springsteen then had Joe Ely join the band to perform his song “All Just To Get To You” from his album 1995 album Letter to Laredo. It was a wonderful performance by Springsteen and it was definitely well worth waiting the three years to finally see him live.


Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band
April 14, 2008 - Set List
Houston, Texas - Toyota Center
01. Cadillac Ranch
02. Radio Nowhere
03. Lonesome Day
04. Atlantic City
05. Magic
06. Because The Night
07. Candy's Room
08. She's The One
09. Out In The Street
10. Livin' In The Future
11. The Promised Land
12. Girls In Their Summer Clothes
13. The E Street Shuffle
14. Terry's Song
15. Devil's Arcade
16. The Rising
17. Last To Die
18. Long Walk Home
19. Badlands
20. Thunder Road
Encore:
21. Always A Friend with Alejandro Escovedo
22. All Just To Get To You with Joe Ely
23. Rosalita
24. Born To Run
25. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
26. American Land

Austin City Limits Music Festival Lineup

It’s April 15th and the day we’ve all be waiting for. No, not because it’s Tax Day but because it’s the day the Austin City Limits Music Festival unveiled its 2008 lineup. All along I have been planning to attend my first ACL September 26-28 at Zilker Park in Austin, TX, but now I’m seriously reconsidering after seeing this year’s lineup. I’m guessing it’s either because of the dearth of music festivals this year or maybe because after seeing how similar the lineups were of most of the other music festivals this year ACL wanted to be different, but this year’s ACL lineup is extremely disappointing.


I look at a music festival as a chance to see some great headlining acts I really want to see along with the opportunity to catch some other artists I might not see individually but have heard great things about and would like to check out. I kind of assumed Jack Johnson would be headlining since he’s heading up most of the big music festivals this year and yet his name is no where to be found. Instead, ACL is throwing out the Foo Fighters, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and Beck as its headliners, all acts I’ve either seen before and don’t care about seeing again or have no interest in seeing in the first place.


I’d love to see The Raconteurs and Gnarls Barkley again, but I’m not sure they’re worth the expense of ACL when more than likely they’ll be heading to Houston before or after their stops in Austin. Surprisingly the mid-card acts are actually more appealing this year than the headliners with appearances by Conor Oberst (a.k.a. Bright Eyes), M. Ward, Gogol Bordello, Hot Chip and Vampire Weekend. Hot Chip alone is almost enough to get me to commit to Austin. I saw those guys at Lollapalooza 2006 and have been a huge fan ever since. Then you get to the bottom of the lineup and it’s a ton of bands I’ve never even heard. Unfortunately, unless there are some additional names added to the top of the lineup I just can’t see myself heading to ACL anymore. Thank goodness I haven’t already purchased my three-day pass. I might skip ACL and just drive to Austin for the weekend anyway to catch all of the soon to be announced after-party shows.

2008 Austin City Limits Music Festival Lineup
Foo Fighters
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Beck
Manu Chao - John Fogerty
David Byrne - The Raconteurs
The Mars Volta - Gnarls Barkley
Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band
N.E.R.D. - Erykah Badu - Robert Earl Keen
Patty Griffin - Tegan & Sara - Iron & Wine
G. Love & Special Sauce - Neko Case
Band Of Horses - The Swell Season
Silversun Pickups - Gogol Bordello
Gillian Welch - Eli Young Band - The Black Keys
Against Me! - Jakob Dylan And The Gold Mountain Rebels
Okkervil River – Galactic - Kevin Fowler
Sharon Jones And The Dap Kings - Hot Chip
Vampire Weekend - Slightly Stoopid - Flyleaf
Duffy Alejandro Escovedo - Roky Erikson
Yonder Mountain String Band - Spiritualized - Flyleaf
Drive-By Truckers - Ingrid Michaelson - Stars
Jose Gonzalez – CSS - Del The Funky Homosapien
Man Man - Jamie Lidell - MGMT
What Made Milwaukee Famous - Jenny Lewis - M. Ward
Asleep At The Wheel - Mason Jennings - Heartless Bastards
Antibalas - The Nachito Herrera All-Stars - Shooter Jennings
Xavier Rudd – Yeasayer - Octopus Project - Joe Bonamassa
The Kills - White Denim - Louis XIV - Delta Spirit - Mates Of State
Nicole Atkins & The Sea - Electric Touch
Black Door Slam - Tristan Prettyman - The Strange Boys
Ryan Bingham - Scott Biram - Freddy Jones - Colour Revolt
Five Times August - Langhorne Slim
Black Joe Lewis & The Honey Bears - Sybris
Eli "Paper Boy" Reed And The True Loves – AA Bondy
Bavu Blakes And The Extra Plairs - Christopher Denny
Mike Farris - The Lee Boys - South Austin Jug Band
American Bang - Bobby Bare, Jr. - Massacoustics
Belleville Outfit - We Go To 11 - Band Of Heathens
City And Colour - Sunny Sweeney - Elizabeth Wills
Autamata - Bonnie Bishop - Ben Solee - Ben Cylus
The Concert Supremes - River City Christionettes - Shields Of Faith
The Jones Family Singers - Nakia And His Southern Cousins
Brotherly Luv - The Hensley Ensemble - School Of Rock
Jambo - Q Brothers - Buck Howdy With BB - Uncle Rock
Big Don - Mr. Ray - The Jimmies

Kid Sister - Koko B. Ware

I honestly don’t know how I am just now hearing about this. Kid Sister, the Chicago rapper best known for her song “Pro Nails” featuring Kanye West, is releasing her first album in late July and the title of it is Koko B. Ware! How cool is that!?! If you’re scratching your head thinking why is that cool or who does it refer to then you must not have been watching the WWE in the 80’s and early 90’s.


You see, Koko B. Ware was one of my favorite professional wrestlers of the 80’s with his crazy costumes and feathered friend Frankie always accompanying him to the ring. He may not have been the biggest star in the WWE back in the day, but he was definitely one of my top three wrestlers from the 80’s along with Brutus “the Barber” Beefcake and the Junkyard Dog (honorable mention goes out to Hillbilly Jim).


Kid Sister explained the album’s title in a recenet interview with MTV saying, “Well my brother Josh (J2K of Chicago remix masters Flosstradamus) and I, we used to watch a lot of wrestling when I was little. He was more into it, but I really wanted to have something to relate to him on, so we watched it together. It was the one thing we could do that didn’t entail me kicking his ass. Or him screaming at my mom to help and bring in some assistance. So, KoKo B. Ware, that was one of our favorite wrestlers. We have a whole slew. Sounds so baaad! Mm! KoKo B. Ware!” (link) I loved "Pro Nails," and I'm really looking forward to hearing this album when it finally drops in late July.

Kid Sister is signed to Downtown Records, the home of Gnarls Barkley, Cold War Kids, Mos Def and Justice.