Review: Jackson Browne

His show got off to an unusually shaky start. As Jackson Browne began to sing "Off of Wonderland," the first song in a nearly two hour show Sunday night at Starlight Theatre, his voice cracked and he sheepishly had to ask for a mulligan. It would be the only time all night he didn't sound much like himself. 

Browne will turn 62 in October, but he has managed to keep his voice in such good shape that he still sounds close to the way he did nearly 40 years ago, when he recorded songs like "Doctor My Eyes" and "Rock Me On the Water."

He would perform both of those Sunday night, and several other of his best-known songs before a crowd of about 3,000 fans and in a stifling swelter that didn't retreat until long after the sun had disappeared. The heat contributed to the laid-back mood that settled into the place early and remained most of the night.

The evening started with a short acoustic set featuring Browne and his longtime friend and sideman David Lindley, master of things stringed. The two performed four songs together, including Browne's "For Everyman" and covers of songs by Warren Zevon and Bruce Springsteen. Lindley then performed two songs alone: a raw cover of Blind Wilie Johns'n's "What Is The Soul Of Man?" and his own blues-farce, "Cat Food Sandwiches."

Lindley joined Browne and his four-piece band (and two backup singers) for part of the main set, which mixed some of Browne's less interesting latter-day material ("Just Say Yeah") with some of his oldest and most beloved. He played most of them very close to the ways everyone remembers them, which was noted and appreciated by several people in attendance who had seen Bob Dylan at Starlight the evening before.

Brown is famously political, but he kept this show nonpartisan, except when, before "Rock Me On The Water," he plugged the stainless steel water bottles he is using on his "plastic-free" tour to diminish the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills and the oceans. (However, after the show, attendants at the gates were giving away water in small plastic bottles -- another variation on plastic-free.) He also chatted informally with his fans, including a bit on how unsuitable his polyester shirt was for the August heat. He teased the crowd with a few bars of "Kansas City," but stopped because "we already did that, in soundcheck."

There were no epic, manic or transcendent moments, although some dancing broke out up front during a few songs. And there were a couple of lulls -- during "Too Many Angels" and "I'm Alive" -- but he fixed that with a string of six classics in a row, including "Take It Easy,'" which, he said, he stopped doing for a while. It also included "Mercury Blues," which was a near-hit for Lindley back in the 1980s. 

The other highlights were those older songs, which all sound as relevant as they did when he wrote them: "Fountain of Sorrow," "The Pretender" "Doctor My Eyes" and the melancholic hymn "Late For The Sky," his closer. That's a song about love in a state of confusion and crisis. But instead of ending the show on a sad note, it delivered more sentimentality to an evening that, at its best, was about revisiting the past, warmly.

Lindley/Browne setlist: Seminole Bingo; Brothers Under the Bridge; For Everyman; Looking East; What Is the Soul of Man; Cat Food Sandwiches.

Jackson Browne: Off of Wonderland; Giving That Heaven Away; Just Say Yeah; In the Shape of a Heart; Your Bright Baby Blues; Fountain of Sorrow; The Pretender; My Problem Is You; Too Many Angels; I'm Alive; Rock Me On The Water; Doctor My Eyes; Running On Empty; Take It Easy; Mercury Blues; Late For The Sky.

| Timothy Finn, The Star

Comments

[Penny]

Good show, got a little draggy in the middle, but it was just so hot. He and David brought the tempo back up doing 'Mercury Blues', my fav of the evening. I would have liked to hear more from the latest album, like 'Drums of War' or 'Where Were You?' but oh well. Great seeing David Lindley with him like back in the old days. He is a total master of the strings... Got some pretty good footage: http://www.youtube.com/user/rockandrollgrandma13#p/a/u/2/hIBoJcntqbQ

[True Fan]

Browne did almost a whole show full of his newer material in October, 2008:

http://backtorockville.typepad.com/back_to_rockville/2008/10/review-jackson.html

Glad he brought the good (i.e. classic) stuff last night...great show.

[Mark V]

Very interesting contrast to Dylan the night before... Jackson lending himself to the sing-along in a manner that Dylan would not, Dylan lending himself to serious exploration while Jackson sang it exactly as you know them. The crowd down in front, standing the length of the show for Dylan, sitting for Jackson. Dylan's growling vocals were energized by Charlie Sexton's guitar work while Jackson's coherent and nurturing voice was lent such far-reaching beauty by David Lindley's touch on pedal/slide steel, fiddle, Bazouki, and Oud,(he was the understated transcendent vehicle, and it was there on the meandering "Too Many Angels") and also on "Mercury Blues" which was the riveting song that capped off an extraordinary weekend at the Starlight.

[kmoon]

I felt that "In The Shape Of A Heart" was a transcendent few moments. Beautifully done. "Running On Empty" was great and DL really put that one over the edge.
Re: Dylan though, although he did some interesting things with the vocal phrasing, I heard no "serious exploration" in any of the music. I wish they would have done some of the songs more similar to the originals, but then gone off on some blues/rock/fusion tangents in the middle of the songs sometimes. With Charlie Sexton, they could have pulled that off.

[Tim Finn]

BTW: We sent a photog by JB's people denied him access. weird.

[Nugent Fan]

btw-
Ted Nugent on Friday played all of his old classics and he played them correctly and he kicked ass, not that the reviewers here could give sht about real rock and roll (unless it is some new fangled BS which they are too afraid to diss for fear of not looking "cool")

[Anything but Auto-tune]

Hey didn't Black Oak Arkansas, Brownsville Station and Foghat open for the Nuge...man...that show must have really raked the decibels.

[Seriously]

You are right Nugent Fan. We don't give a sht.

[onthemark]

Nugent fan, rather than bag on the reviewers, why don't you post your sweaty Teddy review for us?

Not everyone can make it to every show, so we count on the readers to pass along their thoughts and impressions on shows that were not reviewed.

[leave it to Bruce please]

please stop taking one of my favorite songs and doing this to it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMNTK5FHi6A

[Naturelle]

Yes, I'd say the reviewers had a full plate this weekend with all the names coming through town lately. I appreciated Tim's review of Jackson Browne concentrating on the music and not the heat or any other extraneous BS.

[Mike A]

I recall a pretty meaty review of the last Nugent show in KC

[Jeramiah]

Check out Brian McTavish's review of the show at http://www.kcconfidential.com/?p=18631#more-18631

[leave it to Bruce please]

thanks for the link Jeramiah, good read

[roller]

keep those bieber and gaga type reviews coming. you guys may be old but you are so cool.

[True Fan]

Back to JL--Does anyone else remember "For a Dancer" being played? I might have dreamed it, but I thought I remembered Lindley's handiwork on that one...

[True Fan]

Sorry...obvious typo...JB not JL

[jack hoskins]

where is the site people can write in there own reviews for the week that are not reviewed here? always liked to read those since it is hard for the star to get to all the shows. saw los lonely boys, great show. jb @ dl and the band did heck of a job on a hot night. enjoyed the rythm and soul section when they were highlighted in the red spots.

[Bubba Brown]

Nugent Fan, I really would have liked to have seen Uncle TED @ the Ameristar + WOLFMOTHER at the Beaumont on Monday night - but two factors kept me from going - the dang miserable humidity and the FACT I'm still recovering from paying the high ticket price of PAUL McCARTNEY. Glad to know that TED did good. I'm sure both bands will likely return to the region within a year or two.

[Kong]

Bubba,
are you the Bubba who has always posted here but added the Brown?

I have waited to ask you thinking the real Bubba would come in and say something....
but maybe it is you? if so why did you add the Brown?

[Bubba Brown]

Kong, I am the REAL Bubba - about a month or so ago, this site MADE it so I more or less HAD to add my full name + a (any) ULR. So....

I really do hope this heat & humidity 'lets' up a bit by Aug. 23 (or at least the high is 88 or less) 'cause I really WOULD like to catch SLAYER, MEDADETH and TESTAMENT. Last year on July 21, I saw MANSON and SLAYER and I remember the high that day was 78 degrees. A true gift from above.

[Penny]

Yes, True Fan. They did do 'For A Dancer', (right after 'The Pretender') I captured it on film but didn't do a very good job. I was trying to keep from being noticed filming and not hold the camera up, so I held it close to my chest and although I got some good first few seconds, I'm afraid most of it is shot above Jackson's head. Bummer... It sounds pretty good though.

[camera1]

sound is the most important part....

just trying to not let all of the magic evaporate forever as soon as it 1000 feet about the venue. It may not be perfect, or the same as being at a show, but it sure is clearer than a memory, and it helps to jog the memory in the future of the past.

Why...oh why...wont they just fkoff and let us do try to bottle some of this magic(we do all the fkn work and we are paying customers) versus them giving these prickass security douchers a cheap thrill of harrassing us... those fknmthrfkrs.

thanks again for your efforts Penny

[true religion jeans]

Your tips are really great except the one suggesting to steal our competition articles haha . Nice tipps, thanks!