Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band in Phoenix 2015
Last night, my wife and I attended a concert by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band.
Historically, I’ve never been much of a concert-goer. I saw Roger Waters in Milwaukee during the Radio K.A.O.S. tour (right hafter he broke off with Floyd) because a friend somehow came up with free tickets. (Strange venue, too. Long and narrow, like having a show in a giant staircase.) I saw Spyro Gyra back in the early eighties on a college campus, and I saw Chicago at one of those rotating stage theaters in the Bay Area, right after Peter Cetera left the band.
Bob Seger from the stratosphere
And then I took my son to see Rush a couple of years ago and I realized, yeah, I do want to see some of these bands while I still can. In the time since, my wife and I have seen several shows, some better than others. Some of the acts that can still get it done were Steely Dan, Billy Joel, The Eagles, Paul McCartney, and Fleetwood Mac. Among the acts that probably shouldn’t be performing anymore were John Sebastian and Gordon Lightfoot.
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullets are definitely in the former group. They sounded terrific, dropping songs from the new album around his hits. He played Like a Rock live for the first time in 28 years (mainly because he couldn’t find a touring slide guitar player he liked until now – according to a recent newspaper article I read).
Last night, we got the full experience in the form of other shows in the rows in front of us. Some fat guy wouldn’t stop talking through the opening act and another fat guy threatened to knock out his teeth to shut him up. Then, the wiry blonde fired up not one, but two Cheech and Chong sized doobies and shared them with anyone who wanted to put their lips on them. We declined, as did the fat guys who almost got into a fight, but the even fatter old biker on the other side, who was already intoxicated, joined in. All the stoned people left early. I was afraid the old biker was going to fall backwards over the railing and make a mess for the roadies to clean up, but he managed to get out safely. No word on the ride home.
Seger only played a few songs on guitar and less on piano. He apparently has back problems that make it painful to play anymore, so he mainly handled vocals. Alto Reed still plays a mean sax. It’s gotta be tough lugging his giant bari sax around every night, but I suppose he’s used to it. Incredibly, Seger had 14 people on stage, two more than Steely Dan.
Some of those songs hold a lot of old memories. Although it was a great set list, I would have liked to hear Still the Same and Long Twin Silver Line, but overall it was a good set list. (If you follow that last link, you can see Alto Reed’s big bari sax.)
Until late last year, I thought Seger was done with touring, so I was pleased to hear about him going on the road one last time, and I’m glad I got to see the show, because I doubt I’ll get another chance.
