Jackson Browne

[thelongrun]

Thank you MikeA for posting the dates as well as JD's, cool

[MikeA]

Tickets to the AmeriStar (KC) Jackson Browne concert are $188 -$305. Wow!

[DonFan]

My hubby & I, plus my friend Ann & her hubby, saw Jackson Browne at the Alabama Theater last night, and it was a wonderful show. Here is the approximate set list:

Boulevard
Barricades of Heaven
Everywhere I Go
Fountain of Sorrow
Time the Conqueror
Off of Wonderland
Live Nude Cabaret
Culver Moon
Giving That Heaven Away
Dr. My Eyes/About My Imagination (another memorable version)
(Intermission)
Something Fine
For Taking the Time
Lives In The Balance
Going Down to Cuba
Just Say Yeah
The Drums of War
Far From the Arms of Hunger
The Pretender
Running on Empty
I Am A Patriot (encore)

Where Were You was added somewhere in the first set.

The Alabama Theater is our beautiful, majestic old-timey movie palace/ theater in downtown Birmingham, a small venue that Jackson said he loved, having played here twice before on his acoustic tour. This was my first time to see him. Jackson seemed relaxed, talkative, in very good voice and appeared to be having a great time performing. Since I had gone on his website and knew he had a set list, I was amazed at how many people yelled out songs all throughout the show, and even more amazed that he actually performed a few of them. When someone called out Where Were You, he said, "All right, I love that song, we will get in soon," and he did. He was backed by a great band, including two young black singers with amazing voices. One of the singers was so young that Jackson said the first time they rehearsed they had to end early because "it was a school night." Anyway, outstanding musicians all!

We heard quite a bit from the new record, since that's what this tour is all about, but I don't have it yet so I was waiting for the familiar hits such as Boulevard, Doctor my Eyes, & Running on Empty. They were all great! (No Take It Easy, though.)

Unfortunately our seats weren't so great because I bought the least expensive seats ($51.50--saving money for the Eagles !). We were on the very back row of the mezzanine. During the intermission we noticed several scattered empty seats down front, and my friend Ann knew one of the security guards in front of the stage, so we went down to talk to him and he said they don't check tickets during the second half so come on down. I ended up watching the rest of the show from a great seat on the end of the third row! When I first sat down, the woman beside me got ugly though--she said "Did you pay for that seat? Because I got online the morning the concert went on sale and paid dearly for mine!" I said, "I paid for a seat in the mezzanine but several very large, tall men are front of me blocking my view, and thank you for letting me move here since no one was using this seat." She didn't like it but she shut up. Anyway, it was great being that close, and when Jackson started The Pretender, everyone rushed the stage and stood there until the show was over.

Concert was done about 10:15, so a group of us (about 20-25 people) waited in the parking lot near the tour buses for almost an hour. I had my Saturate Before Using album and a sharpie ready, but our guard friend said Jackson didn't sign autographs but he would come out and speak with us briefly. He finally came out, and although it was cold and he looked tired, he was very gracious and spoke with most of us and posed for a few photos. I stood right beside him and he smiled at me, and Ann was just about to take our picture when his assistant abruptly said, "That's all," and hustled him onto the bus. Oh well, I was close enough for a smile!

Anyway, it was a wonderful show. If you get a chance to see him, by all means, go!

[Brooke]

Wow, DF! Just standing that close to Jackson would have been so cool. Darn it that you didn't get that pic!

Great review! I so wanted to see him last week, but it just didn't work out for me. Wonderful that you got to move up close, too!

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Wow DF - That is a great review and very cool that Jackson took time to speak with fans. I sure wish he would come some place close to me. I've never seen him live.

[sodascouts]

How cool that you got to talk to Jackson! Too bad you didn't get a picture, but it sounds like the show was great.

So, did the concert do the trick? Are you going to go and buy the album now?

[DonFan]

Yes, I am looking to add several of his albums, new and old, to my collection!

[Peekaboo]

That's so great that you got to meet him DF!! He's gonna be in Tulsa this thursday. I would love to go but i don't know that i'll be able to.

[TimothyBFan]

Sounds like a great time DF--glad you got to get up close for the 2nd half and talk a bit with him afterward!

[DonFan]

Thanks, y'all--it was fun.
I have the book "Hotel California" by Barney Hoskyns, and he wrote about Jackson Browne & the Eagles in the book. One book reviewer wrote this:

"Hoskyns offers insightful sketches of many of the period’s landmark records. For example, Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty was the “most trenchant account of the hollowness at the heart of late 1970s rock…the album was about being a rock star—about sex, drugs, and tour buses, and the intermittent feeling that rock and roll had become an empty ritual.” And the Eagles’ Hotel California album “became a state of mind,” Hoskyns asserts, “the land of blue jeans and cocaine, mirror shades reflecting palm trees, blond hair flowing from convertibles on freeways that led to the ocean.”