All I can really add is that the band sounded wonderful, they performed for two hours, they came into the audience for solos, their songs spanned their entire career, and they spent an hour after the show signing autographs and chatting with fans. It was definitely worth a trip to Dallas for the concert, and I hope for another opportunity in the future to see them again. See the pictoral slideshow of the concert below.
A Heart Tries to be Young Again, But It Will Never Be the Same
Roger Daltry live in Jacksonville, Florida
Review by Brooke Palmer
I've been a fan of the music of The Who for most of my life. When I was 11 years old, I had my first date (with an 8th grader!) to see The Who live at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, during their "The Kids Are Alright" tour. My date's parents had four tickets so he invited me. It wasn't my pick for my first concert experience, but I was familiar with many of the songs. By the time I was in high-school, I had discovered their music on my own, and had bought tickets toKansas City's Spirit Festival one year to see Roger Daltry perform. This WAS my choice, and I was very much enamored with the performance, even though the glory years of The Who were long gone. Over the past several years, I've found various old Who albums and have grown even more fond of their large array of music. So when I was on business travel in Florida three weeks ago and came upon the opportunity to see Roger Daltry perform live again, for free, I was very excited. One of my colleagues had met the current guitarist on tour with Daltry while doing laundry at the hotel where we were staying. After conversing awhile, he offered her four free tickets to the show at The Florida Theatre in Jacksonville. So she and I and two other colleagues got gussied up to attend the show. I looked up information about the show that day and discovered that The Who (remnants of) will be performing together again soon, and that Roger Daltry decided to keep his voice tuned by touring on his "Use It or Lose It" solo tour. Inside the theatre, I was surprised to see many empty seats. I later discovered that the tickets were being sold for $65-$95. Perhaps that explained the empty seats. And it was this juxtaposition of audience to performer that ultimately rubbed me wrong the entire show. It wasn't the performance itself that bothered me. Daltry's voice still sounded pretty good, the musicians with him were solid, and Pete Townsend's brother (part of the ensemble) looked and sounded just like Pete. I enjoyed the song selection overall. But Daltry made numerous references to his lavish lifestyle, a seemingly bad move when speaking to an audience of high-ticket-price payers who do not share the rock-n-roll pay grade, especially considering the fact that they are paying for Daltry's "practice" tour. He referenced the poor economy once, but added how he has luckily not fallen prey to the hard times. Later he prefaced one of his "working man's" songs by explaining that he hasn't had to work a 9-5 day job since he was 15, another slap-in-the-face to the audience, filled with those of us who DO work day jobs, most of which probably spent one or two hard day's earnings on the concert ticket. And this dichotomy was driven home during his performance of "Young Man Blues" when he sang the famous lyrics “But you know nowadays, It's the old man, He's got all the money, And a young man ain't got nothin' in the world these days” The irony of the stanza was missed, or overlooked, by the crowd as they cheered and sang along. I admit, it was a great performance of the song. But I couldn't help but be distracted by the realization of the modern meaning of that song, of the commercial greed so evident by so many old rock stars these days, and by the contrived nature of Daltry belting out a great Who song many, many years after the fact, without any member of the original band. Perhaps I'm just too after the fact myself, having been a young child during the band's glory days. But after all of my own years of loving the music of The Who, and of appreciating the vocal magic of Daltry, I left the show feeling like the whole experience was inauthentic and way over-priced. The crowd around me, however, appeared to feel otherwise. So perhaps it's just me. When it comes to heart, Daltry's "Use It Or Lose It Tour" lost it in my eyes.
Photo by Keni Van Der Brugen
Photo by Keni Van Der Brugen
When it Comes to a Pumping Heart, it's Better Late Than Never Wilco live in Kansas City, Missouri
Review by Brooke Palmer
The night was a cool, crisp Autumn night, perhaps too cool for early Autumn, when the young couple put on their sweaters, hats, and gloves, and entered the outdoor venue. Though the husband had seen Wilco several times, the wife had never seen then, and had had no hopes of seeing them, and knew not what to expect. (The tickets were bought by her parents, the bigger Wilco fans, but an unexpected work obligation for the wife’s mother meant the tickets were handed down to her.) The crowd was strangely homogenous, consisting predominantly of white twenty—thirty somethings….young men and women with coarse, raw faces and scarves and hats. The wife commented that she did not, in fact, see one person in the crowd that wasn’t Caucasian, but eventually she spotted an Asian man smoking a cigar. She also thought to herself that her parents might have felt slightly out of place among the very-young crowd.
The opening act was finishing up when the couple arrived, and they were fiery and talented, a male and female duo. After a twenty-minute or so break, Wilco appeared, a six-member band, and began with a song the wife was familiar with. After a couple songs, she was slightly confused. The sound seemed so produced that she was having a hard time figuring out which musicians were making which sound, and what was being created by affects or pre-recordings. A couple more songs went on in this fashion, and the wife further surmised that the band was in a sense hiding behind noise, behind extreme feedback and sound effects. And through all this, through about 8 or 9 songs, the band never addressed the crowd.
The sound was pleasing, as the songs were interesting, but there seemed to be a disconnect between performer and audience, as if the band was playing more for themselves than for the crowd. And the wife also noticed that during each song’s long, drawn-out, feedback-filled ending, the guitarists used these song-dying moments to switch out instruments. This offended the wife as it seemed like the band was not commanding their performance well, that they appeared more interested in moving from one song to another than giving each song its full attention. Finally, though, Jeff Tweedy addressed the crowd, asking if everyone was keeping warm. He commented on the night being a melancholy Tuesday night, and then went into the next song, during which the couple overheard crowd members discussing Tweedy’s supposed mood disorder.
The wife pondered, maybe it’s not that he doesn’t care as much as that he’s depressed and this is the most energy he is able to muster. But then, during the 10th song, something changed. The wife began to be sucked into the song, to witness a power and energy coming forward through the music. This power and energy grew with each following song. And then at one point Tweedy again addressed the crowd, commenting that they had many more songs to play, burnt orange, yellow squash, and pumpkin colored songs. And then another powerful performance took place. The wife leaned over and suggested to her husband that perhaps the first ten songs were just warming up. And she found herself more deeply drawn in with each remaining song, more impressed with the performance, the energy, and the comedic audience delivery by Tweedy. The wife thought to herself, how interesting that this one show has caused my emotions to run the gamut, from disappointed and slightly offended, to psychologically analytical, to musically intrigued, to overtaken.
Throughout the night’s performance, though, the night became noticeably cooler, and despite the warm fleece and winter accoutrements the wife had adorned, her toes were beginning to feel frozen inside her boots. So when the band finished their set and went offstage, having already explained to the audience that they should elect a crowd president, decide upon the Wilco songs that the majority of the audience wanted to hear, and then submit the request in writing, because, Tweedy explained, “Everyone knows that’s how things work at a rock concert…”, the couple decided that they would not stay for the encore and would instead begin their long walk to the car, parked several blocks from the venue. It was, after all, 11pm and a work night for both of them.
During their walk to the car, and then their drive away from the area, the couple were able to listen to two more Wilco songs, as the speakers were able to produce such a decibel and clarity of sound as to permeate the downtown. Pleased at their evening that was spent together, with unexpected downs and ups, listening to Wilco, the couple went home, heated up some leftover soup for a late-night snack, and then got into bed and snuggled their way to sleep.
