2006-06-13 First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, IL

Scheduled: 19:30 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

Premiere for the stunning rearrangement of "Further On (Up The Road)", which features several unique lyrics including an extra verse (Oh my beautiful Molly, dear…). "Long Black Veil" stays in the set, played by request. Patti Scialfa is not present. Horn section is Baron-Manion-Pender-Rosenberg.

Intro to “Atlantic City”
´´Thank you, Sam Bardfeld on the fiddle….give me some tape, a little tape…..thank you, thank you, it´s great to be here in Chicago….just taping my hands….I´ve got to masking-tape my hand, oh, yeah, no, one more….yes, yes, yes…..´´

Intro to “Old Dan Tucker”
´´Yes, yes….´Old Dan,´ ´Old Dan´….yes, yes….thank you, thank you….aah, alright….let´s test….let´s test those Midwestern vocal cords….sounded good already, I can tell you, sounded good already….´´

Intro to “Further On Up The Road”
´´Thank you….yes, yes….alright, this is a work-in-progress, we haven´t figured this one out, we´re close so why not?….(chuckles)….Arturo….Arthur is the king of the highest instrument in the band and the lowest instrument in the band - he´s known as Art ´Hi-Lo, King of the rock and roll tuba´ Baron, but, uh (chuckles) he plays it low, he plays it high (giggles) nothing in the middle….good, let´s try it….´´

Intro to “Jesse James”
´´Ooh, we made it…..yes, yes (chuckles) alright….ok…..we´ve totally screwed up our setlist though (chuckles)….let´s do, uh….uh, let´s move on to, uh, to ´Jesse James´….alright, this was a song….I, I believe is, is, is, is, is 90 percent fact but also close to 100 percent bullshit due to the character portrait (chuckles)….alright, come on, Greg (?)….´´

Intro to “Eyes On The Prize”
´´This was originally a….gospel hymn….was, uh….it was rewritten in 1956 by…Alice Wine ….and became a beautiful freedom song, this is ´Eyes On The Prize´….´´

Intro to “My Oklahoma Home”
´´Thank you….Mr.Marc Antony Thompson on guitar and vocals….yes, yes….yes, yes….this is a song, it´s only been recorded a couple of times, hard to believe….it´s, uh, it was written by Bill and Agnes ´Sis´ Cunningham during the Dustbowl and, uh….I´ll see what I have here (?) and, uh, I remember as a kid, you know, reading about the Dustbowl and, uh, they have, those are the kinds of events that you read about in history books that didn´t happen any more in your lifetime….but, uh, in New Orleans we´ve seen thousands of people lifted up off their homes and spread out across the country….this is, uh, ´Where is my Oklahoma home? It´s blown away´….´´

Intro to “Long Black Veil”
´´Oh yes….yes, yes, that´s Eddie Manion on the saxophone….Mark ´Love Man´ Pender on the trumpet…..Richie Rosenberg, ´La Bamba´ on the trombone….Art ´Hi-Lo´ Baron on the tuba….yes, yes….actually, uh…..that´s not a bad request….I´ll do that….alright…..(starts strumming his guitar)….a tap on the shoulder means I´m in the wrong fucking key…. (chuckles) we did that one night and there was no tap on the shoulder (chuckles) bad things happened, very bad (chuckles)….´´

Intro to “How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?”
´´Our first job was down at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Jazz and Heritage Festival (crowd cheers) thank you, uh….it´s hard to explain what New Orleans is like, you can´t really, quite get it from the television set or the newspapers, I think it was close to a hundred thousand homes destroyed, uh, the city lost almost half its population, uh, it´s just a mile after mile of the, of the city that´s just been emptied out and, uh, I´ve never really seen anything like it, uh….uh….it´s a city that if you´re a musician, it´s such an important part of, it´s sacred ground, all the influences and the music that we´re playing here tonight came over, got to New Orleans, got all stirred up (?) folk and jazz and blues and rock´n´roll, ragtime (?) Louis Armstrong (?)…just, uh, so much, uh, so much, so much, so many beautiful things, so many beautiful things came out of that city and, uh, as such, we owe the city a debt and we actually, there´s, uh, there´s, there´s places that you just owe to, you just owe to, and, uh, as long as there´s a U.S.A, New Orleans is gonna be one of those cities….it´s, uh, it´s enriched American, American life and American culture to a degree that we can´t over, we can´t overstate, so it´s very heartbreaking to see the other musicians chased from the city and, and, uh, the kind of pain that they´re suffering down there, it´s also something where, you know, things happen and people move on, but this is something that´s gonna need a lot of national attention for a long, long time, so I would ask you to be vigilant and to, uh….that´s something that, that continues to, to need us, to have someone to bear witness to and, uh….I wrote this song, actually I, I wrote three verses of this song, this is a song by a guy named Blind Alfred Reed, who wrote it at the beginning of the Depression, uh….I kept his first verse and I wrote three other ones, uh….in the unfortunate honor of our president´s visit down there where he managed to gut the only agency, through political cronyism, that´s supposed to help American citizens in times of disaster….but, uh….that´s, uh….I don´t like to kick him when he´s down but, uh….but that´s, uh….oh, why not?….but, uh…..so as such….as such, this is ´How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?´….´´

Intro to “Jacob´s Ladder”
´´Thank you….yes, yes, we are all climbing Jacob´s Ladder….that´s right, that´s right, I read up on Jacob the other night, he was somebody in the Bible, he was always, uh, he was always fucking up in God´s eyes….but for reason God kept giving him a chance after chance after chance to get it right….and I guess he kind of half got there in the end but, uh….but there´s no free ticket to heaven, no Sir, there´s no car-pool lane to the Pearly Gates….no backstage pass past St.Peter….that´s right, you´ve got to go step by step, inch by inch, mile by mile, hand over hand, rung by rung, we´ve got climb Jacob´s Ladder, come on, boys….´´

Intro to “We Shall Overcome”
´´Oh yes (chuckles) that´s right, step by step….oh my….ain´t that something?….yes, it´s hard to, Art almost killed himself on the tuba on that (chuckles) you´ve got to understand, playing the tuba is like, uh, it´s like wearing a washing machine (chuckles)(?) it´s big (chuckles) you´re wearing a washing machine all night and you have to play music besides, music comes out of it (chuckles) oh….thank you (people yell ´Bruuce´) oh, yes, yes, yes….thank you very much…..this next song, this is one of those songs that´s, uh, it´s gotten sung so much and people have heard this so much that it almost disappears, it sort of disappears into the fabric of American life and, uh, you can lose, you can lose your sense of what it is and how powerful it is sometimes but it´s probably the most important, oh, political protest song of all time, I hate to put it in that box because, uh, it´s so much more than that, you know…. it´s one of those songs that as long as there´s people, somebody will be singing this one somewhere…..it was originally a Baptist hymn and made its way through the Labor movement and, uh, it´s still sung all around the world today where people are struggling, this is ´We Shall Overcome´….´´

Intro to “Bring ´Em Home”
´´That´s good singing….yes, yes, the new guys, you know, the, the glory, the glory just goes right to their heads….I´ve taught them everything I know about hamming and they´ve learned a lot (chuckles) they´ve learned, I´m proud of those boys, alright (chuckles) oh, thank you, thanks for coming out on this lovely evening….thank you so much….here at the, uh….Tinley Park, Tinley Park, Illinois….I have no idea where the hell I was….I´m in a big, black box outside of Chicago, that´s all I know (laughs) alright (chuckles) we do have some friends of ours in the hall tonight, the Greater Chicago Food Depository….yes, they distribute food over a network of 600 grassroots agencies, food pantries and shelters and soup kitchens….and, uh, they work to provide men and women and children with the tools to try and break the cycle of poverty, which is, uh, remains a national….a national shame for all of us so, uh….I wanna send this out to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, please on your way out….give them your support….´´

Intro to “Ramrod”
´´Thank you….(playing his guitar) yup….I think it went like, uh, the German and the Polish people went to Texas and they brought the accordion with ´em and the accordion went across the border and came back as, uh, (?) and mariachi music….uh, then, uh….somewhere along the way the ska came from the Caribbean and, uh, somebody dyed their hair in England and English ska became, became part of it - it´s all in this song somewhere (chuckles) so….´´

Intro to “When The Saints Go Marching In”
´´Thank you…thanks a lot….I hope everybody had fun tonight, we had a great time….thank you very much….thank you….it´s nice to be, uh, I´ve enjoyed playing these outside places, they´re real nice….it´s kind of, I´ve been telling the folks, I kind of shied away from them before because I didn´t want the wind to mess up my hair….it was like out of the question…. but, uh, this next song, this is a song we learned when we headed down to New Orleans, it´s sort of the theme of the city so we played it with a great deal of trepidation (chuckles) but I found a couple of verses in a book that I´ve been passing through and I also found the Weavers did a version of this where they sang these two verses also and, uh….it kind of explains our whole adventure up here tonight, some of these verses do, and I wanna thank you all for coming out and taking a shot with us….appreciate it….I wanna thank all these wonderful musicians I have come my way on the stage….got Marty Rifkin on the steel…. Charlie Giordano on the keyboards….the lovely Cindy Mizelle, the handsome Curtis King, the beautiful Lisa Lowell….the charismatic Mr.Larry Eagle - his mama is in the house tonight ….Mrs.Eagle, he´s doing a good job….we send our love out to you…..Art Baron, Mr.Hi-Lo right there….Richie Rosenberg, ´La Bamba´…´Love Man´ Pender, Eddie Manion….Frank Bruno, his Papa taught me guitar (chuckles) Sam Barfeld on the fiddle, fabulous Sam Bardfeld, Greg Liszt on the banjo….Jeremy Chatzky on the stand-up bass - he swings that thing….the fantastic Soozie Tyrell on the vocals….Marc Anthony Thompson on vocals and guitar….yes, we thank you, we thank you for coming out so we´ll send this one out to you…´´

Intro to “Buffalo Gals”
´´Thank you….Seeger Sessions Band, let´s hear it (crowd cheers)….too nice tonight to stop right now….took me a heck of a long time to get from Chicago here, let me tell you (chuckles) damn, that was a hellish commute (chuckles) damn! (chuckles) alright….what can I say? this is one my Grandma sang to me, we´re gonna send you, is there a moon out tonight? Todd, is there a moon tonight?….wooo! aaah (chuckles) alright….´´

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

Joe Muszynski

It amazes me that critics are writing Springsteen is playing music not all of his fans are into so they are staying away. For me, this is the music I've been waiting for from Bruce. Go back and listen to "The Wild, The Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle" - it starts with a crazy horn burst and progresses with an ensemble of musicians, rock and roll norms be damned. "New York City Serenade", any one? I've longed for those days, probably because I was just young enough not to see those shows. This latest amalgamation, The Pete Seeger Sessions Band, is the Boss coming back to his roots - a musical orchestra that blows down the walls of the halls! And the show in Chicago last night was just that - Bruce blowing into town and blowing down the walls. The set list was not much different than the other shows being played - but, oh, what power, and what fun. Live, each of the songs from the new album packs energy and heart to burn, specially when everyone sings it out with the band. That's the idea. The reworked songs all work well - the only one I would call out for striking me as odd is "Johnny 99" - but that's a minor call out. It gave me a chance to catch a breath. I understand that this was the debut of a reworked "Further on Up the Road". Beautiful vocals from all the singers made this heartfelt ballad a welcome to all. Highlight of the old material for me was "Open All Night", which was always one of the funniest of Bruce's songs for me - the new version, a big band boogie in which Bruce sort of raps his way through it, was hilarious and fun and amazing. Bruce's politics of humanity, of the people, were in force and I welcomed that. Folk music is music for folks, and we are all folks. Time for "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" and "Bring 'Em Home" to be released. Are these getting any radio play? Is anybody playing this disc to the masses? What else? The crowd continuing to sing "Pay Me My Money Down" as the band left until they came back out was great - almost as if the entertainment was paid for, so pay it down, but also a great unity of a few singers in the crowd. The "Buffalo Gals" closer was alot of fun too, but here's a suggestion to the Boss - you need to close, solo acoustic of course, with "Froggie Went a Courtin'", as the last line "If you want anymore you have to sing it yourself" is a natural to end on. I prefer to be brought down easy! And all in all - Bruce himself was hilarious - caught in Chicago road repair traffic, goofing, laughing - really great to see. It's been a while since I laughed so hard at a concert. It was strange, but cool. For me, this is what Bruce was always destined to do - lead a crew of as many musicians as possible. Thanks, Boss - what's next?

bronxkid1

I hate to sound like everything I have seen or heard about this tour but I will. I had no intention of going to this tour at all, which flys in the face of my rule of almost 30 years that if Bruce is anywhere within 150 miles of where you are standing you must go to see him or else you are crazy. What else are you going to do, watch TV? The show, which I attended with my 7 year old, was fantastic. I'm not gonna say the Seeger Session material is my cup of tea because it isn't. But the music, the band, the emotion, the general aliveness all made up for it. Even the remakes were mostly of songs I can live without, yet, they all sounded awesome, especially Open All Night. I have said for a long time that I would love material from Bruce that is R&B/gospel/rock blended and you certainly get that from this new material. And bravo for taking a chance with stuff many in the ""fan base"" will resent and even stay home for. I can't stand predictable artists or oldies acts. The highlights in this show for me were Long Black Veil, Further on Up the Road, Open All Night, and When the Saints but truly, there were no dull moments. I think I will reinstate my rule forever. Bruce never lets you down.

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