Fleet Center, Boston Well, this was one amazing concert. After all the various lineup reports and the confusion arising over who was appearing in Boston, and who was to appear tonight in NYC, the Boston roster turned out to be Roger Waters, Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, Billy Joel, Don Henley, Sting, and Mellencamp.
Buffet and Brian Wilson are also slated to appear tonight in MSG. The house band was Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel, Willie Weeks and Steve Jordan (directing). They backed everyone except Henley and Mellencamp, who brought their own bands. Roger Waters opened with 'Comfortably Numb' (with Henley) and 'Wish You Were Here', and a new song 'Flickering Flame' about Native Americans. Sheryl Crow offered 'If It Makes You Happy', 'Soak Up the Sun' and "Steve McQueen'. She rocked. JT did 'Hound Dog', 'October Road', 'Mexico' and an amazing duet with Sting on 'You Can Close You Eyes'... There were filmed tributes throughout, narrated by JT. There was an especially hilarious film appearance by Bill Murray trying to tie a bow tie (Tim's signature look). Billy Joel seemed to have the biggest crowd appeal and *did rock out. 'My Life', 'NY State of Mind', 'Only the Good', 'You May be Right' and an encore (perhaps) on 'Piano Man'. Henley offered David Grey's 'Shine', something else, and a laid back 'Boys of Summer'. Timothy B. Schmidt was along, altho it was a little hard to tell him from Sheryl Crow. I really enjoyed Sting's set. He opened with 'Roxanne' He went to 'Fields of Gold' in which he became obviously emotional and stumbled a bit. That was really touching to me, because when you've done a song 9,000 times between the studio and concerts, you tend to lose the ability to connect with the words you wrote way back when. This event and his obvious regard for Tim White overcame him briefly. He closed with 'Faith'. Andy Somers played guitar, along with Kortchmar. Mellencamp came on also with his own band and did the Mellemcamp thing including "Aint that America' and certainly two other tunes but he was so loud I was just trying to survive. His drummer's kick drum was literally like cannon shots and my pant legs were actually flapping in the breeze. I had my souvenir ear plugs (a little less music to my ears) but didn't use them. But boy, was that loud! The entire crew came onstage for 'Bound For Glory' (This Train) and then they did a surprise 'Everyday People' to close out. Still processing but I wanted to file an early report in the case that anyone around NYC is thinking of trying to go. I would say YES DEFINITELY. Most of all I would want to recommend Tim White's most excellent writings on pop music and culture, including the Marley, JT and Brian Wilson bios, and the excellent compilations of Rolling Stone and Billboard articles "Rock Lives", 'Music to my Ears' and 'The Entertainers' Chucke
