This is the fifth time I've seen Steve Earle and he always puts on a great show. He was mostly solo acoustic except for a guy in the background with two turntables and a microphone. The man in back allowed Earle to mix his acoustic folk with subtle hip hop beats and scratch. It worked.
For a few songs he brought out his wife, Allison Moorer who also played as opening act. They sound great together. Some Statler and Waldorf wannabe at the Sun-Times panned Earle's newer songs but "Steve's Hammer", from his latest album, is now my favorite.
Tom Morello is the guitar player for Rage Against the Machine and this was the first time I heard his solo act, The Nightwatchmen. He's from Libertyville Illinois and his proud mother introduced him on stage. Nothing says "angry, politically charged, bad-ass metal/punk guitarist" like being introduced by your mom.
He started out on his "arm the homeless" electric guitar with a full band, moved to acoustic guitar with the band, and then played solo acoustic a while before bringing the band back for a plugged-in "This Land is Your Land" sing-a-long with the two missing subversive verses included. Between Morello and Earle, I haven't heard so many Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger references at a concert since the Woody Guthrie folk festival.
I was close to the stage so I saw Morello do things I've never seen anyone do with an electric guitar and other things I've only seen in Jimi Hendrix concert footage. I can't even describe it. I'm convinced he's the greatest and most creative guitar player in modern rock.
Both guys had similar comments about how exciting it is to see Barack Obama elected President, but as activists, the next step is to make sure he lives up to his better campaign promises and improves on his lesser ones.
Morello spoke about the lack of media coverage of the gestapo-like crackdown on protests at the Republican convention in St. Paul. He said Rage Against the Machine was told they would be arrested if they even stepped near a stage to play and believes there would have been an international outcry if China had used the same tactics to censor and suppress dissent. It shows how little the corporate press has changed since they failed to challenge Bush's lies during the lead up to the Iraq War.
While I was in Chicago I took the opportunity to visit two record stores in the Loop. I went to Reckless Records because I read great reviews about their vinyl collection. I don't think it lived up to the hype. Their selection was small and overpriced. Maybe their other stores are better but I wasn't impressed. Besides that, they wouldn't let me set my by bag behind the counter and they kept blaring an unidentifiable noise on the stereo that made me want to leave quickly.
But, I did pick up a Black Keys album.
They released Magic Potion in 2006. I saw them play at Lollapalooza for the past two years and they're one of the best new bands of the past decade. If you're familiar with the Black Keys there are no big surprises on this album but its everything you'd want. You can spy my CD box sets in the pic.
Jazz Mart Records claims to be the greatest Jazz record store in the world and it lives up to the hype. I'll write about that soon.