Re: Set List Changes?
This discussion has been brought up numerous times over the years. I'll use for an example my first Joe show which was essentially the ANDY DVD with out HTCT. a few months later he again returned to the area and they were working in some SILT material before it actually came out. I was hoping for the same set list I had seen the first time since that is what I brought several realatives and friends to see. The show was still good. I got to see Lie #1 performed for maybe the first and last time, not sure. My Mistake too. Still wasn't what I had come to see.
Not everyone attends multiple shows. Joe can't assume everybody saw you last night so we have to do an entirley different set. Over the course of the last 5 years the set the band the sound has evolved to an entirley different animal. It didn't change over night but it has evolved much in the way that songs evolve during the tour. Sloe Gin has a different ending than it had in May. One of These Days has been exchanged for Ball Peen Hammer. The solo's in Just Got Paid is constantly changeing. Bridge to Better days has a different break and a snippet of Deep Purple. So Many Roads has been brought back in and Blues Deluxe retired for the moment. I saw back to back nights last weekend with a short set the second night. No acoustic and Joe exchanging licks with Jim Suhler made Another Kind of Love a special treat.
One thing that I noticed was the tightness of the band and cohesiveness they all have just since May. You don't get that by reinventing the wheel every night. Somepeople would like to see Joe get up there and jam and trust me they all could hang but would it be tight. Eventually. But would that be fair to the new fans that want to see a Joe show at its best. The A set list. Rehearsed polished night after night and smoking that is what they deserve.
I always say that Joe had me at sound check the first time I saw him but he sealed the deal with AYE. I have seen that played many times. It never got old and each time he threw in something different that made that version unique. Most people wouldn't notice the subtle differences but I did. I wouldn't expect him on the current tour to dust that off and play it for me. That is a chapter closed in the life of Joe B. Darn good thing there is a DVD I can pop in whenever I feel the need.
Yeah Jim, this has been discussed soooo many times but you have summarized what I have always felt and have posted before. Just to be able to see Joe multiple times with the same set list is great. It's like going to the Grand Canyon, you never get tired of seeing that majesty. We have seen Joe over the years now and there has been changes over the course of time but it has to do with Joe's direction and what he is accomplishing. Yeah I miss some of the old songs but the new songs are great too, and then someday in the future we might be saying, "I wish he would play Sloe Gin again"...