Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts, 10/29/2009 and 10/30/2009
I attended the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden last week. The lineup was incredible, not least of which were Metallica’s duets with guests Lou Reed, Ozzy Osbourne, and Ray Davies. I covered both nights in the press room, watching the event on closed-circuit TV and doing junket interviews with many of the artists, for The Village Voice’s “Sound of the City” blog. I’ve pasted the teasers for both below.
Bruce! Sam! Billy! Bonnie! Live From The Ludicrously Star-Studded MSG Rock Hall Extravaganza
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Celebration
Madison Square Garden
Thursday, October 29
The first half of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's two-night benefit concert and 25th-anniversary celebration lasted six hours, ended at 1:30 a.m. and featuring star-studded sets by curators Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash, with guests ranging from Billy Joel to Tom Morello to doo-wop legends Little Anthony and the Imperials. All these artists showed a real humility and gratitude for the 60-odd-year-old genre: "Everybody's got their own Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their hearts," as Springsteen put it. And no matter what you think of the museum itself or the state of rock at the moment (the closest thing to a hard-line rock album in this week's Billboard Top 10 is the New Moon soundtrack), the evening proved what a great emancipator the music still is.
Continue reading " Bruce! Sam! Billy! Bonnie! Live"...
Live: Even Lou Reed Gets Sentimental At Rock Hall MSG Blowout #2 (Featuring U2, The Boss, The Black Eyed Peas, And Some Dude Named Mick)
Ooooh plus "Iron Man"
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Celebration
Madison Square Garden
Friday, October 30
"When we were down, rock 'n' roll lifted us up," says Tom Hanks in his introductory remarks for the final night of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's benefit-concert extravaganza at Madison Square Garden. "Rock 'n' roll music was American," he later adds. "And it changed the world." Despite his use of the past tense, tonight is anything but a eulogy: Friday's slate features a wider palate of curators than the previous night, this time including Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck, Metallica, and U2. The headliners' guests, a pop-music dream-team ranging from Ray Davies to Ozzy Osbourne to the Black Eyed Peas, also do a better job than last night's cavalcade of explaining how far rock has come.
Continue reading " Live: Even Lou Reed Gets"...More videos:
Lou Reed and Metallica perform the Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat”
Jeff Beck performs “A Day in the Life”
Bruce Springsteen and Sam Moore perform “Hold On, I’m Coming” and “Soul Man”
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