Bob Seger at Pine Knob, June 19, 2019

Bob Seger at Pine Knob, June 19, 2019

Bob Seger lives across the other side of the school district. Our kids went to the same public high school. Our kids played in the West Bloomfield High School Marching Band, and we were both active in the Band Boosters Association, separated by a couple of years. And... ok, there's no "and." We live in different zip codes. One summer afternoon, Lori and I visited friends who have a home on Upper Straits Lake and went kayaking. Almost immediately, we saw an immense mansion on the right. "What's that???" "Oh, that's Bob Seger's new house."

But Bob remains a Michigan man, and there's a strong "he's one of us" feeling to many people who grew up here. But in all this time living in the area, the only time I'd had a full concert with Seger was when we just happened to be seated directly behind him at a Bob Dylan concert in 2007. I'd seen him perform just once, a rendition of "America the Beautiful" prior to Game 1 of the 2006 World Series. I'd seen him on stage at a rock concert just once, when Bruce Springsteen brought him up to help out on "Shout" in 2016. Beyond that, the closest I'd come was the two times I saw Bruce perform Bob's 1968 gem "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" in concert.


Last night, I finally fixed that, in the penultimate show of what's billed as Seger's final run of 6 shows at DTE Music Energy Theater in Clarkston, Michigan. But we predate corporate branding: The special event t-shirts and posters all identify the location as Pine Knob; the t-shirts even include the old Pine Knob Music Theater logo.

 My first live Bob Seger experience: At the 2006 World Series

If the Pine Knob name for the theater is resurrected from decades past, the traffic management hails from pre-history. We spent probably an hour on the last mile of Pine Knob Road. A motorcyclist roared by, wearing a t-shirt that simply said, "I still call it Pine Knob." We crawled past houses on one side, and on the other the Pine Knob Golf Course and then those long "blue" runs of the Pine Knob Ski & Snowboard Resort (because they can't all be "green"), finally arriving at the back end of the ski lodge's paved parking lot, only to wind around yet again to the dirt and grass and swamp of the auxiliary lot. The slopes may be blue, but the auxiliary parking lot is a double black diamond mogul field.

Fortunately, we'd given ourselves extra time. We missed the opening act, but so did everyone else tailgating out in the mogul fields. We settled in with our friends for another Michigan tradition: A late sunset early summer evening up on the lawn at Pine Knob. People in short chairs, beach balls bouncing about, and, at 8:40pm, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band.

Seger's set was comprised of 2 dozen songs over the course of 2 hours, ranging from his early days ("Ramblin' Gamblin' Man") to nearly every chart hit this side of Katmandu. It was a fan service setlist for sure, being very nearly identical -- with one notable exception -- to the prior setlists of this run. Up on the hill, the audience seemed to know about 3 or 4 words of every song, those words often being the song titles ("The Fire Down Below," "The Fire Inside," "Like a Rock"). From that vantage point, we were watching the show mostly on the monitors, as actually seeing the stage required standing (to see over the heads of the lawn geniuses who needed to stand while drinking their beers and taking selfies with their friends), and then peering around various poles and wires. But the rain held off, it was a lovely evening, and there's just something special about the vista, with the top of the ski hill in the back.

The view from midway up the hill: Seger on the monitor, and the ski slope looming above.

And if the setlist was predictable, we still had Seger and the Silver Bullet Band presenting it. The performances were generally flawless. In his loose Adidas shirt, Seger appeared noticeably trimmer than when I saw him with Bruce 3 years ago. The keys of several songs appeared to have been dropped a couple steps, but it didn't really feel like Bob needed the help: his voice seemed solid throughout. More importantly, he really seemed to be enjoying himself, and that part carried over to the audience.


Midway through the set, I went down to "use the facilities." Of course, at Pine Knob, the real purpose of such a break is to hang out on the concourse, where the sightline and sound are perfect, and to stay there until security dutifully comes along to remind that hanging out on the concourse is not technically permitted. At about the time of my 3rd or 4th such reminder at various stations along the concrete, Bob introduced "Turn the Page." And then, all of a sudden,  everybody knew every word. They didn't just know the words, the knew the crescendos and the wails and everything else, just like the record -- and you best believe Bob played it that way. It was kind of awesome to witness.

Five Bobs: Four on monitors and one on the stage. The view from the hill.

During several songs in the show, archival pictures were shown above Bob's head: During a faithful to Dylan version "Forever Young," which he dedicated to Glenn Frey (passing over his own tribute song "Glenn Song"), pictures were displayed of Frey, Tom Petty, Aretha Franklin, and Chuck Berry, and even Dr. John -- who passed away the day of the first show on this run. And during "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," which closed out the main set, many pictures of Bob and other from the '60s and '70s, including a famous image of Seger and Springsteen taken backstage at Pine Knob in 1978.

The setlist contained one significant surprise: The live premiere of "You Take Me In," a song that Bob released on the 2014 album "Ride Out," that he dedicated to his wife. No one left disappointed. The rain held off just long enough to allow us to slalom our way safely out the other side of Pine Knob Road as the clock struck midnight.

Seger Country. 8:50pm on a late June evening at Pine Knob.