Orel Family

Stevie Wonder at Little Caesar's Arena, Detroit. October 22, 2024 I've seen Stevie Wonder several times over the past 40 years, going back to a stadium show in Malmö, Sweden, that I remember mostly for getting there in the first place, and then for him doing a hilarious - and spot-on -- Jackson 5 medley. So it seemed almost a surprise to realize it's been almost a decade since I've seen him headline a show . Not that there have been many opportunities; he's basically been off the road since then. This tour was only announced 5 weeks ago, and covers just 10 dates, mostly in election battleground states. But don't accuse Stevie of lacking preparation! Stevie came in with a full band and horn section, a 20+ person orchestra, and was supported on some songs by a local choir. By the time of the finale, "Another Star," there were more than 50 people on the stage -- and somehow it all worked. There was a clear political tone to parts of the show. Before the...

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, March 29, 2023, Detroit It wasn't so long ago that Bruce Springsteen coming to Michigan to play was pretty much an annual event. Every year from 2002 through 2009, Bruce made at least one appearance in the Great Lakes State. But after Bruce infamously forgot where he was during that 2009 show at The Palace of Auburn Hills , his appearances here have been rare. Last night's appearance with the E Street Band at Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit marked just his 2nd appearance in Michigan in the past decade, and was his first in the city of Detroit since 2005. Which is to say, it's been a moment. Things have happened. But more to the point: Springsteen & E Street Band -- the graphics for this tour can't be bothered with first names or definite articles -- were in town last night for a show, and this is what I witnessed. Smile for the camera! Ezra (and the hat) with Bruce in Detroit Just before 7:45pm the lights dimmed. I was s...

Aaron and Ezra along the Dequindre Cut, June 6, 2020. At Milliken State Park, Detroit, June 6, 2020 The first big march that I remember attending was in 1983. I had a summer job in Washington, DC, and the parking garage I used was just off the mall. Attending the 20th Anniversary of the March on Washington was easy. That's mostly what I remember: it was easy. There was no risk. Many of the speakers that day had also been at the original event in 1963, but I confess I don't remember any of them, or even if I ever got close enough to hear them. For me, anyway, it was more of a festival event than one of risk. Civil rights that were dreams in 1963 seemed, if not yet assured, at least  expected  by 1983. In 2020, my expectations have been battered. In a stunningly fast sequence, we've seen evidence of the dangers of jogging while black , sleeping while black , birding while black , and, finally, breathing while black . The protests started almost immediately aft...

Bruce Springsteen at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, March 28, 1988.  Photo by Ken Settle.   http://www.kensettlephotography.com   Legend has it that the first time Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band ever played Detroit, one of his amps literally blew up. Other area shows over the years have seen milestones, from the first-ever “Detroit Medley” to guest appearances by Bob Seger, Mitch Ryder, and Martha Reeves. And in 2009, Springsteen thought he was in Ohio (Little Steven set him straight) only to return in 2012 to announce, “I know where the fuck I am!” Bruce Springsteen shreds the solo for "Adam Raised a Cain" at Joe Lewis Arena in Detroit, March 28, 1988. Photo by Ken Settle.  http://www.kensettlephotography.com   In 1988, Bruce came to Detroit a day early for the band’s two-night stand, taking in Terence Trent D’Arby’s show in suburban Royal Oak the evening before his first Joe Louis Arena performance — that’s today’s Live Archive release ...

Who would combine the best rock show in ages, with a lesson plan? There is only one person I can think of: Little Steven. Last night, Stevie brought The Disciples of Soul Teacher Appreciation Tour to the Detroit Music Hall. Promising to "leave all politics aside," the show, according to Steve, "took a little trip down my influences, which also happens to be the history of Rock and Roll" The Disciples of Soul  total 15 musicians. Some go way back with Steve: Eddie Manion and Stan Harrison were not only part of the original Disciples of Soul, they were part of the great  Asbury Jukes  recordings and shows before that. Many of the other players weren't born until long after those records had been made. Before the show, there was a TeachRock workshop  on how teachers could use music to engage their students. Not being a teacher myself, I wasn't eligible. But Aaron was; he's primarily still a college student, but he has also been involved on the teac...

Yesterday was an awful day. It started with news of a horrific massacre, and continued with the death of Tom Petty . It was difficult to stand at the brand new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, just to enjoy a music show, without thinking about people doing virtually the same thing across the country just 24 hours previously, or about a rock icon who surely would have visited this stage soon. But we create our own islands, sometimes. Walking across Detroit, stopping off at a taco stand , enjoying the warm October day in the plaza outside the arena, we had our island. Inside the arena, mash-ups of Beatles songs and covers of Beatles songs helped prepare for Paul McCartney's concert. Paul was 21 when he first toured the United States, playing shows that didn't even last 45 minutes. Last night, at age 75, he played the last US show of the latest tour, playing nearly 40 songs,  and after 3 hours he didn't even look tired. Paul's voice isn't what it once was,...

All around Detroit this weekend, there was music. Music everywhere. Swinging and swaying and people playing. As Bono said from the stage at Ford Field last night, "Detroit. City of History. City of the Future." The past few days, the River Walk and Woodward and the eateries have been packed, from mid-afternoon until well after midnight. The mood has been festive. It feels like the City Of Now. Herbie Hancock. September 1, 2017. Aaron with John Patitucci, September 2, 2017. The Detroit Jazz Festival has been running all weekend. Aaron came in from Central Michigan University to see the shows. By Friday evening, we were downtown to catch the headliners : Wayne Shorter , then Miles Mosley , and then Herbie Hancock . The stage setup at Campus Martius made it difficult for me to see anything other than the video monitor until the final few minutes of Hancock's set, but the sound was perfect, the audience was grooving, and the music was, as Hancock said to descr...

The QLine approaches the Southern terminus at Woodward and Congress On New Year's Eve I was in New York City with my family. We went to see "The Mikado" on the Hunter College campus, taking the subway to get there and getting off at a nearby subway stop along Lexington Ave. I might have been the only adult in the audience not aware that the very next day, that same station would be opening up to Phase 1 of the Second Avenue Subway , served by the Q Line. It was a very big deal  in New York; a line was even inserted in to "I've Got a Little List" to note the occasion. Of course, New York has dozens of subway lines, and nearly 500 subway stations . I looked it up. Detroit has... The People Mover . A 3 mile elevated one direction loop (it's currently clockwise) around parts of the downtown, a concrete eye-sore used by virtually nobody except during the annual North American International Auto Show and for Red Wings games; with the Red Wings moving...

Roger McGuinn at the Michigan Theater, May 16, 2015 How often do we get to see the master and arguably his greatest interpreter back-to-back? Not too often, I don't think. So off we were Friday to see Bob Dylan at the Fox Theater in Detroit , and Roger McGuinn at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor the next evening. Dylan, of course, has been charting his own path as a performer for... well, forever. These days, he's not altering his setlists, so a quick look at his most recent performances on his official website  -- even though it was two weeks out of date -- gave a fairly precise idea of what he was going to play. I was "busted" for taking this snapshot of Bob and the band. As with the last time I saw Dylan at the Fox in 2012 , the stage was dark, dark, dark. "Photography is Strictly Prohibited" signs were posted approximately every 3 feet, and the staff were instructed to enforce just as strictly (I was "busted" after taking a pictu...

I Played the Fool The first time I saw Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes , I hadn't yet seen my first Springsteen concert. It was May, 1980, I was a high school senior in New Jersey, and the Great Adventure Amusement Park had an event called "senior night" aimed at us on warm Friday evening. Mt. St. Helens had recently erupted , and as the volcanic ash drifted eastward we'd get glorious sunsets unlike anything we'd ever seen. After school that day we wedged many of us in to two small cars and headed down the New Jersey Turnpike to exit 7A, and eventually to the amphitheater, which was basically a round concrete slab with a stage on one side. Southside performed 3 shows that evening, though we went only to the first. The band featured the famed horns, as well as "The Girls," decked out in spandex suits. So I can say that I saw Patti Scialfa perform live before I saw Bruce Springsteen perform live. That first show, I couldn't even persuade...

Bob Dylan and his band. Last night I saw  Bob Dylan  and  Mark Knopfler  play at Detroit's Fox Theater.  The concert had originally been planned for the Palace of Auburn Hills, but was moved to the Fox -- a much smaller venue that's also a far superior concert hall. For Dylan to go on stage with a 2nd act of equal or near-equal fan popularity is nothing new; on previous tours we've seen Merle Haggard open for him, and one time out Bob himself played the opening act for Santana .  I blogged two of his previous local concerts; in  2006  at the Palace, and in  2007  at Freedom Hill. But I hadn't seen Dylan since a 2009 show at the Fox that was most memorable to me not for what happened on stage, but rather to the would-be groupie sitting next to us; she turned on, lit up, and got kicked out, all within about 3 minutes, and that kind of lent an ironic twist to Highway 61 Revisited that evening. Mark Knopfler Mark Knopfler and hi...