Steve Earle and the Dukes tour

[Brian]

Steve Earle and the Dukes kick off a three-month U.S. tour tomorrow in Fort Worth, Texas.  They hit L.A. County on June 17 to play the Canyon in Agoura Hills and June 18 at El Rey on Wilshire Boulevard.  Tickets are still available from Ticketmaster for the Canyon:

www.ticketmaster.com/Steve-Earle-the-Dukes-tickets/artist/852406

Anni and I have longed to see Steve with the band. For nearly two decades, he came to town when we couldn't go for various reasons. Finally, two years ago, we caught him onstage at Royce Hall in an acoustic show with his soon to be ex-wife. I've developed quite a wish list of songs I'm hoping he'll play. "Somewhere Out There" is one of my all time favorites -- here's a bootleg of his appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" with the 1997 Dukes, plus Buddy Miller on lead guitar:



You'll find more Steve Earle videos on this page on this Montrose Peace Vigil message board dedicated to his new album:

montrosepeacevigil.proboards.com/thread/435/steve-earle-rocking-walking-blues

[Brian]

A few late night raw facts after watching Steve Earle and the Dukes perform at the Canyon in Agoura Hills, California on June 17:

• For the fourth show of the tour, they played 31 songs in two and a quarter hours.
• They kicked off with four songs from the new album, "Terraplane."
• Steve's huge early career hits -- "Someday," "Guitar Town" and "Copperhead Road" -- were lumped together soon thereafter.
• Everybody in the five-piece band is a multi-instrumentalist.
• Steve and the band redefined two classic songs for us.  Jimi Hendrix' "Hey Joe," which closed the main set, was the last song listed on the band's setlist taped to the floor onstage.  Donovan's "There Is a Mountain" followed "Remember Me" in the first encore.
• The second encore, unexpected by many in the audience, led off with the only political song of the evening, "The Revolution Starts Now."
• Then they finished with "Wild Thing."
• Dozens of people gathered around the merch table afterwards to meet Steve and bass player Kelly Looney, who's been with Steve since 1988.

If anyone would like to see the setlist, let me know and I will post it.

[Brian]

This high quality video was shot by David Sell at the Canyon on June 17.

Anni and I have driven to Agoura Hills for many years to see our favorite artists of all time at the Canyon, where things seldom changed.  The seating has scrunched up as the enterprise has become more successful, but the mediocre dinners you're required buy to sit down and the famous bad service have been a constant.  Our biggest complaints usually revolved around the belligerent phone reservation people who sometimes did not deliver.  As a public service, I offer some good news from our trip last month.

The biggest change is assigned seating when you buy tickets on Ticketmaster.  Even the poor hostess stressing about her first night on the job, who tried to place us in the wrong seats, could not mess up -- because we knew exactly where we belonged.  Our server was an old pro at the Canyon, but that night happened to be the first one when everybody's dinner orders had to be entered on iPods.  She handled the new process, and we got the same Stouffer's lasagna and salmon in some kind of sauce.

We're glad that the Canyon is finally improving, because we know we'll be back.  A microwave dinner that comes with a chair and table is always better than standing at venues like El Rey and the Roxy for four hours.  That has been the only choice these days for seeing acts like Ian Hunter and the Rant Band, Ray Davies, Dave Davies, The Tubes and Steve Earle and the Dukes in Los Angeles County.