I had the privilege of seeing Billy Bragg at The Fillmore here in San Francisco on June 11th, 2008. I had seen him briefly before at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in the Golden Gate park but nothing like this. This time I was right up front and center and it was amazing.
Billy Bragg is a new found love for me, I know there are die-hards out there that may say this show was too soft, well I dug it. His new album “Mr Love & Justice” is a great album and I especially like the solo acoustic version of the album you get when you buy the CD. Yes I bought music. Billy’s ability to tell a story through his lyrics and music is astonishing and his views on the world were also a delight and inspiration. There are not too many prolific song writers out there anymore and I consider him one of them.
For me what blew me away was here is one guy with a electric and acoustic guitar and he had the audience’s full attention. No band , no electronics, just pure song writing. This was an inspiration for me. I have been trying to put together a band for some time now, not making it my full mission in life but putting some time into it, with little to no success. This inspired me to maybe forget about the other players and just play myself. Take some singing lessons and get out there and whale.
I will let you know how this goes in the coming months. First goal is the start taking some singing lessons.
all good points.
i was struck hard by bill’s mission to connect with the audience personally. real few rawk and roll performers think that’s important. most put on their show, put on their ego, put on lipstick, hire a light show.
his point that what really matters is what we do when we leave the building — i used to hear that in church. i was glad to hear it now in a place with beer.
> [some] may say this show was too soft
what show are they comparing it to? soft compared to … someone who is not billy bragg? bragg solo is as brash as he gets … maybe they’re saying him vs. an AC/DC cover band.
Right on…
Yeah I got the same reaction to the
…comment, but then we didn’t breakout grape juice and saltines so I knew we were not at church.
Well maybe there was not enough angst in his songs as previous shows? Maybe that’s a good thing…