Pixies, The Boss, and Wilco: Concert Updates

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 28, 2009 3:20PM

We remember being in London a few years ago, looking for concerts to hit, and we saw The Lemonheads were performing It's A Shame About Ray from start to finish. "Cool!," we thought, "What a great idea! We hope this catches on!" Well, a few years down the road the format has not only caught on, it's become an outright pandemic. When done correctly it can thrill, and when it's not, it can ruin our memory of a particular album for a while.

Bruce Springsteen announced yesterday that his Chicago stop on September 20 at the United Center will feature he and The E Street Band playing his masterpiece of an album Born To Run in it's entirety. Since Bruce has basically been a nostalgia act since, oh, 1985, we're cool with this notion, although we wonder if he'll make everyone start "Jungleland" over and over again if they don't get through it perfectly from start to finish. However tickets to the show run $65 to $98 BEFORE service fees so we'll probably just stick with our vinyl copy of the album and skip the show. Unless that "Jungleland" scenario we described above happens and Clarence Clemons decks The Boss. If we miss that, we'd be pretty pissed.

The Pixes just announced their Chicago dates for their own nostalgia tour including a performance of their masterpiece Doolittle in its entirety. They get points against them for playing in the echo chamber that is the Aragon Ballroom (again) on November 21 and 22, but you can probably count on us being in the crowd anyway. Maybe the acoustics will add a spectral sheen to "I Bleed." Tickets go on sale September 12.

Finally Wilco announced a second Chicago date on October 19 at the UIC Pavilion. Tickets for that will run you $40+, but the price is well worth it to see one of the finest live bands currently in existence. Take our word on this, even if you haven't been digging their recent albums because you think the band is getting sleepy, on-stage the quintet is turning into a powerhouse hellbent on creating its own mythos.