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An evening with Jake Clemons

jake1Last week I wrote that Jake Clemons is coming to town, and tonight we enjoyed spending some time listening to him sing and play the guitar, as well as finishing up the evening with a bit of sax music.

I really enjoyed myself, but my wife wasn’t very comfortable there. She had an expectation that because he’s a sax player that we’d be at some kind of fine-dining establishment with him playing sax in the background, with about 500 people attending.

Intead, it was an ‘intimate evening’, as Jake described it, in a very small cafe in suburban Canberra with maybe 50 people. It’s a popular hangout for uni students and long-haired hippies who don’t know how to shave or have showers. Thankfully they sat outside, their body odour wafting in the open door only a couple times. Also thankfully, all those who were inside for the performance at least showered for the event.

That’s right, we’re not unwashed hippies, which is why she was a little uncomfortable. It’s just not the kind of place we ever hang out.

But at least the music and the performance was good. We thought we knew what to expect because we’ve seen Jake play in the E Street Band when we saw Bruce Springsteen in concert in early 2013 (Jake missed the Sydney concert when they came back for another tour in early 2014), but on this intimate occasion it was very different.

He’s on a small tour to promote his new Bittersweet album, and he’s travelling around Australia as part of the tour. During his performance it was very clear that he’s picked up a lot of his personal style from being with Bruce Springsteen. The music was folksy with some light rock thrown in, along with some soft melodies intermixed with loud choruses. He also picked up a very popular story-telling habit from Springsteen, and in between every song Jake told a story about experiences of his life that inspired the song.

I really loved it, and I’m thankful I went. I think by the end of it Fanfan enjoyed herself too!

usandjakeclemons


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