You see, this is one of the problems with charging people $40-60 per ticket to see pretty much anybody nowadays. There was a time not too long ago when if you spent $10-20 on a show and the show turned out to be shambolic, you could get a kick out of the fact that you were watching somebody disintegrate right in front of you. Now, Jewel goes strung out on Paxil + Zoloft + bourbon (or some similar concoction, whatever the "kids" are doing nowadays) and everybody's just pissed about it. Meanwhile, over on her official forum, there's a guy who gives a lengthy diatribe about the show over several posts (maybe they have a word limit per post). Get Jewel on tour with Whitney. pronto.
From the article: So nasty, gnarled, wannabe-British teeth are fine. But no teeth? Well that's just a plain sick in Jewel's book.
I can't name one Jewel song but after reading that article, I'm pissed that I missed it. It sounds like a wickedly entertaining show. Jewel's ramblings sound bizarre and amusing and watching the crowds' reaction to those ramblings would have been hilarious. Murf
Let me provide some other examples I've seen of shows gone bad: -- Bob Dylan at the Garden State Arts Center, circa 1992 or thereabouts. $12 on the lawn to watch The Bob forget the words to "Subterranean Homesick Blues". He had a bottle of liquor on the drumkit that he swigged from repeatedly and needed help from his lead guitarist to get off the stage after 70 minutes. -- The Beautiful South at The Ritz (formerly Studio 54) in NYC, about 1994. $15 to watch Brianna Corrigan quit the band mid-set, only to return to the tour a couple of days later and then a week after that quit for good. Before walking off she told everyone she thought Paul Heaton was a "[expletive] lout", which of course he is. TBS has lost three female singers in its 10+ years of existence. -- Crowded House at the American Theater in St. Louis, $15 in 1995 to watch somebody who knew none of their songs fill in on drums the day after Paul Hester quit mid-show in Chicago (I think). After a short while Neil & Nick told the poor guy to "go get a beer" and did a long decent acoustic set, after which another drummer (Sheryl Crow's drummer, to be exact - she was their opening act) came out and did a better job. But that show ended with Nick hitting a security guard with the back of his bass in a fight over where fans could stand, and then running offstage when the guard decided to come after him. -- Shane McGowan at the Guinness Fleadh, somewhere around 1997-98. A sweltering hot all-day affair on Randall's Island ended with Shane rambling out on stage with drink in hand, falling over several times, telling the crowd that he could take on the US Army and Navy singlehandedly, and his band huddling around him and insisting that he sing (which he eventually did, kinda, in that lovable Shane McGowan way). The best moment was at the end, after the most incoherent set I've ever seen from anyone aywhere, he insisted that everyone drive home safely and not drive drunk.
This is what you always hear about Bob Dylan - that he's drunk when he gives his concerts. To be honest, I don't think this happened just because it's SO typical to say something "Dylan was wasted, etc..I remember I heard EVERYONE say how drunk he was when he accepted his Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 1991 - I have it on tape. He wasn't. Then again, I don't think you're lying either. A veritable paradoxical situation. I about as big a fan of the guy as you can get - I've seen him around 35 times in the last 10 years and 36 in the last 13. I've never once seen him forget a lyric, drink alcohol on stage or even do anything out of the ordinary. The closest he came was UVA in 1992 when he played on his harmonica, the microphone wasn't working. At the end of the song he said (and he rarely talks to the audience from my experience): "Well, I was...uh...playin' a little harmonica there....sorry you didn't get to hear it."
Hell, have a quadruple bill with Mariah and Courtney. And let them decide who headlines. Should be fun. Reading the thread you linked, it seems she wants a coffeeshop vibe at her concerts. Yet, she is playing a casino. Also, to read the word "sell out" from fans of any artist on a major label is hi-larious. I liked Jewel's first song, "Who Will Save Your Soul". Otherwise, everything she's put out since has been crappy, crappier or crappierer.
Hmmmm, I saw a Hester-less Crowded House in 1994 in Nashville. I was told he had quit the day before, in Atlanta. Then, when I saw Neil Finn a couple of years ago in the ATL at the Variety Playhouse, he mentioned something about playing a show at Variety when they lost their drummer, or the last show with their drummer, or something to that effect. EDIT: Sure enough, check out 4/14/1994.... http://www.etext.org/Mailing.Lists/house/timeline.html
Which reminds me - does anyone else remember the hissyfit she had because Kurt Loder pointed out to her that "casualty" is not the noun form of "casual"?
That's really something, because seeing Indy as the night before brings up the whole exchange between audience & band. Somebody called out "where's Paul?" after the first song, and Neil responded that they left him in Indianapolis the night before. People laughed and he then said no seriously, he's decided to go his own way. It must have been his standard-issue response to say he had quit the day before but I thought he was serious. You happened to be at the show where it really was true. Apparently, they went through three drummers in four weeks.
I've seen Dylan four times and this is the only time that I'd say he was drinking. One of those times he was OK, one was very good, and one was amazing (the tour when Patti Smith opened). This one show at the GSAC in particular, however, he definitely had something wrong with him.
What's the over/under on Jewel winding up in Playboy? I give it a year.... Some notable concerts gone bad that I've attended. 3) John Cougar Mellencamp at McDonough Arena at Georgetown U. He was warming up for the Pretenders. Came out on stage with his acoustic guitar and a barstool . Tried to sit on the barstool and did a face plant. He was so fooked up they had to lead him off the stage so he wouldn't fall over the edge. 2) The Kinks at DAR Constitution Hall, Washington DC. One of the most bizarre/funny things I've ever seen. Towards the end of the show the bass player walks over and hocks a lugi at the drummer. They finish their set, walk off to the side of the stage and proceed to smack the crap out of each other. About five minutes go by, they come out do one encore song and storm off stage. I laughed all the way home.... 1) Sly and the Family Stone. Capital Centre, Landover,MD. My bad for not listening to my best friend. He told me they were habitual no-shows. After sitting in a sold out arena for a half hour with my buzz peaking, the house lights come on and the announcement is made that Sly ain't no where to be found. Show's over, goodnight! 16,000 people go nuts. Riot ensues, state troopers cracking skulls. Barely got outta there with my ass intact. Ah, the good 'ol days......
Unfortunate comment though it was, I have to agree with Danks here. Sans the "lungs", I'd have stopped watching her long ago. At that, I still pretty much stopped watching her long ago. As for worst concerts, I went to a Run DMC concert in Stamford about a year prior to Jam Master Jay's death where they stopped the show about 4 times to have them turn the house lights up so they could look for the black people in the audience. I'm only saying this because that's what they said, over the mic. Now, Connecticut is basically East Utah in terms of white folks, so of the 200 people there about 150 or more were of the caucasian persuasion. So, they spent the rest of the concert half @ssing their way through the set while berating us between songs, saying stuff like "at least we only had to drive 40 miles for this". Now, it didn't bother me in a personal sense, but if there weren't enough african americans there I think that has more to do with them not putting out many great albums recently than anything else. I think blaming the white people who did turn up was a particulary poor choice of attitudes to take. Especially since it belittled the few african americans who were there. Did any of them really turn up to listen to their heroes yell at white people? Doubtful. After the show I was in line getting my t-shirt signed and a guy in front of me (who was black) held his shirt out to be signed and while Darryl (DMC) was signing it, the guy said "I love you guys! I've been fans of you since back in the day!" to which DMC replied "Yeah, right." three times in a row. Why would you say that to a fan? To a guy who bought tickets to your show, then bought a $ 15 t-shirt, then waited 30 minutes to get it signed? It seemed really petty. I didn't know that guy from adam, but he was standing behind me in the concert the whole time yelling "It's 1985!!"- as if to suggest it was just like back in the glory days. That you would go out of your way to piss on your fans like that- even on the african americans- was shocking to me. Especially after you just spent 90 minutes lacing barbs at the audience into your 'greatest hits of 15 years ago' show. Not sure what they were upset about, maybe it was just an off day, but they really let everyone down that night. Sounds like Jewel had a similar bummer of a performance.
Crazy chicks are the f-u-ck of the century apparently... At least that's what a friend of mine tells me.
I've seen him about 15 times and while I can't recall him forgetting a lyric, I have seen him twice sing the same verse twice. Once with Tangled Up in Blue and the other time with Desolation Row. Murf
So basically, he acted like your typical Irishman. Yeah, Jewel's gotta nice rack, I'd hit it. Two time. .
Somehow I was hoping her tits would be part of this story, what a let down. As mention before by others, man she has a great rack.