15 July 2022 (gig)
14 July 2022
Singer, songwriter, and troubadour, Jackson Browne was one of the brighest lights of the '70s and '80s music scene.
In addition to his career in music, he has always been an active participant in social causes and was one of the main organizers (alongside John Hall, Bonnie Raitt, and Graham Nash) of the "No Nukes" concerts in 1979.
Browne performed at the Leader Bank Pavillion in Boston, Massachusetts on July 14, 2022.
The 73-year-old Browne opened strongly with one of his most recognizable mainstream songs, "Somebody's Baby", which was used during a couple of pivotal carnal moments in the 1982 teen comedy film classic, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (which conicidently celebrates its 40th anniversary this year), opening the show on a major high note.
He followed up with "The Barricades of Heaven" from his 1996 disc, "Looking East", a truly unusual cut. The song has Browne lightly referencing some lyrics from his smash "Running on Empty" tune in a way that takes the listener back to when he was searching out his song creations on the radio ("Running down around the towns along the shore/When I was sixteen and on my own/No, I couldn't tell you what the hell those brakes were for/I was just trying to hear my song"). It is not a sequel to "Running on Empty", but more of a nostalgic looking back at the early days of his career (kind of like Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69", but much more introspective than Adams' light pop-gem).
Browne's aforementioned activism was front and center on 2014's "The Long Way Around", where he subtely lashes out big corporations ("I could feel my memory letting go some two or three disasters ago/It's hard to say which did more ill/Citizens United or the Gulf oil spill") and the once again hot topic of gun laws ("It's never been that hard to buy a gun/Now they'll sell a Glock 19 to just about anyone").
One of Browne's most touching cuts, "In The Shape of a Heart", is a loving tribute to a past lover (Browne had admitted the song is about his first wife, Phyllis Major) and was one of the night's most moving moments. The first set ended with a cover of Steven Van Zant's "I Am a Patriot".
The second half of the show focused on Browne's earlier material and resulted in a myriad of highlights. It is impossible to not feel emotional as he played his 1974 masterpiece "For a Dancer" (allegedly concerning a friend of Browne's who perished in a fire), which bled seamlessly into a newer song, "The Dreamer" (a tale of one immigrating to the America).
To finish out the set, Browne rallied with his A+ material, beginning with the radio staple "Doctor My Eyes", and the title track from 1974's "Late for the Sky". An epic version of "The Pretender" gave way to "Running on Empty", an iconic driving song that is unquestionably the best entry in Browne's catalog.
Browne returned for a pair of encores, starting with "Take It Easy" (technically an Eagles cover, but Browne actually penned the song with late Eagles co-founder Glen Frey) and "Our Lady of the Well".
The last encore ended perfectly with the saga of life-on-the-road cuts, "The Load-Out" and Browne's interpretation of "Stay". Though Browne never reached the dizzying heights of his friends in The Eagles, his song canon of first-rate tracks are certainly as notable as theirs.
