Steve Miller, Johnny Cougar give the people what they want

What made The Steve Miller Band's show Tuesday night at the Ector County Coliseum so thoroughly enjoyable was that it was obvious the guys on stage were having loads of fun. The fact that they had a wide body of work no doubt helped plenty, but at 2 hours and 15 minutes, Miller and his band went way beyond just punching in, working a shift and punching out.

It wasn't a perfect show -- why Miller decided to sing "The Joker" twice (once acoustic and once with the band) was a little puzzling, and the straight on video shot of him playing on the jumbo screen made it look like the veteran rocker was auditioning for "American Idol" -- but it was the best fundraiser for the Ector County Education Foundation in at least four years, maybe longer. With more spontaneity than Huey Lewis and a higher energy level than Chicago, Miller's performance had to be among the best in the immediate past history of the series.

What worked so well, too, was Miller's sharing of the spotlight. Sonny Charles, a bluesman from 1960s Indiana, signed on to tour with Miller last year and when the band broke into some gorgeous electric blues in the middle of the set, it was without question one of a couple of high points of the evening, the other being a raucous version of "Fly Like an Eagle," featuring fiery dueling guitar solos, and the exceptional amount of fun that was being had on "Take the Money and Run." By the time the Dallas native broke into "Money," people were up and dancing.

Miller was gracious and conversational and the array of guitars brought to him by a stagehand -- seemingly a new one before each song -- showed why he has been called Stevie Guitar Miller. I don't know how you define a nostalgia rock act, the kind the ECISD foundation has been bringing in, but it the definition includes that they have no new music of late, the way these older era musicians perform, the effor they put into what they do and the fun they have must be determining factors in setting apart the average from the memorable.

Steve Miller was a hit and judging by the crowd's reaction, one who flew higher than an eagle. Sorry. Had to go there.

THE BOB DYLAN SHOW
   On the other hand, Saturday in Lubbock was the mixed bag known as The Bob Dylan Show, three old hands who are in the middle of a barnstorming tour of stadiums (tonight's show in Arizona, btw, cancelled due to extreme heat). Last weekend's concert can be summed up fairly simply: Willie was Willie, Dylan was invisible and Mellencamp was memorable, saving the show with the kind of energy only someone formerly named Johnny Cougar could provide.

Watching Willie is like going to a museum to watch the Mona Lisa, and there once was even somewhat of a resemblance. You know you're watching art history and while you might have marveled at it more 30 or 40 years ago, you still appreciate it for what it is and the beauty of it all today. We don't know how much longer we'll have the 76-year-old singer around; he moves a little more slowly than he used to and he no longer unfurls the Texas flag at the outset of the show, but hey ... Willie is Willie and seasoned Texas concert-goers know they are watching an American treasure.

It was a disappointment, maybe even a huge disappointment, that the artist for which this tour was named was so mysterious. While Willie and Mellencamp came to the front of the stage like a star is supposed to do, Dylan for some reason used the occasion to blend in with his band. He was hard if not impossible to see and if you don't know his lyrics, it's likely you wouldn't know what he was singing. I regret not liking this show because he is a huge, huge piece of modern music history, and the musicianship of the band was exceptional, but Dylan's absence was so noticable that if you told me he really wasn't there and the vocals had been piped in, I'd probably believe you. His choice of tunes, too, was odd: a summer nostalgia tour during which each act played about an hour, tops, made his decision to include the almost 8-minute "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again," a song that never charted, rather odd.

Mellencamp, though, was unquestionably the high point. His volumes of midwestern angst and rebellion, and subtle lyrics that hide behind what at first sounds like anthemic odes to man and country, put him, along with Springsteen, as an obvious successor to Dylan; Mellencamp, once shed of the Johnny Cougar image and beyond his 'Jack and Diane,' days, turned into a voice for his generation, my generation. You might not always like what he has to say, but he has at least had the backbone to say it. While I likely wouldn't travel 100 miles to watch Dylan again, I would easily travel twice that distance and pay maybe  twice as much for a longer set from this Indiana roots rocker. He simply saved the Bob Dylan Show.

Photo: A fuzzy picture from an iPhone of Steve Miller, seen on the jumbo screen at right.

Comments

[Crissy]

Steve Miller was incredible!! I was on the other side of the stage! It was great to see people dancing and having a good time to the music. I had never heard of Sonny Charles, but he threw down!! If we were still doing the blues festival wouldn't he be great!!!

Things have been stressful for you of late - hope you and your family are doing well!

[Dennis]

Steve and band were really great. Thanks for writing a review that the OA failed to do. CBS7 did do a good recap on it last night, though. I have to disagree on one point. Chicago was every bit as enthusiastic as TSMB, IMHO.

[Jimmy]

Enthusiastic yes. High energy ... not sure.

[Jimmy]

Hi Crissy ... Glad you had a good time. Was hoping I might see you dancing on a tabletop too ... maybe next year for whoever they bring in. Don't disappointment me, K? :)

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[Noemi M Barajas]

Had the pleasure of seeing Mellencamp here in Lubbock, He was so AWESOME!!!Hope Graces us by coming this way again!!!