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I saw Steve earlier this year at the Roundhouse, Camden, London and although it was a real pleasure to see him live I was left dissapointed (I actually left before the end of the show).  The reason?...the DJ!

A couple of days after the show I spotted the following review of the gig I attended from The Times newspaper:

"Emerging alone beneath the vast dome of the Roundhouse in jeans and a plain green shirt, Steve Earle looks like someone who has arrived to fix a washing machine, rather than the man who reclaimed roots rock in the 1980s and cleared the path for the alt-country generation. Earle’s angry 2004 album, The Revolution Starts Now, was a superb example of the Hardcore Troubadour and friends in full country-grunge mode, but here the absence of any accompanists is desperately evident in songs such as The Devil’s Right Hand, as increasingly brutal downstrokes of the guitar struggle to fill a void. In contrast, the gentler, finger-picked numbers, including Earle’s signature song, My Old Friend the Blues, give the Roundhouse the intimate feel of a folk club. Then a large, pear-shaped man in black arrives, portending doom, to provide programmed beats for selections from last year’s Washington Square Serenade album. Earle decamped to New York to walk the streets that shaped the 1960s protest singers, and tonight we’re treated to a cut-and-paste Big Apple of downtown A-trains, Alphabet City and Seventh Avenue, over a budget backdrop that sounds like a 1992 trip-hop version of the Steve Earle sound. In the now restless standing area before the stage, even elderly Uncut magazine subscribers recognise this hybrid as an ill-advised experiment.

We should admire an established artist such as Earle for challenging his audience 30 years into his career, but only an unaugmented Sparkle and Shine really sparkled and shone. Even Earle’s wife and opening act, Allison Moorer, looked shifty during her vocal contributions to the latin-flavoured, genre-crossing City of Immigrants. Earle was alone again for a closing run of crowd pleasers, but the room had already thinned around the edges when he took up the mandolin for a beautiful version of The Galway Girl, reminding us what he’s capable of."

I absolutely love Steve's music but won't be going to see him live again if he continues on this path.

Sack the DJ!

coopermoto:

I absolutely love Steve's music but won't be going to see him live again if he continues on this path.

Sack the DJ!

STOP WHINING! If Steve would have listened to what people have told him what he could or could not to over the years he would have been just another boring old fart smiling at the CMT mafia.

 

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kmb117:

We don't have a cure for cancer but we've got 16 million different versions of the Lord of the Rings. What. The. Fuck.

I would love to see Steve with any companions (especially as I have never seen him) but the DJ really doesn't seem to be popular and I agree.

Sing "Come back Kelley Looney, come back to us now..." next time. 

Since so many seem to have problems accepting that Steve does whatever the hell he wants to do musically. And especially since the hate for "the DJ" has taken almost Dylan era 1965'esque-proportions, why don't y'all post your whining in this thread so I don't have to read it in every other thread. Thanks.

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kmb117:

We don't have a cure for cancer but we've got 16 million different versions of the Lord of the Rings. What. The. Fuck.

Viky:

I would love to see Steve with any companions (especially as I have never seen him) but the DJ really doesn't seem to be popular and I agree.

Sing "Come back Kelley Looney, come back to us now..." next time. 

http://steveearle.com/forums/251/ShowThread.aspx#251 

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kmb117:

We don't have a cure for cancer but we've got 16 million different versions of the Lord of the Rings. What. The. Fuck.

[:'(][:'(][:'(][:'(][:'(]

I'm presuming this has everything to do with the style of music on 'Washington S. S.' .

 I'll say this, when I first heard that Steve was going to release an album with basically Drum n Bass and a DJ, I reckon I must have visibly winced!!! When I first saw a video of Steve performing 'City of Immigrants' (on Letterman I think) I thought, hey, The DJ doesnt seem to be too prominent in the mix this aint bad.  When I heard the album and realised there where other songs where the DJ'ing was VERY prevalent in the mix I thought "How refreshing, this works!!". When I saw Steve Live the other month with just him and the DJ and on a few songs with Alison I have to say it worked TOTALLY for me.

The WSS songs were some of the strongest songs in the set.

Steve has always ben known for pushing the boundaries of popular and country music which is presumably why we like Steve's work so much, I cannot understand why there would be so much whineing over this production??

 

Best

Mick 

TheUnrepentant:

Steve has always ben known for pushing the boundaries of popular and country music which is presumably why we like Steve's work so much, I cannot understand why there would be so much whineing over this production??

Because all change is bad and we should renounce it in all it's forms.

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'I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out.' Bill Hicks (R.I.P.)

Hasn't Steve used drum machines/samples since Copperhead Road (You Belong To Me)?  Is this really a shock to everyone?

jasoncubarhodes:

Hasn't Steve used drum machines/samples since Copperhead Road (You Belong To Me)?  Is this really a shock to everyone?

 

Not to 'everyone', no. But to a select few, and they just loooooooooooooooove to go on & on & on & on about it. 

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kmb117:

We don't have a cure for cancer but we've got 16 million different versions of the Lord of the Rings. What. The. Fuck.

The real unrepentant is Rich Baxter!!! :-))

But he uses "_" after the "the", so it won't make any confusion :D
 

I haven't had the pleasure ... horror??? ... of the DJ experience. But I've seen Steve with two or three different versions of the Dukes and I've seen him solo, and bar far, solo was the best. If it's true that the ultimate measure of a song is how does it work solo on an acoustic guitar, then Steve is the classic example. Sure he rocks, and he's a hell of a guitarist, but I think in his heart of hearts, Steve is simply most at home with an acoustic guitar. He's as close to perfect as I've ever seen or heard. But, it's his show, and if he wants to go with the drum machine, who the hell am I to knock it. I think anyone who would not go to Steve Earle show because of the DJ is the same person who would cut off their nose to spite their face.

I understand the love for solo performances but I usually prefer the rich full band sound. And 1996 Dukes are absolutely the best!

It's not any knocking at me. Just a personal preference.
 

The two buddies I jam with every week saw him in Toronto. Neither complained about the DJ, except to say the the show was a bit less than the "spectacle" you might expect in a big venue. For real live music freaks and musicians, sometimes being able to watch the other members of the band play really adds something to the show, and I gather a few of the songs suffered some, but what the hell - let Steve do his thing. He will anyway.

I'd still love to see him again - I saw one of the shows that made up the "Shut Up and Die Like an Aviator" record, but despite being thisclose to being able to go to one of his shows on a couple of other occasions, the timing just hasn't worked out. 

Like a few of the other posters, I think he is great with just his guitar. My dream Steve Earle show would be for him to pick a few tunes in my living room! (You listening Steve? )

Funny, that's what Johnny Cash said when doing American Recording. Something like "I always wanted to make an album, just me and my guitar, so that people could feel that I'm in their living room, playing just for them." (But the companies never wanted to release such album, untill Rick Rubin appeared.)