Father Springsteen, Rev. Young, Brother Stipe and Deacon Fogerty...

[MnFats]

....were ON FIRE tonight in St. Paul.
....I would have to say that the evil demon spirit of Norm Coleman has been thoroughly exorcised from Xcel.
.....It may have been the best rock 'n' roll show I've ever seen.
.....In any case you haven't lived until you see Bruce trading Hendrix-like licks with Neil Young on Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower." It was simply astonishing.
......Also amazing: Springsteen and Michael Stipe alternating verses on a kick-ass dustup of "Because the Night."
.......Plus: John Fogarty comes out to play "Center Field" but first announces:
........"I got a score for you: Minnesota 2, Yankees 0." The place went nuts. Johann Santana shuts out the Yanks in Yankee Stadium!" All of the stars must have been aligned correctly.
.......One of the encores was "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World," tearing the roof off. It was about a five-hour show and even for the last encore, no more than three to five percent of the sold-out crowd left.

the speeches were brief and to the point: Springsteen made an impassioned plea for votes, mentioned the environment, Bush's goddamn war, Haliburton, the spirit of the nation. It was a revival meeting. At one point, Springsteen, in full gospel preacher mode, asked for an undecided voter to come to the altar. He puts his hand on the guy's shoulder. To the crowd, he declares: "Say 'Haliburton' with me five times real quick." The crowd complies and he slaps the guy on the forehead a la Benny Hinn. The guy crumples to the floor and comes up with a Kerry sign. Beauty.
Voter registration booths were doing a brisk business.
there's more but my legs are tired, my ears are ringing. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

OK, one more thing: John Fogarty unleashed his new song, "Deja Vu All Over Again," an indictment of the war & comparison with Vietnam. After the show local radio KQRS, which has slipped far to the right in recent years, was playing it along with other left-leaning tunes. Time was, KQRS was a tiny independent station that during Vietnam refused to accept military advertising and announced when and where spontaneous anti-war demonstrations were building. Perhaps the pendulum swings back?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. That sounds incredible

and the radio station...awesome...maybe the last week has been a wake up call..thanks for the report...I am jealous! :hi:

[Systematic Chaos]

2. I lived in the Twin Cities area in the early 90's

Listened to KQRS all the time back then. I thought the morning show with Tommy B was listenable....

When did it start to get so bad?

[MnFats]

3. they went right in the '80s and became downright mean in the 90s

but continued to get huge ratings.
howard stern tried to enter the market a few years ago to much fanfare but got stomped by kqrs and lasted only a few months.
their format has become tiresome...crank calls etc. to people just waking up.
anyway, they had a van outside tonight's concert and the John Fogarty song was being played as I walked past. I told the people from the station they should be playing the song hourly and he said 'we're getting a lot of requests for it.'
turns out fogarty turned up at the station earlier in the day and played it live for them!