By Steve Newton
Back in the day you didn’t have easy access to what songs your fave touring performers might be playing when they made it to your town. I mean, even when Steve Earle played the Commodore in Vancouver 15 years ago you weren’t sure he was gonna do “Copperhead Road” until you maybe heard that bagpipe intro. Or unless you happened to be in the smoking section outside and the bouncers considerately announced its arrival.
Nowadays you can just go on sites like setlist.fm and find out every tune Earle played at a recent show–encores and all.
There’s no telling for sure whether an artist–especially one with as vast a catalogue of great songs as Steve Earle–will stick to a previous setlist or not, but here’s a pretty accurate forecast of what you should hear at Hard Rock Casino Vancouver tomorrow night (August 30).
By all accounts, Earle–accompanied by his awesome band the Dukes–will start things off with four or five tracks from his latest album, the blues-oriented Terraplane, before heading back in time to his first album, 1986’s Guitar Town, for selections like “My Old Friend the Blues” and “Someday”, as well as the catchy title track.
After that he might toss in the aforementioned hit “Copperhead Road”, and that wonderful slagging of George W. Bush from 2011, “Little Emperor”.
Lately Earle has been ending his regular set with “Hey Joe”, a bluesy gem that was made famous by the Jimi Hendrix Experience when they released it as their debut single in December of 1966.
As far as encores go, I’ve heard reports that the Troggs’ “Wild Thing” has been getting reeled out, other sources point to the Band’s “Rag Momma Rag” and ZZ Top‘s “Francine”.
Just so you know, Steve-O, I’m okay with any of those.
And all three would be nice, too.
You can find Steve Earle tickets here.