Bob Seger at the Charleston Coliseum (house, arena, retirement)

[FiveLoaves]

Bob Seger brought his brand of timeless Rock 'N Roll to the Coliseum on Friday night. He showed up with 4 semi trucks full of Sound, Lights and Good Times.

The night was opened with Sunny Sweeney and her Texas Country Music outfit. Sunny is a good-looking blonde, the spotlight loves her. Her band played 5 or 6 of their best songs, driven by a powerful Fender guitar player named Smiley. They provided the obligatory function of an opening act -- they allowed the Sound Crew to get things dialed in to a full house. They closed out their nearly hour-long set doing Linda Ronstadt's "When will I be Loved" with all those harmonies intact. If the local DJ's from Kickin' Country or the Weasel were in the house, I hope they give Sunny a spin this week.

The Roadies made short work of clearing the Stage, these days the Opener's drum kit is rolled behind the curtain and the Headliner's gear is pushed forward, ready to go. Bob and his gang took the stage about 9PM. Now in his later years, Bob has gone grey and wears glasses. He looks a little like Elizabeth Warren, if Elizabeth Warren had a Rock 'N Roll Soul.

But Bob is a Man who is not just going through the motions.....this is a Man who has never just gone thru the motions. I only hope to be able to kick it like this when I get to 74. On this night, he dug deeply into his repertoire, some of the songs he says were written 50 years ago. And the audience still knew all the words.

We had good seats -- House Left only about 3 rows up from the floor. The Stage had a raised platform on each corner, and various Band members would hop up there for solos. When Bob jumped up there he was only about 20 feet from us and bigger than life. We have the Cell Phone photos to prove it.

I'm not going to list the songs he played. You can find that on setlist.com. But trust me when I tell you he played them all (including 2 encores with 2 songs each). Around the mid-point of the set, Bob sat at the piano for a few songs. The first was "Forever Young" as a Tribute to his good friend and fellow Detroiter Glenn Frey The big screen behind him showed photos of all the other musicians we've lost recently. The second song was one that Bob said was his Mother's favorite "We've got tonight" and he dedicated it to all the Moms in the audience. The third was the haunting "Turn the Page" with Sax by Alto Reed who calls this "the 5 notes that changed his life"

This was announced as Bob's Final Tour and at 74 years old -- I think he means it. Our Hockey Rink has a nice ambient sound, without all of the slap-back echo that usually plagues an oval arena with hard surface walls. I was pleasantly surprised to smell the aroma of the 70's, (and 80's, 90's and 21st Century) in the arena. I hope we gave you a good Retirement Party, Mr Seger. If you change your mind about this Final Tour thing -- we'll be here for you.

[Charlestondata]

I was next door seeing Wanda Sykes.

[Stripes17]

Originally Posted by FiveLoaves

Bob Seger brought his brand of timeless Rock 'N Roll to the Coliseum on Friday night. He showed up with 4 semi trucks full of Sound, Lights and Good Times.
...
I hope we gave you a good Retirement Party, Mr Seger. If you change your mind about this Final Tour thing -- we'll be here for you.

We saw Bob Seger a few days later in Charlotte, NC. I thought he looked more like Tommy Chong!

Anyway, even though it wasn't the kick@ss Silver Bullet Band show we saw in the 80's, much of the music was the same and Bob put all of his heart and soul into this show as much as the one decades ago.

Phoning it in is not in his repertoire!

So glad we got to see his act one more time before he cruises down the road of retirement.

Still wish he would have played "Feel Like A Number" that night. But the rest of the show was soooo good, that I'll give him a pass!