Setlist: SetlistFM and Timothy Eric Batke, who gives us a fantastic review.
Thanks to Lala & Dad for getting me tickets to one of my all-time favourites Bruce Cockburn for free!
I’ve been lucky to run into Bruce Cockburn at a movie theatre in his hometown of Ottawa, to a washroom at Orbit Room on College Street, to seeing him at the Rivoli with Colin Linden, to Massey Hall on his own and with Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith & John Prine at the Concert for a Landmine Free World, to Molson Park with Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Gord Downie and others for finale at Live 8, to Madison Square Gardens with Rufus and Martha Wainwright & the McGarrigle Sisters, Bruce Sprngsteen and others at Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday, to his induction into the Juno Hall of Fame at Copps Coliseum, to his induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame again at Massey Hall, and other gigs between. I have been in Cockburn’s presence 20 times, 18 on stage.
The majority of times I’ve seen Bruce he’s been solo acoustic. Last night was special as it was only the third time I’ve seen him backed by a band for his own headlining gig.
He had Davide Di Renzo on drums & Roberto Occhipinti on upright bass, and they were an amazing rhythm section.
The first seven songs in his set included 4 songs from his last two studio albums, “Cafe Society,” “King of the Bolero,” “Push Comes to Shove,” and “3 Al Purdy’s.”
Also in the first 7 songs was a return of a fitting song for these times “The Trouble with Normal” a song written over four decades ago, and I had not heard live in nearly a quarter of a century. The beautiful “When You Give it Away,” and “Tokyo” which I hadn’t heard since 2013.
Bruce usually focuses on new material from his latest release, but with ‘O Sun O Moon’ released back in 2023, he was not promoting a current release. Possibly due to a lack of new material the next ten songs, every one was either a single or ended up on a greatest hits compilation.
The run was “Last Night of the World,” my first “The Coldest Night of the Year,” “Call it Democracy,” “Stolen Land,” “Waiting for a Miracle,” “Lovers in a Dangerous Time,” “Wondering Where the Lions Are,” “If a Tree Falls,” and in the encore “Pacing the Cage” and “Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long.”
Bruce ended the amazing set with “Tie Me at the Crossroads.” The set length was just around 10 minutes shy of 2 hours. Not bad for someone turning 81 on May 27th.
There were some issues during the concert as Bruce’s guitars were mistakenly shipped to Arizona instead of Niagara Falls, and they were not delivered until around 5 pm on the day of the show.
A guitar Bruce played the first five songs was a guitar made for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that had yet to be delivered to him.
When Bruce switched to his green guitar he had repeated issues with its tuning. Before “Last Night of the World” he joked “Sometimes it’s so out of tune you can’t even call it folk music.”
And before “The Coldest Night of the Year” Bruce requested his crew to go to his dressing room to get a specific capo for his 12 string.
Still after seeing Cockburn for nearly 30 years this was my favourite setlist I’ve ever seen him do, and it was also nice to see him with a band again.
Always find it funny that Bruce doesn’t sell t-shirts, vinyl, CDs and other stuff at the merch booth during his concerts. There was merch there for the opener Julian Taylor, but at recent Bruce concerts I state to the staff Bruce must not like money.
I say this as I ran into Brother David Popadinac before the gig, and he acknowledged how many concert T’s I have.
Julian Taylor was amazing as the opener for Bruce. He played a 9 song set for nearly 50 minutes solo acoustic, the way we usually see Cockburn.
I requested online “Stolen Lands” and was thrilled Taylor played it. Very fitting was also saw Bruce play his own “Stolen Land” in his set.
Comments/further information
Setlist: SetlistFM and Timothy Eric Batke, who gives us a fantastic review.
Thanks to Lala & Dad for getting me tickets to one of my all-time favourites Bruce Cockburn for free! I’ve been lucky to run into Bruce Cockburn at a movie theatre in his hometown of Ottawa, to a washroom at Orbit Room on College Street, to seeing him at the Rivoli with Colin Linden, to Massey Hall on his own and with Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith & John Prine at the Concert for a Landmine Free World, to Molson Park with Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Gord Downie and others for finale at Live 8, to Madison Square Gardens with Rufus and Martha Wainwright & the McGarrigle Sisters, Bruce Sprngsteen and others at Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday, to his induction into the Juno Hall of Fame at Copps Coliseum, to his induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame again at Massey Hall, and other gigs between. I have been in Cockburn’s presence 20 times, 18 on stage.
The majority of times I’ve seen Bruce he’s been solo acoustic. Last night was special as it was only the third time I’ve seen him backed by a band for his own headlining gig.
He had Davide Di Renzo on drums & Roberto Occhipinti on upright bass, and they were an amazing rhythm section.
The first seven songs in his set included 4 songs from his last two studio albums, “Cafe Society,” “King of the Bolero,” “Push Comes to Shove,” and “3 Al Purdy’s.”
Also in the first 7 songs was a return of a fitting song for these times “The Trouble with Normal” a song written over four decades ago, and I had not heard live in nearly a quarter of a century. The beautiful “When You Give it Away,” and “Tokyo” which I hadn’t heard since 2013.
Bruce usually focuses on new material from his latest release, but with ‘O Sun O Moon’ released back in 2023, he was not promoting a current release. Possibly due to a lack of new material the next ten songs, every one was either a single or ended up on a greatest hits compilation.
The run was “Last Night of the World,” my first “The Coldest Night of the Year,” “Call it Democracy,” “Stolen Land,” “Waiting for a Miracle,” “Lovers in a Dangerous Time,” “Wondering Where the Lions Are,” “If a Tree Falls,” and in the encore “Pacing the Cage” and “Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long.”
Bruce ended the amazing set with “Tie Me at the Crossroads.” The set length was just around 10 minutes shy of 2 hours. Not bad for someone turning 81 on May 27th.
There were some issues during the concert as Bruce’s guitars were mistakenly shipped to Arizona instead of Niagara Falls, and they were not delivered until around 5 pm on the day of the show.
A guitar Bruce played the first five songs was a guitar made for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that had yet to be delivered to him.
When Bruce switched to his green guitar he had repeated issues with its tuning. Before “Last Night of the World” he joked “Sometimes it’s so out of tune you can’t even call it folk music.”
And before “The Coldest Night of the Year” Bruce requested his crew to go to his dressing room to get a specific capo for his 12 string.
Still after seeing Cockburn for nearly 30 years this was my favourite setlist I’ve ever seen him do, and it was also nice to see him with a band again.
Always find it funny that Bruce doesn’t sell t-shirts, vinyl, CDs and other stuff at the merch booth during his concerts. There was merch there for the opener Julian Taylor, but at recent Bruce concerts I state to the staff Bruce must not like money. I say this as I ran into Brother David Popadinac before the gig, and he acknowledged how many concert T’s I have.
Julian Taylor was amazing as the opener for Bruce. He played a 9 song set for nearly 50 minutes solo acoustic, the way we usually see Cockburn. I requested online “Stolen Lands” and was thrilled Taylor played it. Very fitting was also saw Bruce play his own “Stolen Land” in his set.
Photos:
Julian Taylor & Bruce Cockburn
Music Life Magazine - fantastic photos here!
Videos:
David Merlo
Tokyo (Facebook)
Stellablu has lots of good videos up! (YouTube)
Push Come To Shove
Shonana (YouTube)
Many videos from this show!
Tamara Alexis (Facebook)
Café Society, introducing band members.
Bev Don Digout (Facebook)
Photos & video clips