Winner – Bruce Springsteen Fans – Oh to be a Springsteen fan on the second leg of his US Tour. Finally, he has stopped flogging that dead horse known as Wrecking Ball (really,he dumps the newbie at this point of the tour every couple of years), gone from 40% of the set to 20% of the set and now, on any given night, he will delve deep into the vaults and pull out anything he wants to from any period of his career. Unfortunately, he as been playing a lot of The Rising recently, but let's hope he sticks to 1980 Boss for the stance at Metlife this week. But what it is, has to be better than the MSG gig earlier this year. And the survey says… the winner is YOU, the paying public.
Loser – Amanda Paler – With a big album just released, a perfectly awesome live show at Webster Hall, and a million bucks in the coffer, Amanda Palmer overplayed her hand. My perception is, you got a million bucks? Sustain your career with it and make money when you tour so you don't need to ask for more. So that she invited horn sections to pay for beer money, hey, it is her job to make a profit. Steve Albini (and indeed our own Alyson Camus) see it differently. Here is Albini's opinion: "It should be obvious also that having gotten over a million dollars from such an effort that it is just plain rude to ask for further indulgences from your audience, like playing in your backing band for free. Fuck's sake a million dollars is a shitload of money. How can you possibly not have a bunch laying around after people just gave you a million dollars?" So, yeah, I don't think Palmer did anything wrong but the perception is just plain awful.