Jackson Browne Can't Get Down

It would have been nice-after Stockholm Syndrome-if the next act would have seen fit to keep the party rocking. Instead, we got a sobering dose of Jackson Browne-who in lieu of his act-earned himself the "Buzzkiller of the Year" award in my humble opinion. I really like the guy, I grew up listening to my parents' JB albums-but at the Xmas Jam we heard nary a classic tune.

Instead he did a series of somber anti-war songs. Look, I'm against this war just as much as the next guy, but when I come to the show-I want to see a show. Maybe it's the escapist in me, but at a celebration such as Xmas Jam, I'd rather not be reminded of the sad state of affairs in the world today. Upon further conversation, our group concluded that Jackson Brown seems like a guy who "Couldn't get laid if he had $100 bills falling out of his pockets." Perhaps this is true-and perhaps this accounts for his rather uptight attitude. I know that JB is a concerned American, but on this night, he seemed to just take things-including himself-much too seriously.


He tried to loosen things up a bit as he introduced a rather striking young lady (can't seem to recall her name) in tight jeans to the stage as a backup vocalist. This provided us with further eye-candy, but did little to improve the set's dour tone. In what was one of the keenest observations of the night-my compadre Spauldazzio said it best:

"Hot Ass Nonwithstanding-We'd Really Like to See Some Jams"

In all fairness though-Browne's version of Dylan's 'Desolation Row' was a real treat. Dylan's imagery cannot be beat (especially that song), and it is very well-suited to Browne's sonorous voice. Also, the set closer of "Patriot" was very good. That has long been one of my favorite latter-day JB tunes, and fit the tone of the set very well-even if that tone was not what we were looking for.