Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band at Madison Square Garden

Bob Seger

Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in Ann Arbor, Bob Seger was a local superstar for a decade before earning national attention. Starting as a high school student in 1961, he performed and recorded with the Decibels, the Town Criers, Doug Brown & the Omens, Bob Seger and the Last Heard, the Bob Seger System, Teegarden & Van Winkle, My Band, the Borneo Band, and the Bob Seger Group, but did not achieve commercial success until after forming Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band in 1973. With a career spanning six decades, Seger has sold more than 75 million records worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. In 1987, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Seger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012. Seger released his 18th and most recent album, I Knew You When, in 2017. Seger resides in Orchard Lake Village, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.

A tour by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band in 1986-1987 was supposed to be the band's final outing. Tonight, more than 30 years after the first final tour, Seger and his band headlined Madison Square Garden one night before the last stop of Roll Me Away: The Final Tour 2018-19. As this tour was not promoting a new album, the set list was comprised almost exclusively of hits and deep cuts from his peak period, 1976 to 1986. Seger's powerfully masculine voice, still husky and raspy, navigated through blue-collar songs of love and loss honestly and vulnerably, and also commanded convincingly on his many roots rockers. The large band behind him more than ably supported and enhanced the songs. Among the most moving moments, Seger introduced "We've Got Tonight" by saying it was his late mother's favorite song by him. Seger called Bob Dylan "the Mt. Rushmore of songwriters," then sang Dylan’s "Forever Young" as a soundtrack to a slide show of images of musicians who died in recent times -- among them Glenn Frey, Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, Prince, plus two recent additions, Dr. John and Eddie Money. "Turn the Page," with lyrics detailing his severe exhaustion due to a life on the road, was more poignant than ever. Similarly appropriate, Seger introduced "The Famous Final Scene" into the set. For the final song, "Rock and Roll Never Forgets," Seger altered his lyrics from "sweet 16’s turned 31″ to "sweet 16’s turned 74!" Sadly, after tomorrow night's concert, the 74-year-old heartland rocker will turn the page for the last time, but this we learned from him --  rock and roll never forgets.

Setlist:

1. Simplicity (Bob Seger song)
2. Still the Same
3. The Fire Down Below
4. Mainstreet
5. Old Time Rock & Roll
6. The Fire Inside
7. Shame on the Moon (Rodney Crowell cover)
8. Roll Me Away
9. Come to Poppa
10. Her Strut
11. Like a Rock
12. You'll Accomp'ny Me
13. We've Got Tonight
14. Travelin' Man (Bob Seger song) (>) Beautiful Loser (Bob Seger song)
15. Sunspot Baby
16. Turn the Page (Bob Seger song)
17. Forever Young (Bob Dylan cover)
18. Ramblin' Gamblin' Man (The Bob Seger System cover)

Encore 1:

1. Against the Wind
2. Hollywood Nights

Encore 2:

1. The Famous Final Scene
2. Night Moves
3. Rock and Roll Never Forgets