Yes, it’s a zombie thread, but the concert just came out on blu-ray earlier this month, and I just spent the day watching the whole glorious two-disc set, so I felt compelled to comment.
First of all, I haven’t seen more than bits and pieces of the previous Hall of Fame concerts, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect - I mean, sure, the cover blurbs touted this particular “25[sup]th[/sup] Anniversary” set as the best ever, but who trusts cover blurbs? But then, the Rolling Stone write-up on the concert published a year ago did shower praise on these performances, but then again, it was a Rolling Stone production.
But.
This set completely lived up to all the hype. This is a two-night series of performances from some of the most legendary artists in Rock & Roll history, and they all seem to be at or near the top of their form, and what’s more - having a lot of fun (and it shows). So many great moments - Stevie Wonder doing “Superstition” with Jeff Beck on guitar, Bruce Springsteen and John Fogerty paying tribute to Roy Orbison with “Pretty Woman”, Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox on “Chain of Fools”, Jeff Beck’s “instrumental detonation” of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life”, Metallica with Ozzy. And lots more.
But the highlight of the entire thing for me had to be U2’s set. After a couple of their own tracks (“Vertigo” and “Magnificent”), they go into “Because the Night” with both Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith, and follow that up with “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” with Bruce Springsteen. Then comes “Gimme Shelter”, which starts innocently enough, Fergie singing background from behind the drum riser as the band plays the spooky intro. And just as they launch into the song proper, Mick Jagger struts onto the stage to deliver the lead vocal (his appearance was an audience surprise). The band plays the song well, but the zenith is Fergie taking on Merry Clayton’s part - holy hell did she nail it. Fergie’s performance in that song is hot as hell and sexy as fuck. U2 continues with “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”, with Mick Jagger and Bono trading the accusatory vocals. Their set ends on the disc with “Beautiful Day”.
Had to chuckle when I found this thread, as I’d also wondered about Jeff Beck’s bassist, and looked it up as I was watching (Beck mentions her in the RS article). The discs also include a bunch of stuff HBO didn’t air (like U2’s “Mysterious Ways” and “Where is the Love” with the Black-Eyed Peas, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and a whole cast of luminaries performing “(Your Love Keeps Lifing Me) Higher and Higher”, and a couple of Jeff Beck jams wherein you can see even more of Tal Wilkenfeld’s remarkable abilities).
Anyway, didn’t mean to sound like a commercial, but hell, if you like Rock & Roll at all, this is at least worth a listen. Was anybody else blown away by this?