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 LIVE FROM TARGET CENTER IN MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA / December 05, 2010As the lights fade out into total darkness and the crowd’s cheers turn into complete silence each member of the 4th Street Band steps out onto the stage and as the lights come back up the band are all stood together at the front of the stage hand in hand, met with deafening cheers each member makes their way to various parts of the stage.
The opening guitar chord is struck by Scott Dylan and the band quickly kicks into full gear with Jenny Hudson taking centre stage handed the hugely difficult role of fronting this band in replacement for Max Armstrong, it’s still undecided who will front the band on a permanent basis but for tonight and the next four gigs it will be an opportunity for Jenny to stake her claim for the role.
“How’s everybody doing tonight, This is I’ll Work For Your Love.” she shouts before leading the band into the song, “One, Two, Three, Four.” the guitar intro giving the beginning of the show an almost party-like atmosphere. Mid-way through, the fans belt out the chorus along with Jenny and she already has them onside, “If You Leave Me Tonight/I’ll Work For Your Love/Hold Me Tight/Because I’ll Work For Your Love.” She takes full advantage of the stage, moving from side to side, shaking her hips along the way and showing the kind of strutting lead singer performance you’d expect to see from the likes of Steven Tyler or Mick Jagger. As she finishes the song she steps back from the spotlight before whispering into the microphone, “I’ll love you forever.”
One of the roadies hands Jenny her guitar from the side of the stage and she makes her way back to the center of the stage she grabs the microphone, “Look Into The Past“. It’s a fast paced modern rock song with 70’s influences about living life too fast and coming to regret it, a certain air of emotion surrounds it tonight considering the fate of the writer of the song Max Armstrong. Jenny shares the microphone with Scott Dylan which encourages the crowd to sing along with them for the chorus, before the final line of the song, sung with chillingly beautiful precision “We Lived Our Life A Little Too Fast/And Now I’m Looking In The Past.”
The light fades and a small spotlight shines down on Jenny as she sits on the base of the piano while Robbie Stimson provides the only music for the next song. Jenny stays sat on the piano and provides a very effective vocal for one of the many 4th Street Band ballads, The Oldest Story Ever Told. As the song ends the band jump straight into the next song with full force, and Jenny quickly makes her way back to the centre stage.
“This is called Skylines & Cute Smiles.” it’s a very typical American song and is one of the best known song from the bands back catalogue and yet another harrowing vocal from Jenny Hudson as she proves to be an apt but not incredible replacement for Max, a task that not many would have liked to take on but this 19 year old seems pretty fearless and is becoming more comfortable onstage as she steps down from the stage to get closer to the fans in the front row, she stretches her arm out to the crowd and the fans reach as far as they can to touch her.
She then makes her way back up onstage after a brief break from singing as the band used their instrumental abilities to provide a bit of filler while their lead singer was otherwise occupied. She encourages the crowd to finish off the song and they duly reply.
The band take another break as Jenny returns to the stage in a change of clothes, she sits on a stool at the center of the stage with her acoustic guitar and performs her most well known but still pretty unknown song Fallen Grace, she shows her more pop/country side to her vocal tones and brings to mind the likes of well known country pop singers Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. Her ability as a guitarist is likely to be overlooked due to her vocal presence and pretty looks but she also shows her ability as a songwriter with this.
The band return with full force for the next song So Far Away From Home and Jenny quickly reverts to her rock chick persona which seems to work brilliantly alongside this band, she’s gradually become more confident as the performance has gone on and even gets the crowd to sing along throughout the whole song. She smiles and waves and even throws in a couple of moves before returning to centre stage.
The band exit the stage briefly before returning, Jenny Hudson is the last one out holding her Fender Telecaster, she steps up to the microphone, “I’d like to thank you on behalf of the band for coming out tonight despite the crazy weather. We all know that you’d have preferred to see Max up hear but he’d be humbled by the support tonight, so thank you all for making my life easier by coming here with an open mind. Ok so this next song is one of Max’s solo tracks but it’s fitting for tonight, It’s called I Can’t Win But For You I Will Try.”
She strikes the first chords to the song before everyone in the band sing along into their own microphones in unison, creating an almost gospel experience. The arms of the crowd moving back and forth bring to mind ferocious waves in the ocean. As the music is stopped briefly, each member of the band step forward one by one to share the microphone with Jenny, with the exception of drummer Tom O’Brady. As the song finishes, the lights go down and the silence in the crowd is more due to emotion rather than anything else.
Jenny steps back into centre stage and leads the band into the rousing, put a smile upon your face type song, Your Beautiful The Way You Are (Believe It). It was written by Max Armstrong as has many of the songs tonight but it seems to have a bit of weight missing from it tonight, maybe that has something to do with the person singing it being a beautiful young woman with everything going for her, maybe it’s harder for women to relate to it being sung by Jenny. This is of course just my theory, nevertheless the fans have so far warmed to her tonight as the “new” lead vocalist of the band.
And next up is a song which, had it have been released as a single would have been huge. Does This Darkness Have A Name. Of course tonight, the majority of the fan base are die-hard 4th Street Band fans and the song is a definite hit to those in the vicinity tonight and another harrowing vocal performance from Jenny Hudson has so redeemed her as a capable replacement for Max. She may not be the ideal candidate and is clearly a different type of performer and vocalist to what Max was but change can sometimes be a good thing. She continues to move around the stage with freedom and is showing no signs of slowing down as the evening moves just over the halfway point.
The most fully realised rock anthem the band have ever performed together comes next in the shape of Cassettes In The Mailbox. It doesn’t lose any of it’s rock credentials tonight but is lacking the scruffy punk essence that was created whenever Max would perform it live with the band. It feels slightly slowed down tonight, maybe the band realised that it was maybe too fast paced for Jenny to keep up with vocally, but again I’m just making assumptions. It’s rousing final lines Miles Away From Home/Feeling So Alone/All You’ve Got Is Cassettes In The Mailbox/And An Unplugged Phone. It’s a line that at best can make you wince, a silly Emo cliché at most but not when sung by Max, tonight it feels like a very soppy, teenage diary confessional.
Next up is a song titled, I’ve Chosen Darkness, it’s a similar theme to a lot of these songs performed tonight and it’s evident that Max certainly had a style of writing a formula if you will, he was never looking to create radio friendly hit singles and the majority of these songs wouldn’t be heard on regular commercial radio, the songs are either too long or not bouncy enough for radio, but the fans in the venue tonight aren’t likely to be too bothered if these songs remain trapped in the confines of their albums.
Jenny provides more emotion into the song than many would have expected and again is looking hugely comfortable onstage, showing a different side to her teenage acoustic pop solo image, she becomes a broody rock front woman with the band backing her live and the fans are loving it.
The final song of the original Setlist tonight is the fan favourite, A Kiss To Build A Dream Upon which no matter who sings it, it will always be loved by the 4th Street Band fans, I see this song as the 4th Street Bands, Knocking On Heavens Door. It’s almost an ever present in the bands live set lists since it was written and you can tell that the band have been playing this song live for a long while, the comfort in playing this song is so much more evident than on any other song and the freedom with it for Robin Krieger to perform an extended guitar solo before Jenny again steps up to the plate and performs almost perfect vocals for it.
The band all step out from behind their instruments and stand hand in hand and take a bow for the ecstatic audience, they then make their way off the stage and the crowd encourage their return. As the lights go back up, Jenny walks onstage alone, acoustic guitar in hand, and she takes a seat on the stool located at the centre of the stage, she leans forward to speak into the microphone, “Wow, you guys have been incredible tonight, I can’t thank you enough for you support. I’m gonna play you a song of mine and then we’ll see what happens after that.”
She begins playing her acoustic guitar and starts performing her own song, Memories Of You, the crowd don’t react as crazy as they did when the band was performing and lets face it they’re here for the 4th Street Band but the support for her doesn’t waver and the emotion is definitely there as the fans clearly think about Max and Lucy during this song, the lights and mobile phones go up in the air and just as the song finishes the band return to the stage and quickly begin the next song.
“This is one of the last songs Max wrote, it’s called, Lovers At Dawn, Rivals At Heart.” the crowd seem happy enough to hear a new song and it almost seems that this song was written for a female’s vocals. So well performed by Jenny that it become almost impossible to hear how Max’s vocals would have sounded on this, it seems different from anything he’s ever written, maybe even shows a growing maturity in his writing. The fans certainly enjoy this and make the most of seeing this band live and performing so well together.
Next up was a triple onslaught of their three biggest chart hits, first off, Look Around Son, This Is Yours. A favourite of Max’s and basically a letter to his future child, sadly he will never get the chance to read this or even perform it for his son. Jenny uses her range to hit notes not previously heard on the original single version of this and uses it well to draw the fans in and just as the song finishes it powers straight into the next song.
The most recent single from the band, Janey, See The Light. It was always seen as the quintessential Max Armstrong song, almost like he had nurtured it into this epic. Mid-way through the song Jenny stops to introduce the band, not that it’s needed. “Ladies and Gentlemen we’re the 4th Street Band from New York City but tonight this is our home and I want to introduce you to our family. On lead guitar, the quiet assassin, Scott Dylan.” met of course with cheers, “On guitar, the ever so bizarre Joshua Perry” more cheers, “And on Bass Guitar, the right hand man, Robin Krieger. On Piano, the magician that is, Robbie Stimson.” huge cheers all round. “and finally, the engine of the band, Mr. Tom O’Brady.” the crowd finally go wild. “And overseeing everything tonight from above, please go crazy for the never forgotten, Lucy Tyrell and Max Armstrong.” the crowd almost blow this venue apart with their cheers, if the band can work with what they’ve got then the legacy will continue for a long time to come.
The brief break is ended by the whole venue singing in unison, an accapella version of Hallelujah Is A Word I Won’t Use. This is very much the bands Born To Run and that influence is obvious, the audience join the accapella version of the song and the whole band are stood next to each other, centre stage with a microphone each, showing almost a “we’re gonna keep on fighting.” attitude and the crowd are uncontrollably loud during this final song. And as it finishes the band embrace teary eyed and rather overcome by emotion, they acknowledge the crowd before heading off into backstage and if they decide to go with Jenny as permanent vocalist then we’ve only seen the beginning. SETLIST
I’ll Work For Your Love
Look Into The Past
The Oldest Story Ever Told
Skylines & Cute Smiles
Fallen Grace (Jenny Hudson Cover)
So Far Away From Home
I Can’t Win But For You I Will Try
Your Beautiful The Way You Are (Believe It)
Does This Darkness Have A Name
Cassettes In The Mailbox
I’ve Chosen Darkness
A Kiss To Build A Dream Upon
ENCORE
Memories Of You (Jenny Hudson Cover)
Lovers At Dawn, Rivals At Heart
Look Around Son, This Is Yours
Janey, See The Light
Hallelujah Is A Word I Won’t Use OOC: If you've managed to read it all then well done, please let me know what you think, I put a lot of effort into it. |
