My wife wanted to see Bob Seger, so I agreed, and last night we went to the Verizon Center and saw the old man (he’s 61 now). It actually was a decent show, and every old hippie in a 200-mile radius seemingly was there, and I’d guess he sold 15,000 or so tickets. He changed keys on a number of songs, dropping the high end on a voice that 30 years ago sounded like it had been soaked in cheap bourbon, and I guess the thing that surprised me the most was that he had far more hits than I first remembered. I literally could sing every song except the three or four that are off his new album.

Another thing that struck me on this old-school night was his old-school staging. There were no video screens; the backdrop was a simple black scrim; there were half as many stage lights as I see at a lot of concerts these days; and even the stage was a simple block with a few spotlighted areas. I don’t think I’ve seen a big-auditorium stage that simple since the early 1980s. Here’s a crummy shot from a camera phone: