Eddie Money Concert Review

30 some years after launching his career in the late 70s and becoming an early MTV hit in the 80s, Classic Rocker Eddie Money returned to Duluth Thursday night for a free block party concert outside of Fond-du-Luth Casino. The weather was a bit nasty with cold sporadic rain, but a block full of Duluthians ignored the storms to hear Eddie and his band crank out all his classics "Two Tickets to Paradise", "Baby Hold On", "Take Me Home Tonight", "Shakin" and many others.

To some the whole affair may seem laughable, seeing a sixty year old playing classic rock tunes outside a casino to an equally aged crowd (mostly 40+ work-a-days in attendance) and putting on our critic hats it would be easy to berate Mr. Money's performance: he never attempted a single high note, let the crowd do most of the work on "Two Tickets to Paradise", relied heavily on his backing band to levy any power into set's vocals, and played only roughly an hour show of hits. It's easy, we can joke about how washed up Eddie is now, slow, old, no longer playing crowds any bigger than around a thousand; basically a far past this time lounge singer squeezing whatever remnants of recognition his once famous name still garners at County Fairs, Casinos, and cheap benefit concerts.

We could do this, and I'm sure a lot of people did when they heard Money was coming to town, but what's the point? Sure some of the sediments made in the above paragraph are valid and accurate, but to those in attendance Thursday night they didn't matter. What did matter was they got a chance to have a beer in the closed off downtown block, hang out with friends, sing along to a few classic rock hits, and laugh at Eddie's numerous jokes. Eddie might not be an "artist" per say this late in his career, he's not promoting any new album or brand new musical endeavors, but musicians usually wear two hats. Unless you're a studio rat like the Beatles were in the later part of their career, most artist will have to tour in addition to crafting new music. When touring one must remove the artist hate, or at least slide it over, and make room for the entertainer hat.

Today Eddie Money is primarily an Entertainer (though he did play one new song that was decent about Iraq and Afghanistan veterans coming home). His job is to make sure the crowd has a good time as he rolls back the clock to his era of Rock and Roll. The finer details of his performance and setlist ultimately dont matter, as long as he makes you laugh and sing along he's done his job, and Eddie did do his job Thursday night. He was overwhelmingly gracious to the fans that allow him to still make a living as a musician (Eddie did a wonderful job wailing on the sax and harmonica) and even donated him merch sales to a children's hospital. Older artist are still worth seeing, many of them still put out worth while music, and supposed washed up artist like Eddie Money can put on a rocking show. Lou Reed and David Allen Coe take notice, though your remaining talent may exceed Mr. Money's, Eddie never disrespects his fans by forgetting to be an entertainer.