Steve Earle is still battling his demons in more ways than one. Friday night at the Burton Cummings Center in Winnipeg, the reformed heroin and whiskey addict was battling that legacy yet again. A certain number of 'fans,' who still identified with pre-jail era Earle, seem to think that by recreating a drunken, drug-induced stupor, they were being as rebellious as him in his 'bad ol' days' and that this by extension was some sort of homage or flattery that Steve himself would appreciate. It was most decidedly not.
These boorish louts exhibited their undying allegiance to Earle's previous (and their current) lifestyle by continually interrupting in their self-induced 'Tourettes Syndrome' style by screaming for songs when he was trying to relate some solemn affair or detail of his hard worn life. The first shouts for Guitar Town (and many others to follow) brought the response from Earle,
"What are you? Retarded? This is acoustic. Just me and the guitar buddy."
Later he tried to make jokes about it by saying "I remember my first beer too buddy" and "This is the second drunkest audience I've played for in a while", but his humour vanished quite quickly and he said "I won't play Guitar Town because of you. Later on, when he apologized for losing his cool during an encore he did play the song so that"The asshole wouldn't killed on the way out" to quote Earle.
During his talks about his intimate knowledge of a friendship with Townes Van Zandt that most people came to hear, there were drunken moronic shouts and instead of Steve being allowed to share his personal insights and quiet reflections about his and Townes hard ridden lives, he was constantly staving off yelling and badgering requests for other songs.
To say the least, Earle was disgusted and he apologized to the "people who actually came here tonight to hear the music" for the idiots who ruined it for them and for himself.
Near the end he even asked why the house- policy was to serve booze throughout the concert and warned that "It'll be very hard for you to get a beer the next time I come here.You guys can't handle it."
Where were the Security that would not intervene to save both Earle's show and assuage the true fans who almost universally called for the expulsion of the riff-raff.We commiserated in frustrated mumblings while the security quietly admonished the churlish children who were 'acting out' to 'please please, PLEASE' behave. Even a misbehaving child would have been sent for a time-out. The Guardians of this venue obviously haven't been to that parenting class and these gin-soaked brats continued to verbally abuse Earle and those who were trying hard to be attentive patrons.
Shame on the Burton Cummings Center staff for not respecting Steve Earle's repeated requests to do someting about the rabble that were ruining the show. We'll not likely attract many more of his stature if concerts are treated as a wrestling-type event and in fact he himself may not ever return with such a repugnent assault on his talent and his fans. I also pity the poor patrons of upcoming events at the BCC, who will, it appears, have to be be subjected to drunken hillbillies' antics far and away more worse than any loud expository on a cell phone. So much for Friendly Manitoba! I don't think Steve Earle used those words to describe his reception in Winnipeg last night.The ignominious experience should make both the Burton Cummings Center, and Winnipeg in general, re-examine their place in the music scene across Canada and in North America. As Johnny Cash told us "Well bad news travels like wild fire...."
