bruce springsteen

Expand Your Setlist

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

For the bulk of the past 16 months, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band have been on the road supporting their latest album “Wrecking Ball”.

Bruce Springsteen has never been the type of artist to stick to one setlist throughout a tour. Every night is a different experience.

But you wouldn’t fault him and the band for taking things easy in their 16th month on the road. Most in the band are in their 50s and 60s. A year and half on the road takes a toll on even a young man. Plus they’re hitting up fans in Europe who might not know the difference if the band played the same setlist the night before in a different country.

That’s just not what Bruce Springsteen does. In fact the setlists and videos from this leg of the tour show Bruce and the Band are digging deeper into their catalog than ever, adding in songs to these shows like “Lucky Town” that haven’t been played in years.

(Click here if you can’t see the video above.)

Why bother changing up the setlist? Why bust these songs out of storage? Bruce could get by like so many other nostalgia acts and play the same 25 songs each night. He doesn’t have to make each performance into a 3 hour plus epic pulling requests from his expansive catalog at random from fan signs in the crowd. What does he have to prove?

Nothing, of course. But who wants to be stuck singing the same song every night for a year and a half? You’ll drive yourself crazy. To keep living and not just existing, you have to expand the setlist time and time again.

It’s Friday. Time to expand your setlist. Try something totally different today. Go to that restaurant you’ve been wanting to try. Skip work after lunch. Go to a trampoline park and jump around. Play a song you’d rarely hear and make this day a memorable one.

Happy Friday.

POP GOD POPcast: Episode 2 – Adam Diehl

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

slide.001Welcome to Episode 2 of the POP GOD POPcast – an exploration into the lives of people seeking God in the present tense.

This week’s guest is Adam Diehl. Adam is the singer and guitarist for The Gilded Youth, a local band from Augusta. Adam is also a an English teacher, an avid TV fan, and a Deacon and Sunday School teacher at a Southern Baptist church! Adam shares his musical roots, his love for traditional hymns, and how he balances being in an alternative band and serving in a traditional church. We also geek out over the upcoming season of “Arrested Development” and Adam takes the POP Quiz. If you love music you’ll love getting to know Adam.  Download and be charmed by his infectious laugh and become a fan of The Gilded Youth.

I’m so excited to open up POP GOD into a new area and share with you other’s stories of seeking God in the present tense. I’d love to hear your feedback. Leave me a comment and let me know how to improve things, what you’d like to hear discussed, and give me your ideas as to who you’d like to see on the POPcast.

Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, share it on Twitter and Facebook and anywhere else. I’d really appreciate it. Thanks. Enjoy.

Listen here:

[audio http://adoriot.podbean.com/mf/web/42mgnj/popcast2.mp3]

Listen and Subscribe on iTunes.

Or download here on Podbean.

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What Your Vinyl Collection Says About You

/ Alex Doriot / 3 Comments

photo (19)Did you celebrate Record Store Day?

Saturday, April 20 was the seventh annual celebration of all things vinyl. My girlfriend and I were proud participants. We drove two hours to Criminal Records in Atlanta to dig through crates of used records and seek out limited edition new releases from some of our favorite artists like Bob Dylan, The Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons, and Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors.

At the end of the day we ended up with just about everything we were looking for. What amazed me though was just how many other people did as well.

When we arrived at Criminal Records on Saturday morning, we saw a line coming out of the store and stretching around the next block. We ended up waiting an hour to get in the store, and then another hour or so to get out of the store.  Continue reading →

Bring On Your Wrecking Ball

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

btrNext week Bruce Springsteen will kick off the second leg of a world tour he began a year ago in Atlanta, GA. I was lucky enough to have tickets to that monumental occasion. Part of why I enjoyed it so much is because I never expected it to happen.

When I first saw The Boss in concert in 2009, I savored the opportunity because I thought it could be my last.

Bruce is only 63 years young. But once an artist crosses into senior citizen territory, you can never be too sure of when their last hoorah is going to be. Everything has to come to an end at some point. Continue reading →

Everything Counts

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

darkness on the edge of town“Springsteen aims for moon and stars; hits and moon and stars.” – Rolling Stone review of Darkness On The Edge Of Town, 1978

At the age of 29, Bruce Springsteen was receiving incredible praise like the quote above on a regular basis for his latest album, Darkness On The Edge Of Town. 

Amidst all the accolades though something is missing. What the reviews don’t say is that before reaching for the moon and stars, Bruce Springsteen was nearly dropped from his record label on a couple of occasions because his first three albums failed to light up the charts.

Before he encountered those problems Bruce Springsteen paid his dues for years serving as an opening act for of-the-moment bands who rode a quick wave of success before falling by the wayside. Bands like Sha Na Na (Yes, really – these guys).

Before those problems Bruce Springsteen struggled to find his voice in a number of local New Jersey bands like Steel Mill, Earth, and Dr. Zoom and The Sonic Boom (Yes, really).

Before that Bruce Springsteen got kicked out of one of his first teenage attempts at a band after two days because he just wasn’t good enough.

Success that hits the moon and stars never comes without pain and failure along the way. In fact success only happens because of the opportunities our failues allow us. Continue reading →

What Is POP GOD?

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Does God still speak to us?

The last book with His mark on it, the book of Revelation, is almost 2000 years old. That’s not very Pop Culture friendly.

Pop Culture is of the moment. Rarely does Pop Culture have a lifespan of longer than 6 months. Pop Culture is transient and fleeting. It is rapidly evolving, growing, and fading with every tweet, every post, every new message and medium.

It would be easy to dismiss the Bible as an outdated book and the main character of God as an antiquated invention. After all, when was the last time you read any other 2000 year old book?

So after finalizing the Bible, has God really been silent?

I don’t think so. I think we just have a hearing problem.

God created humanity in His own image. We are created in the image of a Creator. We are created to create.

Through His creations and their creativity the Creator is reflected and His voice is heard.

God makes himself visible in every moment. He is, as Ephesians 4:6 says, over all and through all and in all. He uses stories to draw us closer to Him. He can use the Pop Culture of our world to reveal truths about Himself to us. If only we would look.

There is plenty about God that is not easy to understand (sorry, Book of Leviticus).

There is also an abundance of truth about God waiting in the world around you. It’s there in Pixar movies and Bruce Springsteen songs. It’s there in WWE matches and 80s sitcoms. God’s presence exists in the present tense, speaking to you.

POP GOD is not an endorsement of every aspect of pop culture. Nor is it necessarily an endorsement of all the aspects you see on its pages. POP GOD is an exploration into God’s presence and voice in the most present and vocal avenues our world uses to communicate.

For God is timeless. He exists in time and out of time. And He is present in the now. He is just as alive and vibrant and vocal today as He was 2000 years ago and He will be 2000 years from now.

This blog is an exploration of God in the present tense. For He still speaks every single day. He is present in the culture. He is present in the pop.

He is a POP GOD.