Bronson Arroyo at Showcase Live
Friday, December 17, 2010 – Showcase Live, Foxboro
Bronson Arroyo performs at Showcase Live.
The week after the Fenway Park Yard Sale brought one of my other favorite off-season activities – the chance to see Bronson Arroyo in concert. He was performing at Showcase Live at Patriot Place in Foxboro, a relaxed venue where we had seen him do a show two years ago. Since all the tickets were General Admission, we made sure to arrive early enough to be seated at a table right up next to the stage. We ate dinner (I enjoyed a burger, and the nachos the people next to us ordered looked good, too) as we waitied for the show to start.
Bronson’s band featured Dave Matthews on drums and Elan Trotman on everything else (keyboard, bass, sax) and he did his usual mix of songs off his “Covering the Bases” album as well as some newer covers. I hadn’t heard him sing Edwin McCain’s “Sorry to a Friend” or Chad Perrone’s “Madison” before.
Bronson Arroyo with Elan Trotman.
I’m always on the lookout for an appearance by Theo Epstein at these concerts, but the only “special guest” of the night was Bronson’s Boston limo driver, who dressed like Elvis and sang “Can’t Help Falling In Love”. Arroyo did tell his usual joke though, the one where he tells us how he sends a text message to Theo every year to see if he can work out at Fenway Park when he’s in the area, and makes sure to ask him how Wily Mo is doing. It was Theo who traded Bronson to the Cincinnati Reds for Wily Mo Peña, who, to put it nicely, never did live up to his potential with the Sox.
Bronson also performed another old favorite, “Rockin’ in the Free World”, shown here with Elan Trotman walking through the crowd during his solo:
After the show, he came back out to sign autographs and pose for pictures with the fans. My friend and I waited in the line to get a picture, but the photo came out so blurry I can’t use it. I guess I’ll just have to go back next year!
