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!

It was a cold night in Boston, and Fenway was frozen under a layer of ice (actually, an entire hockey rink) but it felt like the middle of the baseball season.  It was the tenth anniversary of the annual Hot Stove Cool Music concert, but it was my first time at the event.  I had given tickets to some friends and family members for Christmas, and we all met up beforehand at the Bleacher Bar.  The restaurant was constructed a couple of years ago in a wedge-shaped space under the bleachers that used to house batting cages, and it has a large window that overlooks center field.  I had actually never eaten there before, because I’ve always been during the baseball season when it’s packed and hard to get a table, but we were seated without a wait and we all found a hot sandwich on the menu that we liked.  We also got to look out onto the field to see the rink constructed for the NHL’s Winter Classic game in which the Bruins had played on New Year’s Day.  There were college hockey games scheduled for this weekend, so the rink was still up.

The hockey rink in Fenway Park, as seen from the Bleacher Bar.

We saw skaters out there while we ate, presumably from high school or college teams or local organizations.  A couple of people came into the bar later on carrying skates, and we saw people with hockey sticks walking down the street.  When we were done eating, we walked across the street to the House of Blues, and got in line for the concert just in time to go in when the doors opened.

The concert is the brainchild of writer Peter Gammons and is a fundraiser for the Foundation To Be Named Later, an organization founded by Theo Epstein and his brother Paul to support local children’s charities.  There were silent auctions and raffles, as well as the chance to have pictures taken with the Red Sox’ World Series trophies for an additional donation.

Bronson Arroyo opened with a 5-song set, including an original song I hadn’t heard before.  He’s not doing any individual concerts in the Boston area this winter, so it was good to hear him as part of this event.  He was followed by The Low Anthem, then Kay Hanley, who was joined onstage by Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys to sing “The Dirty Glass”.  In between acts, actor Mike O’Malley acted as emcee and chatted with Gammons about some of the recent Red Sox signings.

The Hot Stove Cool Music All-Stars included Peter Gammons, Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom, members of The J. Geils Band and The Gentlemen, and for a couple of songs, Theo Epstein and Lenny DiNardo.  I had never heard Theo participate in anything other than “Rockin’ in the Free World” before, and I didn’t realize DiNardo was going to be there, so that was cool.

My only regret was that I didn’t bring my good camera.  I had read online about the House of Blues’ camera gestapo, so I figured there was no way I could bring my big camera in.  But they must have relaxed their policy for this special charitable event, because they never checked bags and people were taking pictures all night with no problem.  That left me trying to snap grainy “Bigfoot sighting” photos on my low-res cellphone camera instead, but now I know for next year.

It's Bronson Arroyo (second from left), Kevin Youkilis (third from left), and Theo Epstein (under the "H") onstage with State Radio, the Loch Ness Monster, a Leprechaun, and the Tooth Fairy. Really it is.

There were other auctions done live between the different acts.  Kevin Youkilis was on hand to assist with auctioning off a baseball signed by David Ortiz, one signed by himself, and a box of cigars autographed by Luis Tiant.  Then it was time for supergroup Tinted Windows, and finally State Radio.  At the end of their set, State Radio invited the other musicians back up on the stage for a final song.  Arroyo came out with a tambourine, Epstein joined on guitar, and Youk assisted with backup vocals, as we finally heard Theo’s specialty “Rockin’ in the Free World”.  It was a fun night, and I look forward to going again next year.

Last night I saw Bronson Arroyo in concert in Foxboro.  I bought the tickets for myself and four friends as a Christmas gift, then had to make up a story that I was having a dinner party so they would save the date without me having to tell them ahead of time.  Showcase Live, in Patriot Place next to Gillette Stadium, was a good venue.  We were seated at tables which started right up close to the stage; I was probably only ten feet away.  Dinner was available before the show, and waiter service continued throughout.  (The appetizers were expensive and small, and drinks were not cheap, but the burgers were huge and delicious.)

Bronson took the stage accompanied by his band – two guitarists, a drummer, a three-person string section, and the versatile Elan Trotman, who played sax, tenor sax, flute, and keyboards.  He sang a couple of the songs off his 2005 album, Covering the Bases, plus a lot of new covers.  One highlight was Augustana’s “Boston” to which he sang modified lyrics:

I said I think I’ll go to Boston, I think I need to come back.  I think I need a ballpark where all the fans are there.  I gotta get out of Cincinnati, I’m tired of the summer.  I think I need the Olde Towne to fill my heart again…  Yeah, Boston, where everyone knows my name.

He also sang a song called “Painted It All Yellow” (thanks to Toeing the Rubber for finding out the title) which he wrote himself.  He acknowledged a guy in the crowd with a Wily Mo Pena t-shirt.  (Pena was the player the Red Sox got in the ill-advised 2006 trade that sent Bronson to Cincinnati.)  He said he had bumped into Theo Epstein at Fenway Park the day before and Theo joked that he was sick of getting blamed for that trade and he was going to start blaming the Assistant GMs who were in charge at the time.  I was hoping that Theo would join Bronson onstage, like he had at a 2007 concert I had been to, but it turned out there was no Theo sighting.  (With his Hot Stove Cool Music concert scheduled for the next night, I guess he didn’t want to play two nights in a row.  Besides, he needs to stay at home and work on signing a catcher!)

Bronson finished up with “Dirty Water”, then autographed CDs and t-shirts and posed for pictures.

Here’s the end of “Dirty Water”:

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