The Vote For Change Tour wrapped up with a high-powered concert at Washington DC's MCI Center on Monday as a wide array of acts rocked the house in the name of political change. The acts have criss-crossed the country over the past weeks, playing 34 shows in nine so-called "battleground states", and attempting to convince music lovers to get out and vote in the upcoming US presidential elections.

John Mellencamp opened the show, performing hits including "Authority Song" and "Pink Houses". The lyrics to "Walk Tall" seemed to set the tone for the evening when he sang "The simple minded/And the uninformed/Can be easily led astray". It was obvious from the very beginning that the performers were there to entertain, but also to educate and inform.

Genre-crossing guest appearances and cover tunes were the order of the day. Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds covered Eric Clapton's "Change The World". Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Keb' Mo' did Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth". REM was joined by Bruce Springsteen on "Man On The Moon", while Pearl Jam provided a passionate rendering of Bob Dylan's "Masters Of War". James Taylor teamed up with The Dixie Chicks on "Sweet Baby James", "Some Days You Gotta Dance" and "Shower The People". The Chicks' reach exceeded their grasp when they covered Dylan's "Mississippi".

Crowd favorite Bruce Springsteen opened with an ornate twelve-string version of "The Star Spangled Banner". "No Surrender", recently used by the Kerry campaign, made an appearance, as did "Born In The USA". The latter was once almost hijacked by Ronald Reagan's handlers, until someone told them that it was ironic and not patriotic. Springsteen was joined onstage by John Fogerty, whose incendiary "Fortunate Son" seemed tailor-made for the occasion. Michael Stipe joined Bruce and the E-Street Band on a thunderous cover of Patti Smith's "Because The Night", while his bandmates Peter Buck and Mike Mills lent a hand on "Born To Run".

The message-laden finale brought all of the performers out for a run at Elvis Costello's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding", and Patti Smith's "People Have The Power".

James Taylor's advice for undecided voters: "Look at the two guys. Just choose the smart one."

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Air Canada Centre - July 4, 2000
The Diana Ross / Supremes Return To Love tour came to Toronto Tuesday, and delivered a show that was both an utter success and an absolute fiasco. The tour was announced late in 1999, and was rumoured to feature Ross, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong. Unfortunately, negotiations with these two former Supremes broke down, and Ross ended up touring with Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne, who were members of the Supremes after Diana left. And then there were the ticket prices, which were exorbitant. While the public might be willing to shell out the big bucks to see the Supremes, they weren't in a big hurry to buy tickets for this ersatz version.

The show began with Ross, Payne and Laurence atop an illuminated flight of stairs, in dresses that were a strange hybrid of ball gown and disco ball. Oh, yes, there was also a band. And an orchestra. And a small herd of dancers. With the onstage population at somewhere near 65, the ticket prices suddenly seemed so much more... reasonable. They opened the show with a crystal-clear version of "Reflections", delivered impeccably by Ross and her brand new old band. Next up were "My World Is Empty Without You", "Come See About Me", "Back In My Arms Again", and the set-of-love, featuring "Where Did Our Love Go?", "Baby Love", "Stop In The Name Of Love" and "You Can't Hurry Love". The audience managed to remain seated for the first four songs, but the relentless onslaught of fabulous Motown hits revved the initially cool crowd into a joyous, dancing mass. The army of musicians did a terrific job of capturing the beauty and power of the mighty Motown sound, and the vocalists gave a performance that was compelling and soulful. Ross seemed ecstatic and gave a powerful yet loose performance, laughing to herself on the few occasions when she flubbed the words. Leaving the stage for the first of many costume changes, Diana gave Laurence and Payne a chance to wow the audience with a pair of latter-day Supremes tunes. Diana appeared next in an outfit that seemed to feature the pelt of Sesame Street's Big Bird and belted out "I'm Coming Out", "Upside Down" and the theme to "Mahogany". The rest of the concert included a collection of Supremes favourites mixed with Motown classics like "(Reach Out) I'll Be There" and "Money". A breathtaking version of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" was easily the highlight of the set's second half. Despite the poor attendance, the lofty ticket prices and the odd lineup, the show somehow managed to exhilarate the initially staid audience. Diana and her new friends had a ball, and so did we.

Molson Amphitheatre - June 28, 2000
Steely Dan are an enigma. Somehow they managed a long, successful music career while avoiding the "album-tour" rut that so many other bands find themselves in. Their history was more along the lines of "album, tour, fire band, stop touring, hide away in studio endlessly crafting jazz-rock with (the most expensive) rented talent, stop recording". Donald Fagen and Walter Becker skipped the horrible drudgery of touring for about 7 years because they were too busy turning out masterpieces like "Pretzel Logic", "Aja" and "Gaucho". Then they went a step further, and got out of the horrible drudgery of making albums... Their fans endured a long dry spell from 1980 until 1994, when Becker and Fagen decided to resume touring after a twenty year hiatus.

Steely Dan's recent Toronto appearance gave the band a chance to get out of the studio and bring some of their finely-honed compositions to life. Since the band's output has required a lot of studio time and much help from the best session musicians around, Becker and Fagen would obviously have to find some extraordinarily talented musicians to help realize the band's diverse catalog onstage. And that's just what they did. The two studio whiz kids brought a crack team of ace musicians with them, including Cornelius Bumpus and Bob Sheppard on sax, John Herington on guitar, Tom Barney on bass and ace R&B drummer Ricky Lawson. Fagen spent most of the evening singing from behind his electric piano, while Becker happily noodled on guitar. The focus was on the entire ensemble, and Becker seemed amazed to be on stage with such a talented crew. Latter-day Dan has been heavily salted with jazz influences, and the show that was definitely not about serving up carbon copies of their greatest hits. Instead, players were encouraged to stretch out on the tunes and ordered not to play the solos as they were originally recorded. The audience enthusiastically greeted the show's openers, "The Boston Rag" and "Bodhisattva", despite the fact that Donald Fagen's vocals were drowned out by the band and the backup ringers, er, singers. A total of four selections from the band's latest release, Two Against Nature, were warmly received by the audience. "West of Hollywood", a brooding new track with a self-proclaimed "gnarly downside", closed the first set. The second set included most of the hits or almost-hits, starting with a lush version of "Deacon Blues". from Aja. "Dirty Work", sung back in 1972 by David Palmer, showcased the backup singers' considerable talent, with the girls each taking alternate verses. Impeccably tasteful versions of "Peg", "Kid Charlemagne" and "Don't Take Me Alive" closed the set. The encore started with a thumping, singalong version of "My Old School", and closed with "FM". Instead of hogging the spotlight and playing showy solos, Becker and Fagen seemed more interested in finding out what a talented ensemble could do with their tunes. The show was richly diverse and thoughtful, and Steely Dan's founders can be justifiably proud of their trip out of the studio.

Air Canada Centre, Toronto - May 4, 2000
Bruce Springsteen and his band were back with a vengeance tonight. While Wednesday's show was a great one, with a passionate delivery, an exuberant crowd and a setlist engineered for maximum pleasure, Thursday's outing managed to bring the audience just a little bit... more. Bruce's voice seemed stronger, and easily up to the challenge of the 3-hour show, where it broke up occasionally during the previous show. The audience's voice seemed stronger, too, and their willingness to join in gave Bruce and the E-Streeters a bit of a kick in the pants.

The setlist had been through some serious revision, giving the fans a taste of some seldom-played tracks. Where Wednesday's show included "Ties That Bind" and "Darkness On The Edge Of Town", Thursday's show opened with "Don't Look Back" and replaced "Darkness" with "Rendezvous" from the Tracks boxed set. "Arlington County" was replaced with "The Promised Land" and "Mansion On The Hill" was changed to be "Factory". One of the highlights of Wednesday's show, "The River", was a no-show, although Thursday's audience were ecstatic to hear "Point Blank", "Jungleland" and "Incident On 57th Street". The brooding, solo acoustic set was replaced by an acoustic full-band version of "No Surrender". Bruce's "preacher act" during "Tenth Avenue Freezeout" included a snippet of the Temptations' "My Girl" for his wife, Patti Scialfa, who recently rejoined the tour after being sidelined by a perforated eardrum (ow!).

The reunion tour will continue with 2 dates in Hartford starting May 7th and closing with a mammoth 10-night stand at Madison Square Gardens in New York City beginning June 12th. If these shows are anywhere close to the quality of the Toronto concerts, the fans will be in for a happy surprise.