Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

The idea was to get into the city in time to see the rockin' rebel Steve Earle in concert. We were on an extremely tight schedule but we had done the math, as they say. Robbie Burns was right, however, when he spoke of the schemes of mice and men ganging aft a-gley. What happened was that a white car, travelling at tremendous speed, emerged out of nowhere and ploughed right into the side of our bus, forcing it off the road and almost into the oncoming traffic. It all happened so fast that life didn't have time to flash by. Anyway, by the time the medics were done treating the injured and the police were done taking statements and a replacement bus had arrived and we had gotten to our destination, seeing Steve Earle was no longer an option.

All that happened on the evening of 2 November on the Long Island Expressway as we made our way from Kennedy Airport to Manhattan. Steve Earle was playing down in the East Village in CBGBs, home of The Ramones, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Blondie and Television. To make the occasion even more memorable, Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme (The Silence Of The Lambs) was shooting footage of the gig. He's directed the video of Earle's "Rich Man's War", the second single from his critically acclaimed and highly political new album "The Revolution Starts...Now." What a hilarious way to spend the election evening, we thought, listening to Earle lambaste George W. Bush in the heart of the true blue city. If you're not familiar with Earle's stance, here's a sample from his sporadic blog:

"Richard Nixon began pulling our guys out of Vietnam only when he and his government began to fear chaos in the streets of America. We can do this. We have to. We have the advantage of the largest anti-war movement ever mobilized before a single shot was fired. These are our sons and our daughters (along with tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens) who are dying every day. The most important thing is that we never lose hope. This will take whatever it will take."

Not so sure if "tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens" are "dying every day" but you get the picture. Steve Earle is passionate. Naturally, we don't think much of his skills as a political analyst but we love his singing, admire his courage and support his right to speak his mind. And that's why we trudged off into the murky fog last night to see him play. Grafinger Straße is a long way from the Bowery, but getting to the Metropolis proved less life-threatening than to CBGBs.

And the gig? Great! The two-hour set began with "The Revolution Starts", the opening track from the new album, and segued into the second song, "Home to Houston". After "Condi, Condi", with its come-on line "People say you're cold but I think you're hot", the crowd was very much on his side and it was a blast from there on in.

Two classics during the encore: The Beatles' "Revolution" and "Sweet Virginia" by the Rolling Stones. As regards the band, guitarist Eric "Roscoe" Ambel is marvellous, and Allison Moorer's powerful voice is sweet when needs be and plaintive when required. Everything about the Earle-Moorer body language on stage suggests that love is in the air. Lucky ole Steve.