CD Review: The 12-12-12 Concert Release Highlights Performances, And Misses Others

When hurricane “Sandy” hit the coast of New Jersey last year, you knew things were going to change forever. As fellow “Jersey boy” Jon Bon Jovi said, “The storm lasted one day. The effects of it are going to last a lifetime.” So Bon Jovi, along with fellow New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen decided to hold a concert to support the Robin Hood Relief Fund which aided those affected by hurricane “Sandy.”

The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger exclaimed that “this has got to be the largest collection of old English musicians ever assembled at Madison Square Garden.” He was definitely on cue with that statement as the concert invited the likes of Roger Waters, The Who, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones to join fellow musicians Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Billy Joel and others in raising money to benefit the Robin Hood Relief Fund. The concert itself lasted over four hours and was broadcasted over television, the internet and in movie theaters across the world.

Two weeks later, iTunes released a digital version of the concert, which became one of the top selling albums that week. One month later, Columbia Records released a 2CD set featuring two hours of highlights from the “12-12-12” concert.

The high points from disc 1 include almost the entire set from Roger Waters as he performs the Pink Floyd classics, “Another Brick In The Wall,” “Us And Them” and “Comfortably Numb” along with the help of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. This disc also features the all-too quick two-song sets from The Rolling Stones.

The second disc gives us highlights of The Who and Billy Joel’s sets and starts off with a great live version of “No One” by Alicia Keys. Coldplay’s Chris Martin receives help from Michael Stipe on R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion,” but it’s the Coldplay songs “Viva La Vida” and “Us Against The World” that ring true.

Now the downside with both discs is there are many outstanding performances that were left off this release, like the one-of-a-kind duet between Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi on “Born To Run” and Paul McCartney’s collaboration with the surviving members of Nirvana for “Cut Me Some Slack.” While I understand that this 2CD is to capture the emotions of that concert, I personally would have rather have seen other songs take the place of Adam Sandler’s “Hallelujah.”

Let’s not forget that the main purpose of this release is to help raise money with a portion of each album sold going to the Robin Hood Relief Fund. To find out more about this album and its cause, please visit 121212concert.org.