((reposted from the Agora "Happiness" item, by permission of Richard)) #964 of 989: by Richard J. Wallner (richard) on Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (02:20): IHB quite without planning to, I ended up going to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert at Madison Square Garden this evening. I stopped off at 34th st. after work, because there's a Kmart across from the Garden, and happened by the box office where they were selling tickets. Now all Bruce's new york shows have been sold out for months, but to combat scalpers, he has tickets set aside that go on sale at the box office an hour or two before each show completely unannounced. I didnt know this. So at 7:50 pm, ten minutes before showtime, I end up buying a ticket for the show. I said, "got any nosebleed tickets left"? "sorry all we have is floor seats, fifty rows from the stage" Uh, Ok. I walked right in with a $65.00 ticket that was better that the tickets the scalpers were asking $200 for out on the street! Anyway, I hadnt seen a Springsteen show in a long time, more than 10 years, so it brought back memories. It was a great show, 3 1/2 hours+ with no opening act and no intermission and of the 20,000 people in the building, I didnt see anyone sitting the whole time. And there were no lasers, no pyrotechnics, no big video screens playing images, no trickery, just Bruce and the band jamming. Old style rock and roll. If you've never seen Springsteen live, he has a towering stage presence and an unbelievable amount of energy. When you see Bruce jamming with sax player Clarence Clemons on an extended "Tenth Avenue Freezeout" you can sense the chemistry and the bond they have. And then there's Bruce dueling guitars with Little Steven Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren. And then there's Bruce standing on top of the piano dancing while Roy Bittan does his piano solo. And then there's Bruce on top of the back of the stage playing to the crowd behind the stage, while Max Weinberg (who wasnt doing Conan O'Brien tonight obviously), goes wild on the drums. And he did some nice acoustic numbers when he needed to catch his breath, the acoustin version of BOrn in the USA, Thunder Road, and was joined by wife/band member Patti Sciafla for a beautiful version of "If I should fall behind wait for me" And then he comes back in about the fourth encore and does an extended "Born to Run", with Clemons sax solo of course, that runs about fifteen minutes and blows the roof off the place. The amazing thing about this concert was 20,000 people and *no cops* The nyc cops are boycotting working bruce's ny shows, because of a powerful new song he sings called "American Skin" This song is about a Haitian immigrant, a black man, who was shot last year in nyc by cops who thought the wallet he was holding in his hand was a gun. The unarmed man, Amadou Diallo, was shot 41 times. Its a beautiful, sad ballad full of fear and sadness, of how it isnt safe in some places to live in your own skin, you have to hide and be afraid. The chorus of the song is the repeated chant "41 shots...41 shots.....41 shots..." Again and again and again, to emphasize how many times the man was shot. 41 times. So the police are mad at Bruce and they boycotted the show, I didnt see a uniform within a mile of the Garden. Didnt need'em! of course being on the floor it was so loud my ears are going to be ringing for a week. But a great great show. Just the sort of spontaneous, spur of the moment unplanned thing I do every night of the week after work :)8 responses total.
forget.
I dunno, that would seem pretty hard for Richard to forget...
Well, it sounds like a *wonderful* concert experience for Richard! I'm glad that I heard about a Springsteen concert -- it sounds like it was really fantastic! (Though tiring -- My GOD! Three and a half plus hours on your feet?! After work? Grin.)
I've always regretted not having been around or paying attention when Springsteen was big the first time around, since I've heard repeatedly that he was _the_ act to see live. What do other people think -- is he still worth it?
I dunno lately, but back in the late-70's/early 80's when I saw him a couple times he was indeed about the best live act in the genre. 3+ hour shows, walking out with no voice, etc.
i hate bruce
(I'll add that I don't like anything he's done since the first two albums, more or less)
I used to think he was so yucky. My parents liked Bruce Springsteen while I was growing up. I actually have grown to dig some of his stuff over the past year or so.
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