Oct 19, 2007

Bruce

There is one concert I have always wanted to see. More than the Stones, more than Joni Mitchell. I wanted to see Springsteen. And now I have.

I was kinda grouchy before the show started--they made us walk waaaay past our seats, and up the escalators in order to go back down to the floor. Which kinda sucked for me, since beestung-hobbling through a drunken crowd is less than fun. We got to our seats, did our best to ignore the completely wasted folks around us (in fact, let me just get this off my chest now: you paid a lot of money for these seats! I paid a lot of money for these seats! So don't you maybe want to be able to remember the show in morning? Or just SHUT UP and stop chatting amongst yourselves at the top of your voice? God.) I pulled out Atlantic Monthly and felt slightly pretentious.

But then Bruce came out, and I was over it. I was over the pain in my leg, the sounds of British Sea Power still echoing in my head, the annoying people, the fact that someone spilled beer over my (inherited) Gucci bag--Springsteen was playing.

He played a lot from Magic, but he played almost as much from Born To Run, so much so that we might have been seeing him on the Born To Run tour. Meeting Across The River into Jungleland were unbelievable. Reflective, cacophanous, and ecstatic. Like the best of Springsteen always is. Guy got all choked up at the point, while I came near to losing it during The Rising.

I see you Mary in the garden
In the garden of a thousand sighs
There's holy pictures of our children
Dancin' in a sky filled with light
May I feel your arms around me
May I feel your blood mix with mine
A dream of life comes to me
Like a catfish dancin' on the end of the line


Sniffle.

But You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) was hilarious and delightful...and Badlands. A song that I've loved but never quite understood--is it happy? is it sad? Who knows. It rocked.


Are there other songs I would have loved to have heard? Of course. I'd'a been pumpin' my fists for Adam Raised a Cain, and couldn't we pretty please have heard one more song from Born In The USA? But all this means is that I want to see him again. Bruce can play whatever the hell he wants--whatever makes him happy. Because nothing is better than seeing someone having such a fantastic time.

18,000 people singing Born To Run (and not just the ho-ohhhhhs--we all knew all the words) made me forgive the drunken chatties, in some sort of amazing spirit of togetherness and Americanness and striving through disappointment and just shouting with joy....that's all I wanted.




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

October 18, 2007
New York, New York
Madison Square Garden

Radio Nowhere
Night
Lonesome Day
Gypsy Biker
Magic
Reason To Believe
Candy's Room
She's The One
Livin' In The Future
The Promised Land
Tougher Than The Rest
Meeting Across The River (Tour Premiere)
Jungleland (Tour Premiere)
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last To Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands

Girls In Their Summer Clothes
Thundercrack
Born To Run
Dancing In The Dark
American Land

Anonymous said...

I can't believe the stuff you get to do. Brat!