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The Boss has been my favorite my whole life, the soundtrack to my life if you will. Born to Northeasterners and brought up in the eighties, I knew that Bruce was it. I even wrote my fifth grade Social Studies report on him after we were assigned to choose an “Amazing Americans”. My teacher didn’t get it.
That’s why last night was so special for me, seeing Bruce in concert is an experience everyone, whether they’re fans or not should have, because THAT is what a rock and roll concert is about – appreciating your fans by giving them more than their moneys worth, and making them feel inspired for days after.
Springsteen, now pushing sixty years old and his loyal and talented E Street Band all senior citizens as well, played the Sports Arena last night. His performance made me forget about the insane traffic and closed parking lots on the way, it made me forget about my terrible seats and the long line to go pee. Really, it made me forget about everything bad that ever happened in the entire world ever. EVER.
Exploding on stage with “Radio Nowhere” a song off his new album Magic, everyone was out of their seats and stayed that way the majority of the show. Magic is a great record, harkening back to his early days of romantic stories about working class folks, but now Bruce has the authority to get a little political on us which he did with “Living in the Future” another track off Magic. Bruce knows his fans and knows what they want and throughout the over two hour performance mixed it up with new songs off Magic and old classics like “She’s the One”, “Candy’s Room” and one of the highlights of the night – a nostalgic and powerful rendition of “Backstreets”. Bruce didn’t leave out “Lonesome Day” and a fist pumping, chills on your arms, version of “The Rising” off the The Rising album, written in response to 9/11. Patti Scialfa, his wife and member of the band, joined Bruce for a duet and the E Streeters were all on the top of their game, especially Stevie Van Zandt, singing into Bruce’s mike with him and squirming around on stage per usual. The first closing was to “Badlands” and then came the encore which included “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” one of the prettiest songs off Magic, his staple “Born to Run” and perfectly 80’s sounding “Dancing in the Dark” which had everyone doing their best Courtney Cox impression. Ok fine, maybe that was just me.
What is comes down to is this- Bruce IS an “Amazing American” like my fifth grade teacher assigned – he’s the epitome of patriotism. He loves America, enough to write songs about political and social change, and of course play a mind blowing show night after night for all of us. He’s playing a second show tonight and although it is sold out, word on the street is that Craigslist has been posting some pretty cheap prices. It’s worth it!
Bruuuuuuuuuuce!
Setlist after the jump
Radio Nowhere
No Surrender
Lonesome Day
Gypsy Biker
Magic
Reason to Believe
Candy's Room
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
The Promised Land
Town Called Heartbreak
Backstreets
Working on the Highway
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
photo by jon bando via flickr
