How does a person end up seeing Bruce Springsteen twice in two days in two different cities?

One might legitimately ask this. And one might ask this of me, because I will be seeing Bruce Sunday night in Dallas and Monday night in Houston.

I do not own any Bruce Springsteen albums or singles. I have never before been to a Bruce Springsteen concert. I am not even a regular concertgoer . . . I believe the last one I saw was Bright Eyes, about a year ago.

So, how does this happen? Well, it starts with having a friend who is so in love with Springsteen that he sends out summaries like this when he attends a Springsteen concert:

Bruce Springsteen

Anaheim, Show #2

April 8, 2008

Anaheim Show #2.

So where to begin?

Context is important. Bruce is almost 60, and his sax man is almost 70.

First thing first, I have to break down the “Third Person” narrative, and report as myself. I, me, my.

To start, I have been disappointed by Bruce Springsteen in the past. In the 90’s he toured with a Non- E Street Band group, and then there was The Reunion Tour where The E Street Band got back together. Both Tours were disappointments to me. They were OK, but nothing more.

So here comes the 3 shows that I have really liked prior to Tuesday. The E Street Band and Bruce seem to really be playing fantastic together.

Then comes Anaheim Night #2. Tuesday night.

There is a legendary Bruce song from the album “Born To Run” called “Thunder Road”. “Thunder Road” is the invitation. A welcome in. The introduction. It builds to an anthem ending where a shout from the rooftops declares, “It’s a town full of losers, I’m pulling out of here to wiiiiiiiiiiiin!!!!!” This song, in concert, is reserved for the finale. It is the slow concert climb to the mountaintop, the crescendo, the place where Bruce plants the flag, stands with arms outstretched, and admires his work.

See it here from 1978. Seven minutes long, and worth it. It is important to watch it before continuing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf61K6ZKu_4 I have had this exact song on cassette for 25 years, played it at least hundreds of times, and always imagined myself there. So click that link.

OK, yeah…Tuesday night.

Calliope plays, stage is dark. The first song starts, a quiet piano intro. At NOTE # 2 of the quiet intro, there is a collective gasp from 15,000 people. No joke, no exaggeration. The collective gasp collectively exhales. OH MY GOD!!! It can’t be! Queue Bruce’s harmonica, and there is a roar from the crowd that sounds like a 747 taking off. Thunder Road to start the show???!!!!! It just can’t be!!

This is gonna sound so stupid…but I don’t care. I turn to hug Barbra and I think my eyes are watering. Then I get to do something I have imagined so many times. With 15,000 others I scream, “Show a little faith there’s magic in the night. You ain’t a beauty but Hey you’re alright.”

WOW!

This is the start of the show??!! Where the heck can this go, and what kind of ride are we going on??!!

Forget “The Message” from Night #1 “School Of Rock”. Out the window. This show was Mythic. Played on Olympus, for the Gods to see. Urgency? Damn right. Power? Plenty. A little taste of “The Message” too. The song selection? Maybe the best I’ve seen since 1980.

I could provide the Set List, but who cares? What I can say is that Barbra and I saw a legendary Bruce, a legendary E Street. Yeah they’re old, so the context of my “legendary” comment goes with it. They are not in their 20’s.

You won’t understand what I’m about to say because you aren’t familiar with it. But in the encore, when Bruce started with Meeting Across The River, and transitioned that into Jungleland we were in rarified air. The kind of combo that gets whispered about, and “I-was-there”ed about. A kind of “only rarely in New Jersey maybe” kind of performance that keeps Visions Of Sugar Plumbs dancing through the heads of fans.

Again from 1978. Again, I’ve played this song hundreds of times hoping, maybe someday…

“Meeting” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ7kTxHLJss&feature=related

“Jungleland” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH_NvYPBDY0&feature=related

When I heard the first strains of “Meeting” another collective inhale from the crowd. Myth was becoming reality for all of us. On the West Coast we couldn’t POSSIBLY hope for Meeting / Jungleland. I told Barbra what it was, and what she was experiencing. How if he transitioned to Jungleland she was experiencing a legendary show. And damned if Jungleland didn’t follow.

I couldn’t sleep last night. Too excited. Too Bruce Juiced.

Barbra e-mailed me this morning. She has been to 4 shows on this tour. Important term “this tour”. Guess how many different songs she has heard? Guess. Same tour, same shows right? Same songs, right?. 2 back to back shows late last year, 2 back to back shows this year. Can’t be that different, right?

Barbra e-mails me that she has seen 41 DIFFERENT songs.

What a night. What a show. What a performer.

On to Dallas, where our friend Lisa . . . . will be seeing her first Bruce show. She doesn’t know from Bruce, she just knows my passion. Heck, you might even get bored at the show, right Lisa? We don’t know. We will see how the “Eight Years of mismanagement” message goes over in Texas. I think Bruce might reserve a special comment or two. Barbra and I can't wait to see you Lisa!

Report from Texas will follow.

B-r-r-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-c-c-e.

I’m spent! Just writing this review has exhausted me.

Reported By

Jim

Then, the friend (i.e., me) who reads that kind of review (for a concert on a different tour, years ago) thinks, "What kind of phenomenon leads a person to write that way about a concert experience?" So she invites Jim and his girlfriend to come to Texas so they can experience Bruce together in Dallas. Then, because everything is bigger in Texas, she says, "Heck, why not double the experience and road trip together to Houston to see him the next night, too?"

What she does not know when her friends say, "Great! Let's do it!" is that they already have tickets for two back-to-back Bruce shows in Anaheim the week before, which means they will be seeing Bruce four times in eight days. (If she had known this, she might have thought the problem was pathological in nature).

So, now she waits with baited breath for the arrival of her friends on Saturday morning, so she can show them some things she loves about the state where she has spent the last 20 years, and so she can learn a little about the musician her friend Jim has loved for even longer than that.

Have a great weekend, people!