I think my resistance to the Boss always stemmed from the fact that my aunt loved him so much. When it was announced that he was going to tour his new album (his first tour without the Big Man), I told my aunt and she had me get tickets. I had the momentous task of trying to get 4 tickets together for the on-sale day at Madison Square Garden for Bruce Springsteen! My fellow bloggers know of my love/hate, mostly hate relationship with Ticketmaster™ (not quite the master of tickets they lead you into believing). So I was patiently and pensively waiting online at 10 o’clock in the morning. I was refreshing the page, trying to beat out the other 100,000 people trying to buy tickets; mostly to resell on the black market by the way. I had another person at work also trying to get tickets, so I had a backup plan in place. I was shocked that I found four really good tickets from Ticketmaster, so I snatched them up with hesitation.
Fast forward a few months to April 6th. I took a half day from work and was kind of excited to see the show that evening. It was going to be my usual concert accomplice, my aunt, and a lawyer from my Uncle’s office and her fiancé, we’ll call them Alison and Frank. My uncle e-mailed us and said he would pick us up at my place at 1:43, he was 2 minutes late--very unlike him. We still had plenty of time to catch the 2:11 train. It was a little chilly that day, but in the sun it wasn’t bad. The train was filling up fast and by the time we were in Fairfield, it was pretty packed, I didn’t know how we would fit the Stamford people on the train.
After the train pulled in, we met Alison and Frank at the clock and we were on our way to meet one of my uncle’s friends Andrew who works on the Today Show. Andrew found a really good burger joint called 5 Napkin Burger (although they only give you one napkin). We could only get 4:30 reservations, so an early dinner it was. We sat down and perused the menu and waited for Andrew at the appointed time. Andrew showed up and we talked and ate, and had a milkshake and ate some more. I got the bacon cheeseburger, sans bun. It was so juicy and the beef was so flavorful. This was no frozen cow! It tasted like an mixture of cuts of beef and played a symphony with my taste buds. I had steamed broccoli with way too much garlic as my side. Our waitress was a little crazy, but harmless. My aunt actually finished all the food on her plate (she rarely ever does this) so I know I wasn’t the only person enjoying my food. After dinner, it was such a nice night in the greatest city on earth so we decided to hoof it over the many blocks to Madison Square Garden. The ticket said the doors opened at 6:30 for a 7:30 show. It was nice to have early dinner reservations and not have to rush to eat then rush to the show.
When we got to the Garden, they were doing construction so there were scaffolds all over the place. The Borders had closed since the last time I was there to see Elton John last year in March, 2011. After about twenty minutes of loitering, we parted ways with my uncle and Andrew and we went into The Garden. They can blog about what kind of trouble they got into while we were at the show, but I’m guessing it involved some really sweet diet breaking desserts if I know my Uncle and his penchant for sweets.
We made it through security which was a breeze, until I guess Frank looked suspicious and one of the guards decided to ‘randomly’ pat him down. Frank made a joke about it after. I can’t pass the merch table without stopping to take a look. I like to collect posters and one day I will have to build a room to display all the posters I have collected over the past decade and a half of concert going. I was going to get the guitar pick set, but I figured The Boss already had enough of my money from the poster and shot glass and ticket price.
With poster in hand, we made our way to the ticket scanners and up the escalators the many levels to our gate. When I was inside the lobby I noticed a new tile floor and new walls. When I got into the arena, I noticed they got rid of those awful looking hard plastic purple seats and went with nice dark blue upholstered seats. I was kind of curious why they did this because I’m pretty sure they were going to tear down the Garden in a few years. The renovation really gave it a much needed face lift, but left the charm of the greatest venue in the world! We found our seats and sat down around 7 thinking we only had a half an hour till show time, boy were we mistaken. The Garden was completely empty. I thought maybe we read the tickets wrong, but sure enough it said 7:30. So 7:30 came and went and so did 8:00. The only artist I know that starts right on the dot is Ringo. He will come out singing at 8 even if there isn’t a band. Forty minutes isn’t an excessive amount of time to wait and that’s about how long it was. You know the concert is about to start when the camera operators get into position at their cameras. They had 2 impressive HD studio cameras positioned on the floor. There were at least 2 roaming cameras and a few fixed cameras. I noticed right before the show started they flashed a test pattern on the big screens, but only for 10 seconds.
I cheated and looked at the set lists from the previous shows. I saw that he always starts with We Take Care of Our Own from the new album. So were we surprised when at 8:20 Frank Sinatra started singing New York, New York as the E Street Band shuffled out on stage one by one. This was my cue to put my 20db lowering ear plugs in my ears. The crowd was electric at the mere sight of the band. Everyone was pensively holding their best applause for when The Boss came out and made his way to the mic. He yelled “NEW YORK CITY!” and counted off and the band launched into Badlands. After a very energetic Badlands, they went right into the usual show opener, We Take Care of Our Own. Bruce played this song to open the Grammys® this year. The song has a nice beat and the keyboard part is very reminiscent of his older songs. ‘Stevie’ was called over to help the Boss at the end of song with the vocal. Without missing a beat, Max started Wrecking Ball. The references to the ‘swamps of Jersey’ got quite a response from the sold out crowd. The last time I saw the Boss (at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert at MSG in 2009) his voice was harsh and rough. I am glad I was there to see a show with the Big Man. Tonight except for a few times, his voice was in excellent condition. The horn section was well arranged and The Big Man’s nephew did an admiral job of stepping into his Uncle’s shoes. At the end of Wrecking Ball, Bruce switched guitars and counted off the next song. They launched into Out in the Street. For about an hour there was no break, they went from one song to the next.
This setlist drew heavily from the new album. Death to My Hometown is a Celtic infused ditty complete with a fake bagpipe part mimicked by a trumpet and flute. The horns launched into the intro for My City of Ruins, which gave Bruce the chance to bring it down a bit and talk to the crowd with a “good evening New York.” He casually mentioned members of the E Street Band that weren’t there tonight. This was the first lull in the evening where there was a break between songs.
Max started his drum beat for MURDER INCORPORATED. During this song, Bruce did one of his a-tonal guitar solos where he was pretty close to the correct key, but just off enough. He is quite a shredder and can fake it quite well. Bruce and Steve were trading licks while Max played like a metronome keeping a steady beat. Although I didn’t know most of the songs, they have good melody lines and since you can tell all the members are having a ball it makes you fell good. During Johnny 99 Roy (the Professor) played one hell of a piano solo which was followed by a weird violin solo.
The lights were brought all the way down and he introduced the next song which was the first real political song. Jack of All Trades was excruciatingly slow and a typical “beer break/bathroom” song. The lyrics were forced and the message is too upfront hitting you over the head. I could have done without this song. About an hour into the show Bruce was getting a bit horse. The energy was still there though, so I forgive him. He did a new bright pop sounding song from the new album called Shackled & Drawn.
Lions Den was next. I was reading an article where Nils was defending their use of teleprompters when he said they have played over 150 different songs on this tour and there is no way to remember all the words. I like when artists aren’t afraid to change things up, it seems like each show he will play different songs. A couple times Bruce yelled out song titles and by doing this, I’m sure they weren’t on the setlist or at least not in that order. He yelled out Easy Money which was vocally challenging for him, then he made the mistake of calling his wife over to sing him and she was so off key it was actually painful. The little girl he called up for the next song sang better and she was extremely flat. Sorry Patty.
Up next is one of my favorite songs which I thought was older than it actually is, I thought it was from his hey-day, but actually from 2002. Waiting on the Sunny Day was very energetic. You could tell he was a little out of breath from running around because he had a hard nailing the pitch for most of this song. He pulled a six year old girl from the pit and let her sing during the breakdown. I don’t know if he was tired and needed someone to cover or if this is something he always does.
Bruce got a harmonica and belted out the easily recognizable opening to The Promised Land. After this he did the Apollo medley of Motown hits with a lot of talking in between. After the rousing medley, Bruce sang his highly controversial song American Skin about a police shooting. I think the NYC police boycotted this song at one time. Another wonderfully a-tonal guitar solo by the Boss. The show’s set list was heavily drawn from his 2002 critically acclaimed album The Rising. The next two songs Lonesome Day and the title track were enjoyable.
We Are Alive was a strange song, it had a bit in there that sounded a lot like he borrowed the trumpet line from Ring of Fire. I could have also done without this song.
It was worth the wait because the Boss had a few more hits up his sleeve. He had a masterful way of building to the crescendo of hits. Bruce played a really bad bum note on the harmonica right before he started to sing the next song. After a thunderous rendition of Thunder Road, the band left the stage at which time it was the audience’s turn to clap for three minutes while they hosed down The Boss and got him ready for the encores.
The Boss went rouge and did a new song to open his encores. He dedicated this song to the “kid” aka his mother. This song is about his mother teaching him about hard work. At this point Bruce mentioned that his family was in the show, including his mother. There was a ‘rap’ breakdown during this gospel infused song sung by Michelle Moore.
Up next was an old song that went on way to long and didn’t seem like an encore song. Kitty’s Back was a ridiculous choice for an encore. Sitting through that song was worth it for the last three songs The Boss sang. They were the heavy hitters of the show. Born to Run was its usual arrangement full of vim and vigor from the band leader and songwriter. During Dancing in the Dark, there were these two guys in our section who were in their late twenties that came dressed like the Born in the USA album cover complete with the bandana in the back pocket. During this song they were dancing and having a fun time. Halfway through the song during the part where Courtney Cox would be dancing with Bruce, he pulled his mother who is pushing 90 up on stage to join him. Now I know where the Boss got his moves, that granny can dance! Bruce even said “shake the booty Grandma!” The fact that stage hands had to bodily lift her over the barrier made me think it was not planned like it was the week before in Pennsylvania when they did it. There was an extended sax solo by Jake while mother and son danced the night away.
The Professor started the piano riff to Tenth Ave Freeze Out. I was wondering where the big Clarence tribute was going to be and being a casual fan, I know there is mention of him in this song about the Big Man joining the bad. Bruce climbed up on the piano and was getting the audience behind the stage on their feet. He sang most of the song from the catwalk in the pit on the floor. Right before the verse about Clarence, he announced that “this is the important part” and sang the verse without band accompaniment. Then there was almost two minutes of deafening applause while the audience cheered for Clarence and wept while they had nice video of Clarence and Bruce from all stages of their career playing. After the video tribute Max started the song again at the end, the band took their final bows. The Boss said “Thank you New York City!” and said “see you Monday!” For most of the encore, the crowd was on their feet and gave Bruce and the band quite an impressive and loud reception. Almost three hours after it started it was over. Even someone who was so anti-Boss as I was blown away, there I said it Alison! Mind you he can’t hit some notes anymore and his voice is rougher than in the early days, but the energy and passion is there that more than makes up for his vocal shortcomings.
After getting out of the arena and taking the “1” to Time Square then the shuttle to Grand Central and making the 12:15 train home only to have my train ticket stolen and, I was in my bed sleeping by 2am. The late night trains makes every stop known to man; it even stopped at towns I’ve never heard of, like Willoughby. What a great show and there will be Beach Boys show reviews coming next month. So stay tuned for that.
We Take Care of Our Own
Wrecking Ball
Out in the Street
Death to My Hometown
My City of Ruins
MURDER INC.
Johnny 99
Jack of All Trades
Shackled and Drawn
Lion’s Den
Easy Money
Waiting On A Sunny Day
Promised Land
Apollo Medley
American Skin (41 Shots)
Lonesome Day
The Rising
We Are Alive
Thunder Road
Encore
Rocky Ground
Kitty’s Back
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out
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