Today will be a three-post mega-update. The reason for this is because Hurricane Sandy struck earlier this week, and, while I was able to prep on Monday and write an update early, I was not able to prep for Tuesday because I was without internet and power. I already knew that I was going to write two for Halloween. Turns out it will just be three today. This is the second.
This is a quicker post. This is a very straightforward, unable to be interpreted writing prompt. To make it slightly longer, I’ll post them with my three favorite songs from each. This won’t be as hard as you’d think – I keep a spreadsheet of the setlists for the concerts I’ve seen. I also keep track of the official studio releases to see what songs I’ve seen in concert, and which ones I haven’t. I’ve only seen all the songs off of Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town live, though, it’s important to note, Bruce did all of these during his “album” sections of his tours – 2009 at Giants Stadium and beyond. To answer the first part of the question, I’ve seen Bruce live 16 times.
1) October 2nd, 2004 in Cleveland, OH. Vote for Change ‘04 tour. Nosebleeds.
a. Top 3 songs:
i. (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding?
ii. Bad Moon Rising
iii. The Promised Land
2) July 18th, 2005 in Buffalo, NY. Devils and Dust tour. Seats on the floor.
a. Top 3 songs:
i. Reason to Believe
ii. Dream, Baby, Dream
iii. Jesus Was An Only Son
3) November 4th, 2007 in Cleveland, OH. Magic Tour. General Admission.
a. Top 3 songs:
i. Be True
ii. Girls in their Summer Clothes
iii. Born to Run
4) November 11th, 2007 in Washington DC. Magic Tour. Nosebleeds.
a. Top 3 songs:
i. No Surrender
ii. I’ll Work For Your Love
iii. Growin’ Up
5) March 6th, 2008 in Rochester, NY. Magic Tour. General Admission (at the front of the pit, against the stage!)
a. Top 3 songs:
i. Jackson Cage
ii. Rosalita
iii. Racing in the Street
6) March 7th, 2008 in Buffalo, NY. Magic Tour (General Admission)
a. Top 3 songs:
i. Thunder Road
ii. Night
iii. Reason to Believe
7) March 24th, 2008 in Columbus, OH. Magic Tour (General Admission)
a. Top 3 Songs:
i. The Ties that Bind
ii. Something in the Night
iii. You’ll Be Coming Down
8) October 5th, 2008 in Columbus, OH. Vote for Change ’08 (General Admission – Front row!)
a. Top 3 Songs:
i. Thunder Road
ii. Youngstown
iii. This Land is Your Land
9) April 21st, 2009 in Boston, MA – Working on a Dream tour (Nosebleeds)
a. Top 3 Songs:
i. I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide
ii. The Wrestler
iii. Kingdom of Days
10) April 22nd, 2009 in Boston, MA – Working on a Dream Tour (Nosebleeds)
a. Top 3 Songs:
i. I Wanna Be Sedated
ii. Spirit in the Night
iii. Jungleland
11) October 2nd, 2009 – East Rutherford, NJ – Working on a Dream tour (GA Pit)
a. Top 3 songs:
i. Wrecking Ball
ii. Jailhouse Rock
iii. Bobby Jean
12) October 8th, 2009 – East Rutherford, NJ – Working on a Dream tour (General Admission)
a. Top 3 songs:
i. Human Touch
ii. My Love Will Not Let You Down
iii. Twist and Shout
13) April 4th, 2012 – East Rutherford, NJ – Wrecking Ball tour (General Admission Pit)
a. Top 3 Songs:
i. Death to My Hometown
ii. Trapped
iii. Ramrod
14) April 9th, 2012 – New York, NY – Wrecking Ball tour (nosebleeds)
a. Top 3 Songs:
i. Out in the Street
ii. Spirit in the Night
iii. Backstreets
15) September 21st, 2012 – East Rutherford, NJ – Wrecking Ball Tour (GA Pit)
a. Top 3 Songs:
i. Living on the Edge of the World
ii. From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)
iii. Incident on 57th Street
16) September 22nd 2012 – East Rutherford, NJ – Wrecking Ball tour (GA Pit)
a. Top 3 Songs:
i. Cynthia
ii. Who’ll Stop the Rain
iii. In the Midnight Hour
To make this truly MY post, I need to wedge in one story about myself regarding having seen Bruce 16 times. As always, it involves my wife, though, she wasn’t my wife at the time.
On October 8th, 2009, my girlfriend at the time (my wife now) went with my buddy Erik and me to the Giants Stadium show in East Rutherford. As we milled about prior to the show starting, she asked what would happen once we got in to the show. We were guaranteed GA, but not the Pit. The night before, we’d been at a place where Bruce crowd surfed, only we’d moved prior to his actual crowd surfing to get in to the Pit. We were really upset at ourselves, because we would’ve had a chance to have Bruce surf over us, and we didn’t get that chance. We’d always said we really wanted a high five from Bruce, and we screwed ourselves out of that chance. More on that later today.
We told her we were going to find a spot at the front of the general admission floor section, but not the pit. She asked “what about bathrooms?” I told her “No bathrooms in there, but we can stake out our spot, and come back to it – Erik will have to wait while we go, and we’ll have to wait while he goes.” So we get in, we find our spot – pretty much exactly the same as the night before. We marveled at our luck to be there again. We decided to go and get some sodas and go to the bathroom, not necessarily in that order.
As we stood in front of the port-a-johns, I made mention of the fact that this may be the first place she’d have been where the line for the men’s room moved slower than the line for the ladies’ room. My wife finished up before me, and was waiting for me to finish as some late forties guy struck up a conversation with her.
“Waiting for your boyfriend?”
“Yeah, he’s taking forever.”
“Your first Bruce show?”
“No, I actually saw him at Ohio State on the oval.”
“So number two?”
“Yep.” At this point, she saw me walking toward her. She pointed at me, and said, “This is his twelfth show!”
“That’s nice.” He was nonplussed.
“How many shows have you seen?” She was a bit defensive of his lack of amazement at my devotion to Bruce. “Ah, I lost track around a hundred.”
I walked up to her, hearing the last exchange. We walked toward the soda stand as she waved goodbye. She turned to me and said, “You are NEVER seeing Bruce one hundred times!!”
Later Today: A Personal Anecdote about Bruce
No comments:
Post a Comment
I am rubber, and you are glue. Remember that when commenting.