and that's alright with me

Finally, last night was the big Bruce Springsteen concert! (Editor's note: I'd link to the Hartford Courant review for you, but you have to register to read it, and it's only notable in the fact the the reviewer gets the set list for the encore wrong, which you wouldn't know unless you'd been there.)

Here is the correct September 16 East Hartford setlist from the friendly and compulsive folks on the Backstreets boards, who talk to their friends on cell phones during concerts and post live set lists as the show is going on (!!), for anyone who might want to see it:


1) THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD
2) No Surrender
3) The Rising
4) Lonesome Day
5) LEAP OF FAITH (last time 26 June 93 NYC)
6) Empty Sky
7) You're Missing
8) Waiting On A Sunny Day
9) Spirit In the Night
10 Human Touch
11) She's The One
12) Badlands
13) Mary's Place
14) 41 Shots
15) BACKSTREETS!
16) Into The Fire
17) The Promised Land
End main set

1st Encore
18) Bobby Jean
19) Ramrod
20) BTR
21) 7 Nights To Rock
22) LET'S BE FRIENDS

2nd Encore
23) My City Of Ruins
24) Born in the USA
25) Rosalita
26) Dancing In the Dark

After compulsively checking the forecast all weekend, we got an incredible weather night and were happy to be outside at the stadium. We had, as you know, great seats, about 30 rows back on the floor and just slightly off center. It felt like a great way to end the summer. It really was a terrific show. I've been to a lot of concerts along the way, but this was my first time seeing Springsteen live. I don't know if it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen from a musical point of view (I thought the sound was kind of hinky at first) but it certainly was one of the most memorable, for several reasons:

• I have never, never seen a band work that hard. They played for three solid hours, with only the briefest of steps off stage in between the main set and the first encore, and then again before the second encore. There was no 25 minute intermission, which has been part of the evening at every show I've ever been to, except that Van Morrison show at Jones Beach in 1991 or so, where he was drunk and played for about 50 minutes, total. I was tired by the end of last night's concert, and all I'd been doing was bopping around! The energy level is amazing.


• Who knew that Bruce Springsteen was so bloody funny? He was up there like the Clown Prince of Rock & Roll, goofing all night with the crowd and the rest of the band, doing little acrobatic bits, and cracking jokes about the President (gotta love that first amendment).


• The old songs were great. Being there for live performances of Born to Run and Rosalita, singing as loud as I possibly could, was huge fun. A highlight of my concert career. Other songs that I didn't know as well, such as Waiting for a Sunny Day, Bobby Jean, and Mary's Place were also really full of energy and trememdous fun. And, the songs off The Rising, Springsteen's album inspired by 9/11 ("Missing You," "Into the Fire," and "My City of Ruins") were devastating. I'm certainly adding that album to Andrew's holiday gift list. (Note to Andrew: If, for some reason, you actually decide to read the blog, pretend you didn't see that.)

Speaking of "album," a word which surely dates me, let's talk for one minute about the crowd. Here is all I want to say: ok, it was a chilly evening, at first, but the people in front of me had brought a crocheted afghan for their laps! I just know that, except for the kid sitting next to me, who clearly had been dragged along by his mother, I was the youngest person within miles of that place. Please, for the love of everything that's holy, someone tell me that I am not as old as those people!!!

Please.

Posted by volfie at September 17, 2003 08:23 AM