Bad biscuit, no writer.

[lagilman]

Played hooky last night to go down to Atlantic City to see Bruce (yes, again. Hey, considering he was talking about people who travelled all over to see him *cough cough looks off into the distance* I'm a mere piker with only two shows this tour). Once again, totally new interpretations of his own songs, almost all done slow and clear and painful -- and painfully perfect.

In short: Atlantic City. Solo and Semi-acoustic. Power was ON




*=piano
+= electric guitar
** = organ
++ = ukelele

Born in the U.S.A. (with reverb and stomp-drum, and who knew Bruce was an old Black man with no teeth? Boy can do the Delta Blues, oh yes)
Devils & Dust
Atlantic City (for personal reasons, the chorus of this song has always been a kicker straight to the heart)
Long Time Comin'
Fade Away * (effin' brill)
Santa Ana * (duuuuuuude. Crowd was practically wriggling in delight.)
Johnny 99 + (more reverb, and eerily distant)
Open All Night +
Maria's Bed
Brilliant Disguise
Reno (shall I mention the two teenaged boys sitting with their parents in front of us? I admit I was watching them to see how they reacted to this song...)
Janey, Don't You Lose Heart * (again, slow and powerful and a sheer delight)
Lost in the Flood * (and the meerkat is in alt. Effing LOVE this song. "Hey man that ain't oil, that ain't oil that's blood...")
Drive All Night *
The Rising (I didn't cry this time. Much. He slowed that damn passage down even more this time and got me, then ended the song with the guitar box-created sound of a heartbeat. Evil man)
Further On (Up The Road) (Love this song. Can never hear it often enough. How can a non-anthem song become an anthem?)
Jesus Was An Only Son *
This Hard Land
The Hitter
Matamoros Banks
-
I Wanna Marry You ++ (oddly cute, with the uke)
4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) *
Thundercrack * (And for the first time ever, each line of the song was inteligible!)
The Promised Land
Dream Baby Dream **


And more storytelling and chatter than I can remember since 1985. This felt like a show for him, not us, and he was just glad of the company. And we were glad to be invited...

No more shows for me, though. Really. I can stop any time I want...


and now, back to work for this suricata suricattus.

Comments

[chicating.livejournal.com]

Jealous! Never had the pleasure of live Springsteen.

[vincam.livejournal.com]

My husband used to work for Bruce. I've seen the show eight times. The finest rock performance I've ever seen from anyone, in twenty-four years of being married to a roadie, was Bruce in Cincinatti, the final show of the River tour, September of '81. Bruce was just short of his 32nd birthday, and went all out because he knew it would be his last time onstage for a while. Pure D magic.

[lagilman]

And I got to see him horsing it up on his 50th birthday, proving the bod's still got it. We should all have such long-lived careers...

This was my... *counts back* 14th show? 15th? Each and every one was worth the money and then some. He's never given a bad show, far as I can tell.

[vincam.livejournal.com]

He's never given a bad show, far as I can tell

Of course not. His worst is better than most people's best. He's always grown in some way or another.

[chicating.livejournal.com]

Too cool. I went to a Jimmy Buffett concert once...the Parrothead vibe is almost the star of that show, but it seems mellower than the mood when you're going to see "The Boss".
One day, I hope...

[vincam.livejournal.com]

Spousal unit worked for Buffett ::mmmff, mmmff:: years ago. I didn't see the show, but still wear the sweatshirt sometimes.

[vincam.livejournal.com]

By all accounts, he's wanted to do that since at least "Nebraska." Except that back then they were talking about smaller venues. I think it'll be a long time before he'll ever get away with doing a tour of small gigs.

[lagilman]

I suspect that this current round is as 'small' as he'll ever be able to get away with, yeah, other than the usual round of unnanounced drop-ins at local clubs and the Christmas charity gigs. Boardwalk Hall has a 14000 seat capacity, but a lot of it was roped off last night, ditto the Providence Show (about 14500 capacity). So call it 10,000 seats per show, more or less.

Because of the way the stage is set up, and the lack of intermission or breaks, each show 'feels' much smaller than it actually is. Not quite intimate, but definitly casual (after each show, Bruce hangs around and presses the flesh/signs autographs etc for folk front and center. I could have done that in Providence, but I'm not an autograph hound. Something lacking in my genetic makeup, I suppose.

[vincam.livejournal.com]

Back when Nebraska came out, they were talking about way smaller gigs. Like, less than a thousand. But it never happened, of course, because fair ticket distribution would have been impossible. I doubt what he'd envisioned will ever be possible, unless he does a whole tour of unannounced drop-ins. Which, from a logistical viewpoint, would probably be a nightmare.