"Sixty F#*king candles!"

[lagilman]

So last night was the first of what I've been calling the "Teardown" concerts -- Springsteen and the E Street Band @ Giants stadium, the last shows before the old building comes down (to make way for the new, OMG Ugly stadium).

I'm normally not a fan of stadium shows, but there were two reasons to go to this one -- other than the fact that is was Bruce, I mean. 1. to say goodbye to Giants stadium, and 2. to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first time I saw Bruce, back in 1984.

And a last-minute 3, because he announced his intention to perform, in full, certain albums on certain nights, and we got "Born To Run." That meant that I was assured of hearing my all-time favorite-beyond-any other Springsteen song -- "Meeting Across the River." To many people that's just the intro to "Jungleland" but the combination of perfect piano and smokin' sax, plus the deceptively simple story of a Jersey kid about to make either the best move of his life or the last mistake in a series of mistakes... perfection. And he rarely plays it in concert, more's the pity. [also: Born to Run (the album) was released on my birthday back in 1975, so I have a personal attachment to it. *grin*)

Anyway. divanoir and kradical and I trooped over -- and lo, my ticket-fu had held up because our seats were Pretty Damn Good All Right (for, y'know, stadium distances) and we had an amazing line of sight of the stage, the crowd, and the occasional wafts of high quality pot that wafted across the section. We also ended up sitting near a guy and his daughter Megan, who at 10 was about to experience her first Springsteen concert (dad was an old veteran, having seen him back in the club days).

The band took the stage around 8:15, and opened with a bit about "bringing the Old Lady down" and -- a new song, "Wrecking Ball," written just for the occasion, complete with lyrics flashed on the stage so we could all sing along. Which, if course, we did. And from there on in it was three hours of non-stop "hard-rocking, booty-shakin'" (to steal his own phrase) from band and audience alike. I may be getting too old to spend three hours on my feet, dancing on concrete steps, but what the hell, I did it anyway.

Listening to Born to Run all the way through like that, you get reminded of what an amazing piece of work that album was -- a story collection that was also a novel, to use the terms of my own profession, without a single thread jarring the narrative flow. There was a reason it sent him from Who? to "Wow."

And we got to take Bruce by surprise, too. During the requests portion, when he did "Growing Up" (another huge favorite of mine, and the crowd's too, by the reaction) he stopped to do some storytelling midway through (something he hasn't done for a while) and told about this dream he had that left him shaking, about having a house full of relatives, and he had to entertain them, and then the lights went out and there was this cake. And it had sixty fucking candles on it! Sixty!! At which point we broke into an impromptu chorus of "Happy birthday" and he couldn't finish the story or the song until we were done. heee. (his 60th birthday was several weeks ago).

Another nice note: during "Dancing in the Dark" (part of the requests section) he pulled an older woman out of the SRO pit area and danced with her (a la the video, except this was an actual fan of Older Years, not a young Courtney Cox). It was really sweet.

Overall -- the band was in excellent form, and while it wasn't in the top three of Bruce shows I've ever seen (there have been some where the floor beneath us caught fire from the energy) it was worth every penny and then some. Hell, the show ran for three hours without a break -- shades of the marathon shows of yesteryear. Yeah you can see that he's not fifty any more, much less forty, and the loss of Danny Federici has taken its toll on the band, but they still rocked it out like nobody's business but their own. (yay for Clarence's new knees! Last few times he had to sit most of the convert, but this time he was up and moving) And we had literal fireworks! (really -- they set off fireworks toward the "requests" portion).

Oh, and the rendition of "Meeting" blew me away. I didn't even look at the stage; my eyes were closed and the music wrapped around me, and I couldn't stop grinning. Magic. Now we know where my adoration of a well-played sax comes from... nine years old and listening to that? Oh yeah.


The playlist, for them as are interested:

Wrecking Ball (brand new song)
Seeds
Johnny 99
Atlantic City
Outlaw Pete
Hungry Heart
Working on a Dream
Thunder Road
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
Night
Backstreets
Born to Run
She's the One
Meeting Across the River
Jungleland
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Into the Fire
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Badlands
No Surrender
Raise Your Hand (during which Bruce collected the request placards from the audience, almost getting swamped by, shall we say, loving hands at several points)
E Street Shuffle
Growin' Up
American Land
Dancing in the Dark
Hard Times
Rosalita






We ended up getting home around 1ish (thanks to Bill and Beth who rescued us from the Meadowlands Bus From Hell) and I was slooooow getting up this morning. Party over, coffee's ready, back to work...

Comments

[girasole.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. I am, I confess, now quite sure that my decision not to come was the right one. I am a couple of years older than Bruce, and cold/concrete floor/dancing/standing three hours? It would have taken me three lost days to recover.

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

sigh.

I've never seen him live!

[chicating.livejournal.com]

I hope I get the chance.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a great time.

The one and only time I went to see a stadium concert was The Who in 1989 at Cleveland Stadium. The place rocked; it was one giant sing-along.