I Survived a Bruce Springsteen Concert

Good Lord.

The Boss never took a fucking break.

I was just standing there for most of the concert and *I* was the one who ended up with a leg cramp. Or was that a pulled muscle? Either way, I was fatigued.

I went deaf in my left ear. I woke up this morning with it still ringing. Anybody got a cure for that?

It was a goddamn religious experience.

It was the opening night of the E Street Band's tour, starting in my backyard of TAMPA FLORIDA HOME OF THE TOM BRADY LED BUCCANEERS, FIRE THEM CANNONS (oh God, time for another rebuild /cries).

So, in the interests of preserving history for future generations, I documented much of the night.

Outside the hockey arena (TAMPA IS A HOCKEY TOWN DAMMIT)
with my SIL Karen. She's not A Karen, she's sweet and polite
and never demands to see a manager.

This was the crowd getting in to the show. 
Traffic actually more backed up than I-4!

Brother Phil with Karen, in line at the security check-in

I'm usually not a fan of orange, but of the tour t-shirts for sale
this had IMHO the best look, the best style.
I need to wear Friday at work to prove I was here.

Settling in for the show

HOLY SHEET, IT'S SPRINGSTEEN.
BRRRRUUUUUUUUCCCCCEEE.

A cleaner picture of this would work
as cover art for a live album.
...Is it just me, or should EVERY Bruce Springsteen concert
be released as a live album...?

Do they make smartphones with better than 4x zoom?!
Asking for a friend who'll wear earmuffs to the next concert.

During the encore part of the concert.
Actually, there was no encore, the E Street Band just kept playing.
Like I said earlier, there were no breaks. The only time the band left the stage
was when Bruce did his only solo performance of the night with
"Last Man Standing."

Hell, I need to share you the playlist for the Tampa show. Not as many songs from Bruce's latest albums - Western Stars, Letter to You, Only the Strong Survive - but a lot of early years stuff, especially from Darkness On the Edge of Town, which is a personal favorite of mine. (EDIT: A quick review of the songlist revealed Letter to You album DID get prominent play, my bad. I need to go re-listen to that CD). When Max starting off the opening cymbal riff for "Candy's Room," I squeed and hopped up and down. Maybe that's where I got the pulled muscle/cramp.

SET LIST

21 SONGS

1 NO SURRENDER

2 GHOSTS

3 PROVE IT ALL NIGHT

4 LETTER TO YOU

5 THE PROMISED LAND

6 OUT IN THE STREET

7 CANDY’S ROOM

8 KITTY’S BACK

9 BRILLIANT DISGUISE

10 NIGHTSHIFT

11 DON’T PLAY THAT SONG

12 THE E STREET SHUFFLE

13 JOHNNY 99

14 LAST MAN STANDING

15 HOUSE OF A THOUSAND GUITARS

16 BACKSTREETS

17 BECAUSE THE NIGHT

18 SHE’S THE ONE

19 WRECKING BALL

20 THE RISING

21 BADLANDS

ENCORE

7 SONGS

1 BURNIN’ TRAIN

2 BORN TO RUN

3 ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT)

4 GLORY DAYS

5 DANCING IN THE DARK

6 TENTH AVENUE FREEZE-OUT

7 I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS

I am now moved to write up a HARK! review of Springsteen albums later this month. Once my ears stop ringing.

...Seriously, that performance should be released as a live album. It'll give me a chance to lower the volume on the headphones when I re-listen to AAAAH NOPE STILL TOO LOUD ACH MY EARS...

Update: I uploaded a video from the opening moments of the concert, when the band emerged to play "No Surrender." And... well... I am not happy with the video quality. :( I need a smartphone with a better zoom and camera. Sigh. Anyway, ONE TWO THREE FOUR:

Hark! I Saw U2 Live

I normally don't go to live concerts. I dread going solo, and I usually can't afford the tickets for the acts I'd like to see.

One such act is U2, one of those crowd-pleasing, epic live performing bands that makes them one of the "Bucket List" bands you HAVE to see. So when they announced their 30th anniversary Joshua Tree Tour for this summer... I sat it out, because I didn't think I could afford it.

Last week, an old friend from high school announced she had an extra ticket to sell. At this point, I *could* afford it - my parents have helped straighten out my budget - so I bartered and got a ticket.

So... for the seven readers who know I'm a huge U2 fan... YEAH I WENT TO SEE THEM PERFORM AND OMG IT WAS A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE I WANNA GO OUT AND SAVE THE WORLD NOW I HAVE TO SHOUT MY EARS ARE STILL RINGING WHAT DID YOU SAY I THINK YOU SAID SOMETHING ABOUT EARDRUM SURGERY WHAT WHAT NOW

Just to note, since I was going, the Gods deemed it fit to have it rain all day over Tampa Bay. So it was still drizzling getting into the stadium:

There was a weather delay for the opening act One Direction, and when they did come out to perform there was still enough drizzle to have them cover up half the stage and the lead singer's piano. But as they finished, the storm moved on and the sun began to set over the Gulf Coast and the Gods brought forth the most beautiful rainbow:

You could see the double rainbow at one point:

Then the sun set and the rainbow left and then in the darkness they began playing "Sunday Bloody Sunday":

U2 played a handful of their pre-Joshua Tree hits while out on the in-crowd dais, wrapping up with "Pride" before moving onto the main stage to begin their Joshua Tree performance in its entirety.

Remember how I wrote about how awe-inspiring it was to hear "Where the Streets Have No Name" for the first time? Try adding a stark, haunting video backdrop of the Joshua Tree National Park to the stage:

That's me "WHOOOOOO"ing every five seconds.

I didn't video the whole concert on my smartphone because I did not manage my battery power to last (argh), so I took a bunch of photos during the rest of the concert:

My high school friend Kim showed up with her family and friends - the extra ticket was for her husband Sim who had to stay behind at work - and I asked her to get a picture of me with the stage in background.

The video accompanying "Bullet the Blue Sky"

The backdrop of "In God's Country", where they had the screen projection indented in such a way to make that Joshua Tree show as 3D.

As promised, U2 played EVERY song off Joshua Tree which made for an epic night. When they finished with "Mothers of the Disappeared", they took a bow and left the stage... which you're supposed to do so the audience can stand there for ten minutes screaming for the inevitable Encore. :) They then played their greatest hits post-Joshua Tree, including a haunting update of "Miss Sarajevo" only this time focusing on the plight of Syrian refugees fleeing that civil war (has it been SIX YEARS already?).

All in all, an epic night. And yes, my ears are still ringing.

Naked flame
She stands with a naked flame
I stand with the sons of Cain
Burned by the fire of love
Burned by the fire of love