Ain't no cure for the Summertime Bruce

I'm now shaking off the jet lag from a short jaunt across the pond; just 3 days in New York and then 3 in Boston. My aim was to take a break from the pain of job hunting and rejuvenate myself with a couple of E Street Band concerts. It was a trip that would add more pointers to my insanity. 'Broooce'!


July 29-31 New York/New Jersey
Not the best of months to be a tourist in NYC. The streets of Manhattan were sweltering. Underground it was worse. Down on the sauna-like subway platforms it felt like I was following a trail left by Arne Saknussemm. Welcome relief from the stifling heat was however provided in the cool air conditioned trains.

Tuesday: After arriving and installing myself in a nice cheap-ish hotel on the upper east side, I headed out across Central Park, past frisbee catching dogs and the humans and turtles alike sunbathing down at the lake.

I'd come to New York to see Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band play but I'd not got a ticket. Doh! So, moving around town I was stopping off at Star*ucks watering holes and using their Wi-Fi hotspots to try and score a ticket via the net. No joy! There were hundreds of tickets available online, but only at vastly over inflated prices from arseholes on eB*y and Stubh*b. W@nkers!


Wednesday: Frustrated, I decided to relax a little, just slip back into tourist mode and enjoy the city. I took the subway down to Brooklyn Heights and made what's now become my traditional walk back over Brooklyn Bridge. My usual DVD, CD buying frenzy then took over before I sat back with a 'small' soda the size of a dustbin, and enjoyed the fun and stunning visual beauty of Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Thursday: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band were going to be playing a third night @ Giants Stadium, on their New Jersey home turf. The concert was sold out and I had no ticket... My best hope was to try the drop line at the stadium and see if there might be a return. I arrived at 10am and became the 7th person in the queue. I was in for a long long wait out in the 90 degree heat with no guarantee of getting into the show.

By late afternoon the queue had grown to several hundred people, all hoping that they might get lucky and be part off the 55,000 capacity audience. The sun blazed down, and shade was at a premium. Sunburn and heat exhaustion were becoming a problem. As I stood there on the concrete by the stadium fence, fans with tickets were arriving in their thousands, setting up tailgating parties in the vast parking lot. They had music blaring out and were enjoying their barbecues and cold beer. I was wilting. Water, beer everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

Event staff numerically wristbanded us in queue order and we were told that chances of getting a ticket were not good, and if any were available they would not be given out until just before the show start at around 8pm. So what's a few more hours to wait eh? In for a penny in for a pound. As it turned out the show start was delayed to around 9:30pm due to a major traffic incident involving a propane gas container, and this meant that the ticket office didn't start releasing tickets until around 9pm! All my fingers and toes were crossed.

Fortunately, I ended up with a great seat on the floor. I was in line with the back of the General Admission standing area ('The Pit') where I could see Jesse Malin and 3 of the Seeger Sessions Band 10 yards to my right, packed in like sardines. The lights dimmed. A colliape played The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze as the E Street Band took to the stage, and then Max Weinberg started hitting the drums...

Summertime Blues - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
31st July 2008, Giants Stadium, Meadowlands, New Jersey
It was of course a fantastic show - a Jersey special. At 30 songs, 3 and a quarter hours long, it finished at around 12:45am and tested the physical endurance of the crowd. After queuing in the hot sun for over 10 hours I was absolutely knackered. I must have been nuts. My feet were aching and I was fit to drop just 12 songs in, but Broooce and the energy of the crowd kept me going until the end. I've now seen 3 shows at Giants and each time the atmosphere in the old stadium has been tremendous. Song highlights for me included Blinded By The Light, a sweet Pretty Flamingo, Incident On 57th Street prompted by a sign requesting it 'For Your Old Bald Fans', and the ever powerful Because The Night which had Nils Lofgren embellishing his stunning spinning guitar solo with a John Otway-like forward roll!

Setlist (courtesy of Backstreets): Summertime Blues/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/Prove It All Night/Two Hearts/The Promised Land/Spirit in the Night/Light of Day/Brilliant Disguise/Pretty Flamingo/Blinded by the Light/Cadillac Ranch/Candy's Room/Night/Because the Night/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/Incident on 57th Street/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands. Encore: Jungleland/Born to Run/Bobby Jean/Dancing in the Dark/American Land/Jersey Girl/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight). Star-Ledger review.

Shagged, I got back to my hotel at 3am, took a cold shower to cool down and then crashed out, grabbing a welcome few hours of sleep before getting the bus to 'Bosstown' on Friday morning...