How the frack do you get to Foxboro?

Aug 1-3 Boston
Boston locals are a strange mix of sports fans and eggheads. Just walking about town, people pass by shouting out 'Go Red Sox!' to complete strangers, and if you sit down in a restaurant or café you'll probably hear the group on the next table talking theoretical mathematics or quantum physics.


Friday: I arrived in Boston from NYC by Greyhound bus and flopped onto my bed at the very nice Royal Sonesta hotel right on the Charles River. I needed to quickly figure out how I was going to get to the Bruce Springsteen concert the next day. The problem was that it was at the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, about 40 or so miles away from downtown Boston, and there was no means of getting there by public transport. I guess it's a bit like trying to get from London to a concert in Milton Keynes with no car, trains or buses.

When I bought the ticket I knew that the stadium had a station next to it for 'event trains' i.e. there was a train service for events at Gillette Stadium. As I was to find out, with no help from the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority), the event train was not being provided for this concert!! Nightmare! Everyone going would have to travel by car - 50,000+ people is probably 20,000 cars, and at $40 to park the Stadium's going to make a hell of a lot of money!

I was stressed out. The nearest train and bus services were miles away and not running after the show's end. I was quoted $120+ each way for a taxi (if I could get one) and around $170 an hour for a 'car service'. I guess if I'd had my driving license with me I could have hired a car and paid the parking, but it wasn't an option. So, I decided to see if I could get a ride with a fellow fan who was going to be driving there from Boston. I posted my request to a Springsteen message board and crossed my fingers. At this stage I was seriously considering just eating my ticket and not attempting to get to Foxboro at all. Thankfully someone came through with an offer of a lift (thanks Howie!) and I could relax and enjoy my evening.

Saturday: Having previously arranged my transport for the night, I was able to take an interesting 90 minute boat trip up the Charles River that focused on its locks and bridges. It's always great to watch a bridge open, especially ones like this giant monster or the swing bridges around Manhattan. The rusting metal, the weight, the giant gears grinding. It seemed to me like a kind of Victorian steampunk.


Now on to the evening's entertainment. The striking open-ended design of Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, is weird but very pleasing on the eye. As we arrived the heavens opened. Torrential rain fell and lightning bolts crashed down all around us. Whoa! Everyone was cleared from the pitch as the tropical storm passed overhead. I was thinking about the next day's headline - '50,000 fans fried in stadium strike!'. Fortunately the severe weather soon died down and the concert could go ahead, albeit an hour late. Another curfew busting post midnight finish was on the cards.

At 9:20pm Bruce and the band started to race through another marathon set that was to include a sign requested Little Latin Lupe Lu, a passionate Tunnel of Love, the inevitable Who'll Stop The Rain and a very rare appearance of that almost forgotten Born In the USA single I'm Goin' Down. It was great fun.

By all accounts it was a good show. I enjoyed it, but this time, standing to the side of the stage rather than in front of it, watching the screens and the crowd, I found myself a little detached from the performance. Sadly, I've not got any great video or pictures of the event - just this crap phone photo looking towards the back of the stadium during Glory Days...


Setlist (courtesy of Backstreets): Summertime Blues/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/Lonesome Day/The Promised Land/Spirit in the Night/Tunnel of Love/Little Latin Lupe Lu/Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?/Hungry Heart/Who'll Stop the Rain/Youngstown/Murder Incorporated/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands. Encore: I'm Goin' Down/Jungleland/Born to Run/Glory Days/Dancing in the Dark/American Land/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight).
Boston Globe Review

Sunday: My last day of this short trip. I was up early to catch a Whale Watch boat from the harbour - more of which in a later post.


Then, after one of the best plates of Cod and Chips ever, it was just a case of heading for Logan airport and my flight home via Newark. Of course it wasn't that simple, another thunderstorm hit the east coast and that meant I couldn't meet my connecting overnight flight back to Gatwick. Nightmare! So, powerless, I reserved a spot on a flight out the next day and started to look for a hotel room... Then for the second time that weekend someone pulled through for me - a nice lady at Continental managed to squeeze me onto an American Airlines direct flight back to Heathrow; 'grab your bags and run'! Result!