The Power and The Passion

Do I Have To Say His Name?

It's Monday morning, and time to exhale.  After four days of rock and roll madness, the Perth Bruce Springsteen odyssey is over, and normal transmissions must resume.  And so comes the drop down to reality....

..and it's only such a drop because of the highs.  Despite the maelstrom of crap that surrounded me for the last 15 weeks, I can honestly say that these three shows have been 9 hours of freedom; freedom from adultery, freedom from separation, freedom from the uncertainties 2014 is about to throw up at me.  My musical hero delivered for me and 14,999 others in spades, three times in four nights.

Starting with me going solo, and a place in the second row from the stage, on Wednesday night, I followed up with seats in the B reserves with Heir and Spare, both getting their first Baptism at the Church of The Boss.  Heir and I then went on a quest for a place on the floor for Saturday, and our queue numbers of 89/90 were high enough to get us in the front row up against the stage, directly ahead of Nils Lofgren and Tom Morello.  Heir particularly appreciated this, as he is a budding guitarist, and loved watch these two maestros carve up some of his favourite songs! We both held request signs: Heir's was for Fire, and that got a massive smile and nod of approval from Steve Van Zant when he walked over our way, while mine, for Two Faces, had Nils Lofgren give me a huge wink and a thumbs up, when he saw it. That made my night - even though The Boss didn't pick either of them.

This double was a highpoint - reworks Ghost of Tom Joad backed up by Land of Hope and Dreams (the latter my favourite tune of Saturday night, I think):

So, out of 10?  For intimacy - 10/10; the front of the GA section is what I imagine flying First class would do to you ~ why would you ever go back to seats in the stands, or economy?  Song choices? 7/10; I had hoped to hear at least one bucket list song over the three nights, and 57 different tunes got played, but the fan classics like Backstreets, Racing in The Street, Jungleland - or for me, anything from Tunnel of Love - did not get a look in.  Cruelly, Darkness on the Edge of Town was listed but not played.  But that's me being churlish - any Bruce is great Bruce. Those songs would have been cream.

There were people flying east to go to 9 more shows - and I envy them. Perhaps as a newly minted single man, it is something I will aspire to Next Time...