For those of you who don't know me, my deep love for The Boss is well-documented and bordering on geeky - perhaps it's a vestige of growing up in the New York metro area - no one was NOT a fan. I have not seen him in a live show since I was, well, it was "The River" tour. I was pregnant during the release and tour of "The Rising", his ode to 9/11 and all we lived through as a nation and my husband thought it unwise to deal with the crowds.
Growing up and summering on the Jersey shore, Springsteen was the soundtrack of our young lives as we trolled boardwalks, went crabbing, plowed through summer reading lists, pulled taffy, rode waves and generally got ourselves into trouble while our parents were off doing adult stuff. If life had a soundtrack then, mine was Bruce. I can still remember eating Jersey tomato sandwiches, waiting for my bleached out hair to dry sitting on our patio after a day of surfing, listening to "Jungleland" and wondering what happened to The Magic Rat. At age 12, nothing is quite as poignant as "discovering" great music and knowing you've stumbled on something special. Imagine my shock that Bruce now has a 17-year-old daughter who placed at the Bridgehampton Polo Classic a few weekends ago! He looks very much the same as when he appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1975 as the next big savior of rock and roll music.
His work is personal and raw; it's anthemic, powerful, joyous, unfettered. It's the music of the everyman, the worker, the dreamer, the romantic, the lost, the hopeless, the survivor, the prankster. It speaks to so many of us. I sat here like an insane person at the computer at 8:57, hoping to score some good seats and believing there was no way we'd score them. We did. I particularly enjoy the band, especially "Little" Stevie van Zandt (known to many of you as Silvio on "The Sopranos") and saxophonist Clarence Clemons. Roy Bittan, Danny Federici and Max Weinberg round out the original core of the E Street Band.
If you've never had the privilege of seeing a live show, do so this time around. It's a four-hour marathon that comes close to being a religious experience. Can't wait to hear the set list!
For those uninitiated, download the new single on iTunes today, "Radio Nowhere".
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