Herkie the Dog's World Musings
We made a promise we swore we'd always remember, No retreat baby no surrendrer
Ahh, the Bruce concert.
For you non-Bruce fans out there, you just won't get this entry, but for my fellow Bruce-fanatics, this was an awesome show last night. It is hard to compare a Bruce concert to any other concert. It just doesn't compare. It's like comparing a Geo Metro to a Cadillac....a Big Mac to a Filet Mignon...a Dell to an iMac.
In 15 years I've been to 7 Bruce shows. All of them great for different reasons, but last nights seemed exceptional. The weather was good, the crowd was good, and the band was definitely in the mood to have a good time.
These 7 shows have coincided with a lot of the major events of my life over the past 15 years.
1988: Heading to my first Bruce show. My first concert ever! I was a senior in high school. A major frenzy to get tickets to the show. And more importantly, find someone who would go with me. As it happened, none of my friends particularly liked Springsteen. I convinced Julie to go with me, even though she only knew 3 songs. Thanks again Julile, I know you didn't have a good time that night, but I still am glad you were there. My mom had to camp out for tickets for the show...in the Hudson's parking lot...in the rain...for several hours on a Saturday morning. I was off at the County tournament with the Science Olympiad team and as much as I wanted to stand in that rain, I just couldn't. Thanks again Mom!
1992: The Lucky Town/Human Touch tour. No E-Street band this time. The summer after graduating from college. Not a very good time in life for me. My grandpa had passed away and was buried on the day of my graduation. I was very close to him. We both shared a love of music. He played the sax and I played the piano. Our duets were loud and off key, but we didn't care. He was a big fan of Clarence Clemons, so we talked often of the E-street band. Drove my grandma crazy...insisting that he didn't know anything about the "kid's" music of today. But he did. That summer found me graduating with a math degreee, supposedly from this prestigious university, without a job. Thanks to George Sr. the economy was in the toliet with no end in sight. About month or so later, my other grandpa suffered a major stroke. Getting tickets to this show was the only thing I could focus on. As Jon mentioned in his post we met and really got to know each other due to Springsteen, so was committed with me to get tickets. We camped for these, in the Palace parking lot, overnight, for 16 hours, number 13 in line. Row 15! I was going to be on the main floor for a Bruce show. Maybe life would start to get better.
1995: Ghost of Tom Joad acoustic tour. Jon and I are now newlyweds. This show was at the Fox, and although we're still young and willing to camp out for tickets, neither of us is crazy enough to do this on the streets of Detroit. With a little luck and a newly acquired cell phone (yes it was still a big deal to have a phone then) we lucked out and got "obstructed view" seats for the show. They were behind the sounds boards, which meant we were closer than a lot of other people with "good" seats.
1999: E-street band reunion tour. Still excited about seeing Bruce, but no longer willing to camp for tickets we used technology to our advantage and with both of us on the Internet (jon at home, me at work) we got tickets to both show. After a long year of Y2K garbage at work with way too many 60+ hour weeks, weekends spent in the office, up all night with pages, signing on from home to work, this would be my release. Like I said I was at the office for yet another weekend install when we got the tickets. I was tired of my job, tired of whole IT scene in general, but not sure how to get a job out of it. At the time of the concert we did not know, but Christie was with us at those shows. She definitely has an appreciation for his music. We both see it as fate that she would be there. Our love of Bruce brought us together, and now Christie was going to experience it too.
2003: Last night. Jon and I have known each other for 13 1/2 years. Been married for 8. And the music of Bruce has been along for the ride. This time we know the baby was at the show. It was destiny, it had to be. We had hoped for awhile to give Christie a sibling, but to time it so I was pregnant for the show again, unbelievable. Vegas wouldn't have taken those odds. Where will we be in 15 years. Who knows. But I know what will be on the CD player.
For you non-Bruce fans out there, you just won't get this entry, but for my fellow Bruce-fanatics, this was an awesome show last night. It is hard to compare a Bruce concert to any other concert. It just doesn't compare. It's like comparing a Geo Metro to a Cadillac....a Big Mac to a Filet Mignon...a Dell to an iMac.
In 15 years I've been to 7 Bruce shows. All of them great for different reasons, but last nights seemed exceptional. The weather was good, the crowd was good, and the band was definitely in the mood to have a good time.
These 7 shows have coincided with a lot of the major events of my life over the past 15 years.
1988: Heading to my first Bruce show. My first concert ever! I was a senior in high school. A major frenzy to get tickets to the show. And more importantly, find someone who would go with me. As it happened, none of my friends particularly liked Springsteen. I convinced Julie to go with me, even though she only knew 3 songs. Thanks again Julile, I know you didn't have a good time that night, but I still am glad you were there. My mom had to camp out for tickets for the show...in the Hudson's parking lot...in the rain...for several hours on a Saturday morning. I was off at the County tournament with the Science Olympiad team and as much as I wanted to stand in that rain, I just couldn't. Thanks again Mom!
1992: The Lucky Town/Human Touch tour. No E-Street band this time. The summer after graduating from college. Not a very good time in life for me. My grandpa had passed away and was buried on the day of my graduation. I was very close to him. We both shared a love of music. He played the sax and I played the piano. Our duets were loud and off key, but we didn't care. He was a big fan of Clarence Clemons, so we talked often of the E-street band. Drove my grandma crazy...insisting that he didn't know anything about the "kid's" music of today. But he did. That summer found me graduating with a math degreee, supposedly from this prestigious university, without a job. Thanks to George Sr. the economy was in the toliet with no end in sight. About month or so later, my other grandpa suffered a major stroke. Getting tickets to this show was the only thing I could focus on. As Jon mentioned in his post we met and really got to know each other due to Springsteen, so was committed with me to get tickets. We camped for these, in the Palace parking lot, overnight, for 16 hours, number 13 in line. Row 15! I was going to be on the main floor for a Bruce show. Maybe life would start to get better.
1995: Ghost of Tom Joad acoustic tour. Jon and I are now newlyweds. This show was at the Fox, and although we're still young and willing to camp out for tickets, neither of us is crazy enough to do this on the streets of Detroit. With a little luck and a newly acquired cell phone (yes it was still a big deal to have a phone then) we lucked out and got "obstructed view" seats for the show. They were behind the sounds boards, which meant we were closer than a lot of other people with "good" seats.
1999: E-street band reunion tour. Still excited about seeing Bruce, but no longer willing to camp for tickets we used technology to our advantage and with both of us on the Internet (jon at home, me at work) we got tickets to both show. After a long year of Y2K garbage at work with way too many 60+ hour weeks, weekends spent in the office, up all night with pages, signing on from home to work, this would be my release. Like I said I was at the office for yet another weekend install when we got the tickets. I was tired of my job, tired of whole IT scene in general, but not sure how to get a job out of it. At the time of the concert we did not know, but Christie was with us at those shows. She definitely has an appreciation for his music. We both see it as fate that she would be there. Our love of Bruce brought us together, and now Christie was going to experience it too.
2003: Last night. Jon and I have known each other for 13 1/2 years. Been married for 8. And the music of Bruce has been along for the ride. This time we know the baby was at the show. It was destiny, it had to be. We had hoped for awhile to give Christie a sibling, but to time it so I was pregnant for the show again, unbelievable. Vegas wouldn't have taken those odds. Where will we be in 15 years. Who knows. But I know what will be on the CD player.
posted by Lisa at
9:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home