My birthday + The Boss

For my birthday, I took the train to Giants Stadium to see my third Springsteen show of the year.  It was pretty easy to get tickets this time around because the Stadium is gigantic.  the downside of that is that almost none of the seats are very good (which is why I didn't get any pictures that were worth posting).  But it's okay.  The show was amazing anyway, and he broke his record for longest US show -- which was set two days earlier at just under 4 hours -- going four full hours without a break in there.  I got home after 2 am and I was exhausted.  I had planned to go into work late, but then forgot I was supposed to meet with my supervisor at noon.  At 12:30, I was on the subway into work and my friend called me to say my supervisor was looking for me.  OOOPS!!  Luckily, by the time I got to work, she was just waiting patiently in my office checking her email.  Before I had a chance to give her my sob story about being out all night for a four-hour Springsteen concert, she told me that she was also a big fan and had seen him perform in Boston.  Phew!

The whole tour was supposed to be The River, but I think he got sick of that by this point in the tour (as was I), so luckily he didn't do The River again from beginning to end, but did play a lot of songs from that album.  Once he got to the end, he did the usual Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark, Rosalita and Shout and I was so disappointed because I am kind of sick of some of those and I really hate Shout after hearing it at every Caldwell Stake dance through my youth.  But... then he topped the show off with Thunder Road (my fave) and Jersey Girl.  While he was playing Jersey Girl, he noticed something going on with the crowd and called out to them to find out what happened.  Turns out, a couple just got engaged during the song and he called them up on stage.  They danced while he finished the song.  The night ended with fireworks!

Setlist:
New York City Serenade (with strings)
Prove It All Night
Night
No Surrender
Wrecking Ball
Sherry Darling
Spirit in the Night
My City of Ruins
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Lost in the Flood
Hungry Heart
Out in the Street
Death to My Hometown (with Tom Morello)
Youngstown
Jack of All Trades (with strings)
American Skin (41 Shots) (with Tom Morello)
The Promised Land
Cadillac Ranch
I'm a Rocker
Tougher Than the Rest
Because the Night
The Rising
The Ghost of Tom Joad (with Tom Morello)
Badlands (with Tom Morello)
* * *
Backstreets
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Rosalita
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
Shout
Thunder Road
Jersey Girl 

The Boss show #2

This was the last show of The River tour.  Our seats were not as good as the last show we went to in January, but it didn't take away much from the enjoyment of the show.  These pictures are terrible, though.  If you are interested in better pictures, click here.  

The set list was similar to the last show.  The River in it's entirety (it's a double album, so it's pretty long:.  Then another hour of the hits.  He also played "Purple Rain" as a Prince tribute.  As you may know, he sometimes takes requests from the audience as people hold up signs.  He goes through and gathers them and then decides what to play.  He chose two requests -- one I didn't know, and Shauna told me it was some old blues song.  The other I did know, but it was pretty obscure from the 18 Tracks CD.  Then he called a girl up on stage who had a sign that said that she knew all the words to "Blinded by the Light."  He said, "Are you sure?"  And then called her up on stage.  He looked  on patiently as she made her way through the song.  Chris Christie was apparently there, and in better seats than us.

Good times!  Here is the set list:
Meet Me in the City
The Ties That Bind
Sherry Darling
Jackson Cage
Two Hearts
Independence Day
Hungry Heart
Out in the Street
Crush On You
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
I Wanna Marry You
The River
Point Blank
Cadillac Ranch
I'm a Rocker
Fade Away
Stolen Car
Ramrod
The Price You Pay
Drive All Night
Wreck on the Highway



Boom Boom (request from the audience)
Loose End  (request from the audience)
Blinded By the Light (10-year-old on guest vocals)
Trapped
Badlands
My Love Will Not Let You Down
Prove It All Night 
Thunder Road 
* * *
Purple Rain
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out 
Shout 
Bobby Jean

The Boss 2016

Yes, he's touring again.  He's playing The River from beginning to end, then launches into an hour of the hits.

Set list: 

*Meet me in the City

The Ties that Bind

Sherry Darling

Jackson Cage

Two Hearts

Independence Day

Hungry Heart

Out in the Streets 

Crush on you 

You Can Look (but you better not touch)

I Wanna Marry You 

The River

Point Blank

Cadillac Ranch

I'm a Rocker

Fade Away

Stolen Car

Ramrod 

The Price You Pay

Drive All Night

Wreck on the Highway*

She's the One

Candy's Room

Because the Night 

Brilliant Disguise

Wrecking Ball

The Rising 

Thunder Road

Born to Run

Dancing in the Dark

Rosalita

Shout 

Before the show. Our seats were behind the stage, which seems weird but it actually was fine because we are a lot closer to the stage than if you're on the other side of the room. Also, he plays to the back of the stage for a while anyway. 

Bruce and Little Stephen 

Bruce and Clarence Clemmons's nephew, their new saxophonist 

Born to Run -- all the lights are on and the crowd sings along 

Saying Yes.

Sometimes, I'm in a "Yes" period, and other times I'm in a "No" period. Right now, I'm on what I call my "super India budget," meaning that I'm eating peanut butter and jelly every day so that I can save money for my vacation to India in October. Ergo I've been in a "No" period of late. BUT I am bored of that. So last week, when my coworker invited me to go to a Josh Ritter concert, I said "YES." I only heard of this guy because my friends Kendra and Matt loaned me some CDs, but then JM released his new CD and I listened to that one instead. I usually don't go to concerts unless I can actually name a song or two, but that didn't stop me this time. And I quite enjoyed the show, even though the only song I can name from the night was a Springsteen song.



Bon Jovi at Meadowlands is next week. YES!!

Glee quote of the week -- 4/27

After Mercedes and Curt make a joke and do their secret handshake, Sue asks, "How do you two not have a show on Bravo?"

Journalist guy: "When I met you, I instantly disliked you. You're bossy, insulting and the fact that twice you called me 'Re-run' makes me think you're a little racist."

And music to my ears, from April: "I smell a duet coming on! 'Fire!' Springsteen! Hit it!"

In case you missed it....

So many things to love about this clip:

Jon Stewart
Bruce Springsteen
New Jersey
President & Mrs. Obama
The Obamas high-fiving Bruce Springsteen after Jon Stewart tells a joke about Springsteen and New Jersey.

The only way it would have been better is if JM performed "I'm On Fire" instead of Ben Harper and that Sugarland chick. Their version was pretty awesome, though.



However, not loving Sting's beard.

Springsteen -- the final show (for now)

yes, even I am sick of my own blog posts about Springsteen shows. But this will be the last one, I promise.

On Saturday night, I went to my fifth show of this tour. Jill flew out and went with Chris, but I wasn't with them, unfortunately. Madison Sq. Garden is notoriously impossible to get tickets for a lot of things, but especially for The Boss. In the past, the show sells out superfast, and then scalpers sell the tickets for thousands of dollars. But I was able to get two tickets the traditional way when the concert went on sale, but they were single seats so I didn't get to sit with my friend, Shauna, either. Instead, I was sitting with the lamest audience that only seemed to be excited when the band played songs from Born in the USA (which, you may know, contains my least favorite songs).


Leading up to the show, Jill, Chris and I were talking about how we were hoping that he did another album from beginning to end. Of course, we hoped it would be "Born to Run" again. At dinner before the show, I was saying how he did 4 of the songs from "The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle" at the Izod Center back in May and Chris said he didn't like that album... well, sucks for him because that was the album for this show! I loved it!




At the end, Elvis Costello joined the band on stage. Of course, I was hoping they would do this:






But instead they did a cover of a Jackie Wilson song. Still good though.

Set list:

Thundercrack
Seeds
Prove It All Night
Hungry Heart
Working On A Dream

*The E Street Shuffle
*4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
*Kitty's Back
*Wild Billy's Circus Story
*Incident on 57th Street
*Rosalita
*New York City Serenade

Waiting On A Sunny Day
Raise Your Hand
#Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street
#Glory Days (dedicated to the Yankees)
Human Touch
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run
Wrecking Ball
Bobby Jean
American Land
Dancing In The Dark
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher (with Elvis Costello)

* The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
# Requests

Do you think I have now made up for the fact that I did not see Springsteen perform at all in the 80's or 90's?

vintage sesame street

Somewhere in the Swamps of Jersey

As I reported last May, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band returned to the Meadowlands for five shows at Giants Stadium before it is torn down. I wanted to go, of course, and even had gone so far as to look for tickets and put them in the "cart" before deciding to think about it a little longer. Then they announced that he was coming to Madison Sq. Garden in November and I knew I wanted to go to that show, so I got tickets for MSG and decided to skip Giants Stadium.... Until.... I was listening to the radio yesterday morning and heard that he planned to play the entire album of "Born to Run" from beginning to end during the show. This is (probably) my favorite album of all time. Months ago, I heard that he was going to do this in Chicago and I thought that was a fantastic idea and I had to be a part of it. But again, I looked for tickets and then changed my mind before I actually went through with it. Now that I heard he was going to do the same thing in my neck of the woods, that was all I needed. I got to work, found a ticket, and that was it. I was going that night! The only regret I had is that since I didn't know I was going before I left for work, I didn't bring my Jersey Girl shirt to change into (too cold anyway).

Typical things that happen at most of the shows, and this one is no different: I'm waiting in a long line for the bathroom and thus miss the band taking the stage, he starts off slow (read: boring) and ends on a high note which makes me want to go to the next show (e.g. Friday he's playing "Darkness on the Edge of Town" from beginning to end--still tempted), I sit next to annoying people, he plays for over three hours and therefore I get home in the middle of the night.

Bruce Springsteen performs his new song Wrecking Ball at Giants Stadium

Set list:

Wrecking Ball (new for this show)
Seeds
Johnny 99
Atlantic City
Outlaw Pete
Hungry Heart (here's where it starts to get good, according to me)
Working On A Dream

*Thunder Road (Track one, side one, Born to Run)
*Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
*Night
*Backstreets
*Born To Run
*She's The One
*Meeting Across The River
*Jungleland (Last song on Born to Run)

Waiting On A Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Into The Fire
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Badlands
No Surrender (then Pretends to leave, but dispenses with the formality and goes straight into the encore because "it's cold")
Raise Your Hand (collects posters with song titles)
E Street Shuffle (by request)
Growing Up (by request -- my first time seeing him perform this one)
American Land
Dancin' In The Dark (pulls up an old lady to dance with on stage -- quite a difference from Courteney Cox in the 1984 video)
Hard Times
Rosalita

Highlights for me (i.e. the times I went totally mental): Jungleland, Thunder Road, Growing up, E Street Shuffle.

Birthday celebration

My major goal for my birthday for the past several years is to see JM in concert. Because he's not touring this summer for the first time since I began following him in 2002, I had to come up with an alternative. Luckily, Bruce Springsteen is touring, and he was performing at a venue in upstate New York. It also happened to be a venue that I have gone to before to see JM when he performed on my b-day three years ago (and last year, but I didn't go), so it seemed like a natural choice.


Because I've been taking tons of time off lately, I was kind of afraid to ask for the day off. But I was able to finagel it so that I could leave early and come in late the next day, but that meant that we got to the venue about 20 minutes before the show started and therefore had crappy seats. Did I say seats? We didn't have seats, we had lawn seats, which translated into standing on someone else's blanket for the whole show. I decided to live up to the pushy New Yorker reputation and just squeezed my way in between people until we had a tiny view of the stage, but more importantly, could actually hear the music. It was a good show, of course, but didn't really live up to the last show at Continental Arena back in May.

here's the setlist:

No Surrender
Badlands
Radio Nowhere
Outlaw Pete
Spirit In The Night
Working On A Dream
Rendezvous
Atlantic City
Johnny 99
Summertime Blues
Two Hearts
Surprise Surprise *
Because The Night
Waiting On A Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Racing In The Streets
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run
Rosalita
Girls In Their Summer Clothes
Thunder Road
American Land
Bobby Jean
Dancing In The Dark
Hungry Heart


*Surprise Surprise is a birthday song that someone requested. I pretended it was me.


I guess because people know me (or pay attention to things I write on my blog), everyone asked me if I was getting a cupcake. We were so rushed for time, I didn't, believe it or not. But it was a great day, nonetheless.

The next day, Heidi took me to dinner so we tried a new place called Permanent Brunch that just serves yummy breakfast food and another place Momofuku Milk Bar that I've been wanting to try for months but figured I needed a special occasion to eat something called "Crack Pie." I thought since this was my chance to have some birthday cake, I should get the Dulce de Leche cake, but I just couldn't pass up the pie. I can eat cake or cupcakes any day, and for my birthday, I eat pie.


So, here it is:














And here is the compost cookie, which has pretzels, potato chips, coffee, oats, butterscotch, and
chocolate chips:
















All delish!

The Boss (again)

I didn't think I was going to be able to go see Bruce and the band again this tour, and I really wanted to because they are leaving for Europe and who knows when they will be back. I casually mentioned that I wanted to go to a co-worker and she told me she had some connection and could get me tickets for Saturday night's show! yeah! We got to sit in the press box.

It was another fantastic show. Ever since I saw him at the beginning of May, I've been listening to him obsessively, mostly "The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle." This album came out in 1973 and it was the last album of his that I ever bought (except for new releases, of course). Something about it has been speaking to me lately, though, and then he played 4/7 of that album on Saturday night. If you look at the proposed set list, he was supposed to play "I'm on fire" but apparently changed it for "Incident on 57th St." I love both, but since I've been singing "Good night, it's all right, Jane. Meet me tomorrow night on lover's lane," ever since, I guess I approve of the switch.

Here's the set list:

Badlands
Spirit In The Night
Outlaw Pete
Something In The Night
Out In The Street
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
The Ghost of Tom Joad
Good Lovin'
Cover Me *
The E Street Shuffle *
Thunder Road *
Waiting On A Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Incident on 57th Street
Kingdom Of Days
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run

Hard Times
Kitty's Back
Land of Hope and Dreams
American Land
Glory Days
Mony Mony

(*requests)

The set started out strong ("Badlands" & "Spirits in the Night"), but ended weak ("Glory Days" & "Mony Mony.") I may be one of the few people that think this, but "Glory Days" is a stupid song and absolutely my least favorite. "Mony Mony" is a song I heard waaaaaaay too many times at BYU and subsequent church dances. But a great night, nonetheless.

And the best news of all is that he announced he's coming back in September/October so it's not my last time seeing him after all!

The Boss 09

I went to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on Monday night in Long Island. He's coming to NJ at the end of the month and tickets sold out before I even knew they were on sale, so I've been checking Craigs List and the only tickets posted are from brokers. I decided to go ahead and get tickets to LI, which were a little easier to find, and if I can find some for the Meadowlands, I'm going again. If not, at least I saw him during this tour. I posted something about going to see him again on facebook, and I got a response that I'm a crazy groupie. But four times in my life does not seem very crazy to me, especially when I've been a fan since the 80's.


Anyway, here's the setlist.

Badlands
No Surrender
Outlaw Pete
She's The One
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
Ghost Of Tom Joad
Raise Your Hand
Expressway To Your Heart (by the Soul Survivors) *
For You *
Rendezvous*
Night*
Waiting On A Sunny Day
Promised Land
The Wrestler
Kingdom Of Days
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run


***Encore***

Hard Times
Jungleland
Land Of Hope And Dreams
American Land
Dancin' In The Dark
Rosalita

(* these were the requests of the night)

Highlights for me: Jungleland, The Wrestler, For You, Rosalita, Born to Run, The Rising.
Although he played 27 songs, I only got to experience 24 because I was in line for the bathroom for three of them. No I didn't go three times, that's how long the line was! I was pissed! He did not do my favorite song, "Thunder Road" or Jill's favorite, "Racing in the Street," but I'm crossing my fingers for May 23rd.

Kathy and I got tickets behind the stage, which I was a little disappointed about. But the show was really just fine from back there. During "American Land," we started walking towards the car and then we heard "Dancing in the Dark," so we went back in. Now we were in the front of the stage, but we felt much further away and I realized that I liked our other place much better. Although we did have a view of his back for a lot of the show, he also comes to the back of the stage quite often for a beverage or to stick his head in a bucket of water (seriously), to talk to the band and the roadies, to sort through the piles of posters with song requests, etc.
All around, a fabulous night, and I look forward to more evenings with the E Street Band in the future.

Jersey in the house!

I am sure this was a dream come true for Jon Stewart, and it was a dream come true for me to watch it.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Bruce Springsteen - Interview
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things w/ Demetri Martin Political Humor

In addition to the interview, Bruce Springsteen performed his new song. I'll admit that this is not one of my favorite Springsteen songs, but I really liked this acoustic version.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Bruce Springsteen - Working on a Dream
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things w/ Demetri Martin Political Humor

Also, I saw the guy on the right on Sixth Ave last week, right outside of the Tasty D-lite! You could call it a "Sixth Avenue Freeze-out." (ba-dum-bum!) Heidi couldn't believe I wouldn't talk to him. But, you know, I've seen Jon Stewart three times and I've never talked to him, so I can't imagine I'd ever talk to anyone.

The Boss -- concert #2

I know I have been posting a lot about concerts. It may seem that I go to a lot of concerts, but it's really a fluke that I have been to so many this summer. Yes, I do see JM a lot, but other than that, I hardly go to concerts. Part of the reason that I made the decision to see JM so often is that I figured that someday he will be so popular I won't be able to get tickets anymore. This is based on my experience with Springsteen. When I was at my second Springsteen concert on Thursday, I realized that I have been a fan of his since the 80's and I've only seen him perform one other time in 2000. That's crazy! The other thing that I was thinking about at the show was that I remember telling a friend in my early 20's that I would only marry someone if he was a fan of Bruce Springsteen. I think I shot myself in the foot on that one since I was also trying to marry someone that shared my religious beliefs and Mormon men my age are much more likely to be fans of Howard Jones (!) than Bruce Springsteen.

here's the set list for concert #2

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

The highlights for me were (1) Jungleland. This song is one of my favorites and it was wicked awesome performed live! (2) Tenth-Avenue Freezeout (the ringer on my cell phone), (3) Rosalita, (4) Prove it all Night, (5) Badlands (just as good second time around), (6) Spirit in the Night, and (7) Jersey Girl, which he sang, by request. and, yes, I was wearing my Jersey Girl shirt!

The concert started late due to some insane accident on the Turnpike and they were "nice" enough to start the concert late. So it started at 9:30. Part of me wanted him to go ahead and play all 3 hours worth of music and the other part of me wanted to go home and be in bed at a decent hour. Well, he went ahead and played a full set and I got home at 2:30 am. Which would have been fine if I didn't have a training the next morning that started at 7:45 on the East side.

Something else of note about this concert was the crowd. A few different friends went to the show and we all waited for the bus going back to the city together. In totally independent conversations, we all said that we had not seen a dude-fest like this before. For the show on Monday, our seats were pretty terrible. Our seats were the worst ones, the worst you can get (upper tier), but in the second row. The only people I could see were the two couples in their 50's in front of me and the one to the side of me (the woman right next to me plugged her ears the whole time). But on Thursday, we were in the lower tier about half-way up, so we had a good view of the audience. There were a few couples, but mostly groups of men high-fiving each other when a new song came on, singing the words to each other, and shaking their fists to the music. It was pretty interesting.

The Boss part 2

Okay, I know you are wondering why I wrote about waiting in line to go to the concert, but not anything about the concert. Soo.... it was honestly amazing. Well, I sort of hate that word since Katie Holmes highjacked it. But, I loved it. What can I say? He played for over three hours, which reminded me of this old bit from the short-lived Ben Stiller show.





Seriously! Three + hours! Twenty-six songs! Some of the things I've read online were people complaining that he sang *only* 26 songs when he did 30 the previous night. Here's the set list:

Out on the Streets

Radio Nowhere

No Surrender

Two Hearts

The Promised Land

Hungry Heart

Summertime Blues

Tunnel of Love

Held Up Without a Gun

It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City

Sherry Darling

Waitin' on a Sunny Day

Because the Night

She's the One

Livin' in the Future

Mary's Place

Drive All Night

The Rising

Last to Die

Long Walk Home

Badlands

* * *encore***

Girls in Their Summer Clothes

Thunder Road

Detroit Medley

Born to Run

Glory Days

American Land

Twist and Shout

One of the benefits of paying a scalper a boatload of money to sit in a good seat (which I would never do) is that you can bring a sign and Bruce will come down and collect it. Then, if you have written the name of a song on it, he will sing that song. That is how it happened that he sang "Held up without a Gun" which is about high gas prices (written in 1980 and he said he has only played this song twice before), "Sherry Darling", and "Saint in the City" (one of my favorites). The highlights for me were:

(1) Thunder Road, which always brings memories of my sister and me on a road trip, (2) Because the Night, (3) The Rising (a surprise, since it's not one of my favorites), (4) Badlands, (5) Drive all Night, a song I didn't know, (6) Saint in the City, and, of course, (7) Born to Run. Here's a link to a few of the songs, but does not include any of those songs, unfortunately. It was such a great night. The only way it would have been better is if I had been with Jill. Maybe next tour! (and yes, I'm going again tomorrow night.)

Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccce!

Yes, last night I went to see The Boss at Giants Stadium. There is a lot I want to write about it, and I may or may not ever get to it all. I fear writing about stuff that people don't find interesting, but here goes anyway. I'm going to start today with the line to get on the bus to get to the Meadowlands.

I, of course, never know when I'm going to be able to leave work. If I have an afternoon client, and I almost always do, I never know if they will be on time, if they will be in crisis, if the foster mother wants to talk to me or if I will need to talk to her, if the child will make a gigantic mess, if they will refuse to clean up that mess, if they will ask for a snack before they go, if they want me to walk them out, if I will have to call Child Protective Services because they disclosed they were abused this week (luckily, that one is rare), etc. So whenever I make plans, I have to say, "Well, I should be able to leave at 6:00, but..." and then at 6:45 I'm running out the door calling the person I have plans with to explain whatever ridiculous thing happened that is causing me to be late.

However, last night, I was fortunate enough that my client cancelled. Not good for the therapeutic relationship, but great for me going to a Bruce Springsteen concert. I always feel bad about my life getting in the way of my work. But last Friday, I was at a training and the trainer was talking about one of his clients and how the parent was trying to get her child out the door but she did something and the parent said, "You are going to have to have a time out" and he thought, "F---!" because he was leaving straight from this appointment to go to a Blues Festival upstate and who knows how long this time out will take. So, obviously, it's a problem we all face.

Anyway, last night I was out the door at 6:00 on the dot! But when I got to the Port Authority, the line for the bus was ridiculous and I started to panic. I went in to get tickets, and that line was ridiculous and I started to panic more. But when I came out, Kathy told me she had been talking to the guy in back of us, who went to the show the previous night (and turns out, many other Springsteen shows) and he told us that the bus was pretty fast and Bruce always comes out at 8:30. Since I love to chat up crazy fans, like myself, I decided I'd go ahead and continue to engage him in a conversation.

From now on, he will be called The Spitter. For obvious reasons.

He was a crazy Long Island guy. Picture a guy like George Costanza. He was wearing a concert shirt from another Springsteen show. He had clearly been eating Chinese food prior to getting into the line because he had rice on his shirt. He had a little notebook with him that he had written the set list from the previous night. I asked him if he had the set list of all the shows he's been to, but I didn't get a straight answer on that, although he did refer back to the book later while we were on the bus. He talked about his son, who was, at that moment, at home looking for tickets on craigslist for the Thursday show and also the Boston show this weekend. He asked me my favorite Springsteen song, and I said, "Thunder Road," and he said that was also his favorite, along with "Born to Run." He said that at his funeral, he wants his ashes spread in Asbury Park with those two songs playing. He told me not to worry because Bruce would probably play "Thunder Road" because he didn't play it Sunday, but he wouldn't play "10th Avenue Freeze out" because he opened with it on Sunday. I love it because I take a little flack for being a crazy fan. But then I hear this kind of stuff and realize I'm just fine in comparison.

Yes, I do keep a set list of all the JM shows I've been to and can predict some of the songs he'll play and I do travel around to see him. But remember when I met a woman at a JM concert and she told me she named her daughter Georgia after the song "Why Georgia"? Yeah... I'm just fine.

Springsteen

I just scored Bruce Springsteen tickets for July 28 AND July 31. How excited am I???