I read the review in the Oregonian yesterday. I read all the hype in the A&E and Mercury. I listened to Iris and LK gush about him for weeks, no months, prior to the show. I waited with baited breath in the audience on Friday night to catch my first-ever Bruce concert.
Was I pleased? Yes, yes I was. I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed every second of it, right through the first encore, then I had to leave so I could get the vehicle out of the Garden before the crowd left the arena.
To better improve our future pre-concert parties, I made these few notes to myself:
1. Ad Van: If you happened to be standing outside in the huge line for general admission seats, you might have heard our one and only KGON commercial playing on our little portable truck. Fifteen seconds of commercial blaring the Queen "We Will Rock You" song on TV is really cool. Playing the same 15 seconds continuously for two hours was apparently enough to make people become quite violent. We were able to save our necks and avoid bloodshed by popping in a Bruce CD for everyone to listen to 9 (highly illegal and may warrant us a fine!) But that was after one loyal listener climbed into the back of the ad van and began pushing every button available to stop the ear assault. Next was probably Molotov Cocktails lobbed at the screen. We get it, no continuous commercial.
2. Band Arrival: Once you are at the level of Bruce Springsteen, you are able to prance around on private jets and let your techies do the soundcheck. No need to arrive early, just walk off a plane and hop onstage. Sometimes that works out, but seeing as how airlines are usually so punctual, (sense my sarcastic tone there), it might be better to plan your arrival a little earlier in the day, so as to plan for the airlines making you late. Bruce and band arrived very late, hence the more than one hour delayed starting time. I loved the rumor that Bruce was late because he was catching the basketball game. Nope, it was his flight. No worries, I can wait for you, Bruce.
3. Backstage:
If you win tickets and backstage passes, you might want to be early and be nice. Discussing how you are going to "grab Steven's crotch" during your picture might get you into a little trouble. That's all I have to say about that. (Picture me biting my tongue right now.)
4. What to say to a rock star: I said "Hi" and "Thank You." Some other tidbits I heard during the meet and greet include:
Dave K- "I'd love to stay and watch the show buy my dog is home vomiting and I have to take him to the vet." No, I'm not kidding.
Keevin W- "If this music thing doesn't work out for you, you can always try acting 'cuz you were pretty good on the Soprano's."
Iris H- "Oh my GOD, you're handsome. YOU ARE SOOO HANDSOME!"
LK- "I love you! I love you!"
Mr. Burns- "Hi, nice to meet you."
I wish I could remember more but I was busy being hated.
My most important observation of the evening was how there are so many true blue Bruce fans out there. Every different age, from the sleeping 13-year-old in front of me to her rockin' dad with the silver hair singing every single word to every single song.
Ninety-nine percent of the audience was singing along to every song, from "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" to "The Rising" to "Dancing in the Dark," which I missed because I had left already. I would have loved to hear "I'm On Fire."
That's my two cents. That's all I got on this one. Bruce rocked and I loved it.
If you would like to share your view of the concert, email me, alinford@entercom.com
If you would like to hate me, email anyone on the 'Contact Us" portion of the website. You won't be alone but we will snicker at you.
PS- Check out the two videos below. The first one I totally snuck! A true bootleg video. I had to talk my way backstage because video camera are a big no-no so I promised the security guy I would only take six seconds, which is exactly what I did. Six seconds of Marty Party meeting Little Steven.
The second one is some footage of our pre-concert party, in case you didn't make it to the show. Do you get the feeling that I just got this camera and video capability and just figured out how much fun You Tube can be? Hey, just sharing the fun with you guys.
