Fanfics at www.bruce-springsteen.tk!
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Bruce
Springsteen & The E Street Band - "The Rising" Tour Date:
Monday 26th May, 2003; Concert Started 7.20pm, finished 10.20pm A wonderful summers evening of the finest rock music from the greatest live performer in the world! Well, it had been 10 long years since the last time I had experienced the magic of a Bruce Springsteen concert, and I kept asking myself - could he still deliver? The signs were good, he was back with the E Street Band, the tour dates were selling out fast, his latest album is superb, and nearly all the reviews were positive. So, after the usual problems of trying to get through on the phone to order the tickets, and then not receiving the tickets until 2 weeks before the show (why do ticket agencies do this?) I woke up on Monday morning feeling... awful. I had the bad luck to catch a severe cold on the previous day, and could hardly speak! But NOTHING was going to make me miss this concert, so after taking lots of tablets, we set off at about 7.30am, for the 40 mile drive to Crystal Palace. We had a good journey, and arrived at the venue at about 9am. Even then there were lots of Bruce-fans walking around! It was also a perfect day for an open air concert - cloudless skies & very little wind. as the day progressed, the town, and the area around the arena was filling up with fans, and I started to feel that special "atmosphere" that you get with large events such as this. During the never ending wait, we got talking to some Dutch fans, who had arranged their holiday around Bruce's tour - they were going to both Crystal Palace shows, and the show in Manchester, also, I got talking to some of the policemen who were controlling the area around Crystal Palace, and they all said that they wished that all events involving large numbers of people were this easy to control! Then, at about 6pm, we eventually got in to the arena (at the same time as I phoned my good friend - the webmaster of this site!). If I had felt a little better, I would have probably gone for a mad dash to the front of the stage, but in the end we both decided to go to the seating area (Crystal Palace Sports Centre is a running track/ athletics stadium, and the stage was at on end of the track, with the rest of the track being used as the standing area). We had a real good view of the stage, but had very little to do now except wait... and wait... AT LAST, at 7.20pm a HUGE cheer went up, and there, on stage were Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band! It seemed as if the last 10 years had not existed - Bruce's performance on stage was better than EVER! Here was a group of musicians with NOTHING to prove, in fact I think this performance was the best I have ever seen, and I think Bruce and the band enjoy what they do more than we enjoy watching the performance! I will even admit to being wrong about Patti, I used to think that she was just there on stage because she was Bruce's wife, but now she adds SO much, especially to the "slower" songs. After an exact 3 hour set, Bruce waved goodbye to us, and I realised I had just seen the finest concert performance of my life, and all I can hope is that I will get more chances to see this superb talent again. Of
course, the downside to open air concerts is trying to get home, at
the same time as 40 000 other people. So, in the morning it took us
90 minutes to drive the 40 miles to Crystal Palace, going home took
4.5 hours! Got home at 3am - exhausted, tired, ill, no voice, but
feeling honoured to have been a part of such a fantastic day. Setlist:
The above review is my honest account of a truly memorable concert, however, if there are any errors, they are mine, not the webmasters!
Thank you very much, Alun! |
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