Today is the 15th anniversary of the first show that I considered, "The Best Concert I Ever Saw". While I guess the fact that it was 15 years ago makes me feel a little old, I am comforted by the fact that the tshirt still fits and it was only a bit over a month ago that I saw the latest, "Best Concert..." In fact, I wore the tshirt from 1993 to the Count Basie last month.
June 24, 1993 - Bruce Springsteen finished his 1992-93 tour with two shows in the US after an extended run in Europe. The first of the two was a benefit for World Hunger Year and The Community FoodBank and would be held at (still called) the Brendan Byrne Arena. Two nights later, Bruce would finish the tour at Madison Square Garden and in between, he would play the last Letterman on NBC. I was 19 years old, had recently finished my first year of college and was set to work at the JCC camp in Flanders. I don't think camp had started yet, but I was also playing baseball in the Essex County league that summer also.
I was hanging out with a lot of my high school friends in the beginning of the summer, and went to the show with Anna Scalora. This was well before the days of having "Bruce friends" and believe it or not, I was kinda scrambling to find someone to go with. Everyone else that I knew at the time that liked Bruce already had a ticket to the show. Needless to say, at the time, I didn't know that many Bruce fans.
I sat behind the stage...even early on in my Bruce concert career, I loved sitting behind the stage to see the interaction with the band. Also keep in mind, this was before the internet, and tracking set lists, so I had no clue what to expect. The show opened with Bruce and his back up singers trading vocals on I Ain't Got No Home, a Woody Guthrie song. I had never heard it before, but it was great. Then Bruce did an acoustic set, Seeds, Adam Raised A Cain, and a song that I had never even heard of before, This Hard Land, which he played for Steven.
The band then joined Bruce on stage and launched in to Better Days. Bruce had opened with this when I saw my first show and from the first minute, even though I was sitting as far away as I could possibly get, I was hooked. When he sang the line..."and it feels like I'm coming home," I thought the roof was coming off of the arena.
The other highlight of the first set (there were still intermissions at Bruce shows back then) was Leap of Faith. When Bruce jumped in to the crowd, someone stole one of his boots. He came back on stage minus a shoe! The woman with the shoe eventually was allowed on stage to give it back to Bruce. A truly hysterical moment.
The second set opened with Bruce on the acoustic again, this time joined by Roy for Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?. The acoustic songs, in hindsight, were a precursor to Bruce's next tour. The second set just rocked thereafter. I listened to the bootleg of this set probably 1000 times and it never gets old. Because The Night, Brilliant Disguise (with Bruce and Patti dancing together at the end), Human Touch, The River, Who'll Stop The Rain, Souls of the Departed, Living Proof (still one of my favorites), Born in the USA, and Light of Day. WOW. And we really haven't hit any of the highlights yet. While it might look like a pedestrian set list on paper, at the time, I was completely blown away.
Then the encores started. Bruce brought out his friend Joe Ely to sing his song Settle for Love, which is a great country rocker. After that, Little Steven came out for Glory Days. Sitting behind the stage, I noticed that after Glory Days, Steven sat down on the drum riser...he didn't leave the stage. The other time I saw Steven play with Bruce on this tour, he played one song and left. This was getting interesting. Bruce then played an acoustic Thunder Road. He then invited out Southside Johnny and the Miami Horns. They went right in to a great version of It's Been A Long Time. The song was relatively new at that point, and the three friends, Bruce, Steven, and Johnny were having a great time recreating what they had recently recorded.
After It's Been A Long Time, Southside left the stage and Bruce walked around flashing ten fingers at the band. I thought he was saying "Stay" to Southside, but he was saying "Ten" to the band...as in 10th Avenue Freeze Out. The Miami Horns launched in to their parts...and Bruce was cooking. When they got to the bridge, Bruce looked backstage and started waving his arm. As he sang the line, "Well they made that change uptown and The Big Man joined the band" Clarence came running on to the stage and hit his solo right on cue. I thought the building was going to explode it was so loud. Having never seen the E Street Band, this was amazing. Clarence stayed on stage for the next song, which Bruce introduced as follows, "Can't have The Big Man here and not do this one...it's the Jersey set." With that, he counted off "1-2" and they launched in to Born To Run. Clarence was having a bit of trouble with his mic, so for his solo, Bruce took his mic and put it inside Clarence's sax so everyone could hear the solo. This was just amazing.
Bruce then quieted it down a bit with My Beautiful Reward, which gave us a chance to catch our breath a bit and followed it up with Old Dusty Road, again with Joe Ely and a future E Street Band member, Soozie Tyrell. little Steven, Southside and The Miami Horns then came back out for Havin' A Party, which was followed by Jersey Girl, with a guest appearance from Mighty Max Weinberg. They closed the show with Southside, The Miami Horns, and Little Steven joining Bruce for It's All Right...and it was.
You know an experience is truly great when you look back 15 years and you can still see the images in your head...and they give you goosebumps. I really consider myself a lucky person because I have a lot of those moments to look back on,...and I know...many more to come.
"It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive..."
JN
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