Born To Run Emirates
May. 31st, 2008 11:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksAnd so to Springsteen last night at the Emirates Stadium. Some observations:
1) Football stadiums are far more civilized places than they were in the 1960s. If I may go into George Costanza mode for a second, the toilets were excellent.
2) Getting home from a packed football stadium is no easier and no more civilized than it was in the 1960s. No matter how much the internal infrastructure is improved, the outside still can't cope. I ended up walking to the Angel and getting the underground from there. About two miles I guess.
3) Upper Street at 11.30 on a Friday night is surely how people imagined Paris or Berlin in the 1920s. Café culture is alive and well and living in Islington. It nearly, but not quite, make me want to live there.
4) Clarence Clemons was playing the saxophone far better than he was a few years ago at The Rising concert I went to.
5) Patti Scialfa and Danny Federici are gone (I see that Federici died of skin cancer just last month... I should read the 'ordinary' newspapers more), with Suzie Tyrell taking on much of the old Patti role on acoustic guitar.
6) Nils Lofgren joins Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg as the engine of the E-Street Band. Indeed, Bittan seemed to be going through the motions a bit last night. Lofgren, on the other hand, absolutely rocked.
7) The audience, sadly, seemed to go more wild over the three or four tracks played from the Born In The USA album than for anything else bar the old favourites (Thunderroad, Badlands and Born To Run — the last being a rather workaday performance, I fear). Pleasant though Cadillac Ranch and Glory Days are, they are not the pinnacle of Springsteen's career.
8) Candy's Room remains a classic. I don't think I've ever seen him perform it live since 1981. Magnificent
9) Technology has moved on since 2003. I casually "bootlegged" the entire concert on my MP3 player. Playing it back, it's of a quality that appeared on records in the 1970s (i.e., bad).
10) Bruce is 58 now. Clarence is 66. Will this be the last time I see him? Quite possibly. I was lucky in that I arrived at just the right time to get to the front of the purple wristband section (i.e., at the front of the main area behind the "fanatic fans" who arrived really early to get into "the pit" at the front with the yellow wrist-bands. I could have taken a yellow band for free (an event guy was handing them out to people at the front of the main section) but chose to stay where I was. Not sure if this was the right move or not.
11) Stadiums aren't the best place for Bruce, but he still managed to get a 60,000-odd crowd rocking. There was a 10-year-old kid to my left standing in front of his Springsteen-fanatic dad. The kid had never been to a Springsteen concert before. He absolutely loved it. For some strange reason, I found that slightly touching. Has Bruce become the new Johnny Cash to this generation? Some kind of old guy who your parents liked who must have been young once, but far too long ago to bear thinking about?
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1) Football stadiums are far more civilized places than they were in the 1960s. If I may go into George Costanza mode for a second, the toilets were excellent.
2) Getting home from a packed football stadium is no easier and no more civilized than it was in the 1960s. No matter how much the internal infrastructure is improved, the outside still can't cope. I ended up walking to the Angel and getting the underground from there. About two miles I guess.
3) Upper Street at 11.30 on a Friday night is surely how people imagined Paris or Berlin in the 1920s. Café culture is alive and well and living in Islington. It nearly, but not quite, make me want to live there.
4) Clarence Clemons was playing the saxophone far better than he was a few years ago at The Rising concert I went to.
5) Patti Scialfa and Danny Federici are gone (I see that Federici died of skin cancer just last month... I should read the 'ordinary' newspapers more), with Suzie Tyrell taking on much of the old Patti role on acoustic guitar.
6) Nils Lofgren joins Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg as the engine of the E-Street Band. Indeed, Bittan seemed to be going through the motions a bit last night. Lofgren, on the other hand, absolutely rocked.
7) The audience, sadly, seemed to go more wild over the three or four tracks played from the Born In The USA album than for anything else bar the old favourites (Thunderroad, Badlands and Born To Run — the last being a rather workaday performance, I fear). Pleasant though Cadillac Ranch and Glory Days are, they are not the pinnacle of Springsteen's career.
8) Candy's Room remains a classic. I don't think I've ever seen him perform it live since 1981. Magnificent
9) Technology has moved on since 2003. I casually "bootlegged" the entire concert on my MP3 player. Playing it back, it's of a quality that appeared on records in the 1970s (i.e., bad).
10) Bruce is 58 now. Clarence is 66. Will this be the last time I see him? Quite possibly. I was lucky in that I arrived at just the right time to get to the front of the purple wristband section (i.e., at the front of the main area behind the "fanatic fans" who arrived really early to get into "the pit" at the front with the yellow wrist-bands. I could have taken a yellow band for free (an event guy was handing them out to people at the front of the main section) but chose to stay where I was. Not sure if this was the right move or not.
11) Stadiums aren't the best place for Bruce, but he still managed to get a 60,000-odd crowd rocking. There was a 10-year-old kid to my left standing in front of his Springsteen-fanatic dad. The kid had never been to a Springsteen concert before. He absolutely loved it. For some strange reason, I found that slightly touching. Has Bruce become the new Johnny Cash to this generation? Some kind of old guy who your parents liked who must have been young once, but far too long ago to bear thinking about?
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Brooce
Date: 2008-05-31 07:59 pm (UTC)So what's become of Scialfa?
Springsteen remains popular with more than just 10 year olds, Steph is a fan of some of the songs - she's just very iPodishly selective about his repertoire.
Re: Brooce
Date: 2008-05-31 08:18 pm (UTC)As for Scialfa, I see that Wikipedia says that "she sometimes misses shows or stretches of shows to return home and take care of the couple's children."
So, there you have it.
You may be right about Bittan missing Federici. Despite them performing on opposite sides of the stage, it's clear that there was some kind of indefinable spark between the two keyboardists -- just as van Zandt and Lofgren seem to play off each other well.
The Wikipedia entries on the E Street band, Scialfa and Tyrell off a fascinating background on how far back into the mists of New jersey time many of the players go, even thought they were not "official" E Street starters.
PJ
Re: Brooce
Date: 2008-05-31 10:06 pm (UTC)A great experience - with incredible stamina - but, I thought, went a little flat at times. I did walk out of there wondering how many more opportunities there would be?
Federici's passing must have had an effect on the band. One interesting effect is that when Giordano first joined late last year, the setlist hardly changed - presumably because the guy was getting up to speed. Now, it appears, 8-10 songs are changing every night so I guess he is developing the repertoire rapidly.
I can no longer remember for certain, but I suspect that it was you that first introduced me to Springsteen through the pages of GH back in '80. I then managed to influence my room-mate at University to such an extent that he joined a fan club through which he met his future wife - and they had twins six months ago...
Peter N.
Re: Brooce
Date: 2008-06-01 03:59 pm (UTC)Keith S
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 08:56 pm (UTC)I can only hope that positive reactions to the new album and subsequent tour encourage some more over the next few years.
I enjoyed your thoughts by the way, I have been to the Emirates for a football match (as well as writing an essay on it) and I think its truely magnificent, I was looking forward to see how it held up as a concert venue.
Matt
Re: Brooce
Date: 2008-06-02 08:06 am (UTC)PJ
Re: Brooce
Date: 2008-06-02 10:03 am (UTC)Keith S
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 10:58 am (UTC)The songs off the new album weren't as bad as they might have been and Candy's Room was also the clear highlight for me - first time I've heard him play it live in 6/7 shows. Mind you, although I agree about Born to Run, I thought Thunder Road was done excellently.
Setlist for the next night showed 10 changes - shame I turned down free tickets for that one - but I was out of town.
Matt Harrison