As we did for Metlife in September '12, we took the (much shorter) journey to Paris for the weekend. It was my mom's Christmas present from last year. She came with me to my first Springsteen show back in '06. It was part of the Seeger Sessions tour so, you know, not a proper Springsteen show(but a mighty mighty fine one indeed!). I've always promised to take her to a 'proper' Springsteen gig. Unfortunately, all the times I've gone I've been standing or its been to festival. And mama don't do standing! So, this was a promise fulfilled. However, not only were we going to take in a Springsteen show, we were going to sight see Paris (also her first time!) but that's for a later blog...this ones for The Boss.
At the beginning of June, I wrote a very below average (is there any other kind) blog about June being the month of my 'return to rock and roll'. Started with Bon Jovi in Cardiff, moved to Wembley for Springsteen and then to Paris, for..er, Springsteen. Having seen a Springsteen concert only two weeks prior, it was still fresh in my mind the mind blowing awesomeness of the Wembley gig and getting 'Darkness In Full'. I went a bit camera happy at this one, for reasons undetermined. I took a lot of photos. Yip, nice blurry zoomed in ones. And also some nice panorama ones (I quite like that feature on the iPhone.) Anyway, on with the show.
What I first noticed, was the lack 'broooooooooooooocing' from the crowd. Maybe the crowd was more casual than hardcore...who knows. Who cares...The Boss was taking the stage! And take the stage he did. He launched into "Badlands', immediately eliminating any chance of another 'Darkness' run through. I love 'Badlands'. It's such a fantastic song and makes a great opener. Better than 'Land of Hope and Dreams'. He next went into 'Out in the Street', one I've heard a few number of times live but never tire of it. It's a good song to warm the crowd up and get them singing! More importantly, during 'Out in the Streets' Bruce walks up to the crowds and starts taking signs...request time! I love the request section. It has a chance to throw a curve ball (Wembley getting 'Lost in the Flood), or in this case, introduce a new song (to me at least), 'Lucille'. Never heard it before but quite liked it. And then...Wrecking Ball followed by Death To My Hometown?Only one request? That could mean only one thing. Except, he threw in one more request. It wasn't that special, 'Cadillac Ranch'. It's only memorable because I had a momentary stupid moment and thought, that's on BITUSA...that means we'll get 'Born to Run' in full...and then I remembered that it was from 'The River' (Oh Goodness, what am I like!?)
The next part of the concert was 'Born In The USA' (the album) from start to finish. There were a few highlights from it for me. I heard 'I'm On Fire', 'I'm Goin' Down' and (a surprisingly touching) 'My Hometown' live for the first time but, more importantly, I heard the best version of 'Born In The USA'. Max's drums pounded a freakin' hole in my chest! It was fantastic. Though I'd heard the majority of the songs live at various concerts, I'm a bit of completist and was quite happy to get BITUSA in full, as I could now mark off two different album concerts...just Born to Run left (good luck with that one!) I won't go on about the rest of the songs as they did follow the same formula he's been using for these latest European shows. Although still mightily enjoyable, it would be nice if he could mix up the end part of the main set and the encore.
I got quite emotional during 'Wrecking Ball' (as I have figured out, I always do) when it comes to the 'hard times come and hard times go' part. It get's me every single time. So, for me between this and Wembley, this was the poorer of the two but, lets be honest, a 'poor' Springsteen show will be be better than almost anything else! However, set list aside, what made it more enjoyable than Wembley was the company and setting. We were having a great time in Paris sight seeing, doing loads of things, the fantastic weather, and more importantly, finally being able to take my mom to a 'proper' Springsteen show. She loved every minute of it (and thankfully we had good seats, section S7 will live in my heart forever.) As my mom simply put it, The Boss is great!
And that's it for my concerts for the year. There's no one else of interest touring and I've got nothing planned (barring any spontaneous gig going). My month of rock and roll has come and gone. Like Bruce sings...Hard times come and hard times go. No gigs are, indeed, hard times.
