Gotta Get That Feeling
14 Concerts, 1 Tour!
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 Entry #142
“As Springsteen describes it, his concerts are, ‘Part circus, dance party, political rally, and big tent revival.’ The sum of these parts forms an incomparably larger whole, one that has no equivalent in American life and culture.”
-The Nation
I had been to exactly seven Bruce Springsteen concerts over a 40-year span before the 2023-2024 tour. Two were Springsteen solo shows, a wonderful, but different kind of experience. But, the five shows I attended with the E Street Band accompanying Springsteen (never more than one concert per tour) were everything described in the passage above and more.
Even before this tour was announced, I knew that I wanted and needed that Springsteen vibe in my life in a more sustained way than from a one-shot deal. I was thankfully in a position to travel and take some time off work to see multiple concerts this time. I wasn’t actually sure what form this ‘Deadhead’-like goal would take, but I set out my motivations and intentions in an essay that became the very first entry in this blog (See Entry #1).
After my drive down south to see the first four concerts on the tour, I only had one other ticket to see Springsteen which was for a show in Washington D.C. with my son. The rest came together in bits and pieces. I had no way of knowing at the start of 2023 that there would be two more epic Springsteen-centric road trips in my future, or that I would go on to see Springsteen in Europe and on the beach in Asbury Park. As time went on, I got to catch Springsteen concerts on both US coasts, and actually in all four cardinal directions from my Midwest home. Back when it all started, I think I would have been astounded if I knew that I would end up seeing a grand total of fourteen thrilling Springsteen concerts on this one tour.
Now, fourteen pales against the jaw-dropping number of concerts some of my new Springsteen friends have tallied on this tour and in their lifetimes, but it is miraculous to me. I have long been a devotee of live music, but I had previously participated in the culture of going to multiple concerts in an artist or band’s tour just once (I saw U2 in three cities in 2017). I can’t say the desire wasn’t there, but the time and resources such an endeavor takes was daunting. This time, I just went for it; I was all in. I must say from this vantage point, with all the concerts now behind me, it was everything I had envisioned when I set out on this pilgrimage, and more. I don’t know if I will ever be in a position to do anything approaching this level of commitment again, but even if it has been a once-in-a-lifetime deal, I feel so fulfilled and blessed.
I have much more to write about in Spirit Of The Night, but in recognition of the ending of this magnificent chapter of my life, in this post I’d like to review and reflect. The CD covers I am using for illustration are from Nugs, a wonderful company that specializes in authorized live recordings which are sold over the web. They produced a CD for every single Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band shows these past two years.
RABBI RANDY’S SPRINGSTEEN CONCERTS #1-4 FEBRUARY 2023
I took a “mini-sabbatical” from work and drove to Florida, where I based myself in Miami Beach and drove up and down the state (and into Georgia) to see the opening four concerts of the tour in Tampa, Atlanta, Orlando, and Fort Lauderdale. I cycled through many emotions as these first few concerts unfolded, feeling anticipation, relief, and exhilaration. Because of Springsteen’s Broadway run was directly followed by COVID, these were actually the first Springsteen concerts since 2017. Springsteen remarked on the intensity level of his already legendarily intense fans, “Like they missed us more, or something!” I covered the whole journey, including concert reviews and topical essays, in Entries #2-#48. In Entry #134, on the second anniversary of the Tampa show, I revisited the opening night of the tour. At each of those initial shows, I learned more about the culture of the fan-run GA floor “pit” scene, culminating in my earning a place against the stage rail for the very first time at the final show of the four.
RABBI RANDY’S SPRINGSTEEN CONCERT #5 MARCH 2023
A few months later, I had the extreme pleasure of taking my young adult son to his first-ever Bruce Springsteen concert. I reported on that experience, along with posting my all-time favorite selfie and a recollection of Springsteen’s stirring 2020 appearance in the nation’s capital for President Biden’s inauguration, in Entries #50-#53.
RABBI RANDY’S SPRINGSTEEN CONCERTS #6-7 APRIL 2023
The week after the Washington D.C. trip, I flew to New York. Through my tears, I saw Springsteen play “Jungleland” from the rail on the GA floor in the fabled Madison Square Garden. I reviewed that remarkable concert, along with lots of additional reflections on Springsteen’s deep connections to various NYC neighborhoods and music venues, in Entries #54-#60. Then, I spent an entire day in Springsteen’s spiritual motherland (he’s actually from nearby Freehold), Asbury Park, New Jersey. I merrily toured the various Springsteen-related sites there, and described them by topic (Springsteen’s various homes in the area, the music venues where it all began, and the beaches and watering spots which feed his soul) in Entries #61-#67. I stayed one extra day (couldn’t resist) and bought a last-minute ticket to Springsteen’s next concert in Brooklyn. The illusive “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City” made the setlist at that show, the perfect song to hear after spending time in New York. I wrote about that spontaneous Brooklyn experience, and about Springsteen’s musical responses to a few of New York City’s most traumatic events in Entries #68-#72.
RABBI RANDY’S SPRINGSTEEN CONCERT #8 AUGUST 2023
The one Springsteen concert I saw in the summer of 2023 was at Chicago’s friendly confines, Wrigley Field, home of my Cubbies. This is the one show I haven’t yet reviewed in this blog, but a report is coming soon.
RABBI RANDY’S SPRINGSTEEN CONCERTS #9-10 APRIL 2024
There was a delay in the tour while Springsteen was recovering from a peptic ulcer condition. I had originally made a plan to fly to Los Angeles in December to see Springsteen with an old friend who lives out there. However, when that show was rescheduled for 2024, the timing worked out to actually fulfill a dream of mine to drive all the way to the West Coast for a Springsteen concert. So, I followed old Route 66, and I experienced a glorious day in which I started out at the Grand Canyon during sunrise. Then, I drove many hours to arrive at Venice Beach in time to put my feet in the Pacific Ocean as the sun was setting. I saw my buddy, and we were on the floor together for the first LA show. On night two in Los Angeles, Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine came onstage as an unannounced special guest. I attempted to capture the whole odyssey, including my visit to Tijuana, in Entries #74-#83 and Entries #87-#99.
RABBI RANDY’S SPRINGSTEEN CONCERT #11 JUNE 2024
My next concert was truly “other-worldly.” Thanks to my wife Amy, who wanted her first Bruce Springsteen concert to be extra-special, we got tickets to see The Boss in Spain and make a vacation out of it! Seeing the love that there is for Springsteen overseas was a real treat. Barcelona in particular is known for being one of the strongest centers of Springsteen’s European popularity. The incredible energy the Catalans brought to the massive outdoor stadium under a beautiful full moon indeed lived up to the hype. I covered the Springsteen parts of the trip in Entries #84-#86.
RABBI RANDY’S SPRINGSTEEN CONCERT #12 SEPTEMBER 2024
I am still pinching myself to make sure that I truly attended the Sea.Hear.Now Festival that Springsteen headlined in Asbury Park, his touchstone place. When this improbable event was first announced, the online voices were foreboding: “Tickets will be impossible to get!” “It will be insufferably crowded!” “All the hotels in the whole area will be booked!” Nevertheless, it all somehow mystically came together for me. Seeing Springsteen on the beach where he had once slept as a rebellious teen, and listening to him as he pointed to the spots on the ocean where he wrote the songs he was playing was a dizzying experience. I attempted to relay it all in Entries #104-#115. This concert quickly became legendary. Springsteen himself has been effusive in his assessment of it:
“We had the Asbury Park show which was for us, just very, very special. For me that show went right into the top 5 shows we’ve ever done, going back to the beginning. It was just something; the setting, the night, the crowd, the setlist we figured out…It was just a magic night for everybody in the band, just way up top in the E Street top shows...a dream come true…it was just fabulous, we had a great time.”
RABBI RANDY’S SPRINGSTEEN CONCERTS #13-14 NOVEMBER 2024
Which brings us to Canada. I am still in the process of writing about my road trip there and back and the concerts I saw in Alberta. So far, Entries #123-#141 have covered my experiences up north. There are still more reports to come, including about my adventurous drive home and some of my Springsteen reflections from the road. For now, I was quite taken by the lede in the review of the Edmonton concert that appeared in one of the local papers:
“How many of you were at church on Tuesday night? No, not the one up the street with stained glass windows and wooden pews. I’m talking about the gathering at Rogers Place, where out-of-town preacher Bruce Springsteen led a rapt congregation through close to three hours of praise, worship, and the casting out of demons. That the demons were inner rather than supernatural doesn’t make this admittedly labored analogy any less truthful…The revival tent vibe fits because it feels in a way like The Boss is winding up to something. He and the E Street Band have been wandering through Canada in the aftermath of the U.S. election, and his setlists reflect his feelings about the results.”
By the way, if you enlarge the Edmonton CD cover, you might see the “punim” (the word for “face” in Yiddish) of yours truly. That exciting development will be the topic of an upcoming post.
Springsteen’s website sold posters for each stop on the tour (the festival in Asbury being the exception). They may look the same, but the graphics inside the guitar are specific for each city. Here is a montage of the fourteen posters representing the concerts I attended.
Even though I am now well entrenched in my post-tour life, the 22 months when Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concerts were a consistent part of my world are still informing and inspiring me. I am forever transformed (as Springsteen promised in a recent interview, “We want to change your life!”), and I am a better person for having followed Springsteen’s extraordinary ‘spirit in the night.’
Day 10