The Rising - The Concert (The Rising - Bruce Springsteen)

Member Name: wendyloo

Product:	The Rising - Bruce Springsteen
Date:	30/11/03 (187 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Has the quality of the Born in the USA album

Disadvantages: Doesn't visit Britain often enough

On the 26th May 2003, I went to one of the best concerts that I have been to in some little while. I go to quite a few concerts as a rule, and some friends of mine had become slightly overly obsessed with the notion on going to see Bruce Springsteen.

I have always been somewhat of a fan of The Boss myself, but felt that in recent years he was beginning to wane. I went to a large concert that he performed years ago in Wembley Stadium; 1985 actually - the week before the Live Aid concert was held on the very same stage. It was such a brilliant concert that I thought he could not better it, and so have been reluctant to go to another just in case it tainted my memory of ?85.

Initially, the 2003 concerts had long since sold out by the time I thought about going, but my boyfriend saw an advert in one of his rags promoting a ticket agency who promised they still had some tickets (getmetickets.com/co.uk ? they guarantee tickets {at a price} for any sold out concerts/theatre productions). The original ticket price for this concert was £47.50 for reserved, covered seating. The concert was presented by Harvey Goldsmith and Concerts West, and promoted by Capital Radio and the Evening Standard in London.

I duly paid over the phone and over the odds for some tickets for Crystal Palace National Sports Stadium, Monday 26th May 2003, Wit Monday Bank Holiday. The tickets were dispatched within a couple of weeks from ordering and so we began to plan the event!

My friends had spent many an evening scanning the Bruce websites, and sending me little nuggets of information that they had read. They also sent details of websites that had video clips from his latest tour, promoting The Rising. They don?t have a telly so have more time for such things.

As per the rest of the Bruce Springsteen pilgrimage, we met at The Bluebottle pub in Crystal Palace, which had continuous Bruce music playing throughout the afternoon and evening. T

he usual ticket touts and t-shirt sellers were out in force, prising even more money from our moth-ridden wallets (and succeeding I might add!).

Having made good use of the local food and beverage hostelries, we, en masse, made our way down to the stadium. The evening was beautiful ? sunny and warm. The stadium had laid on a variety of food and drink stands, as they tend to nowadays, and also a goodly number of portaloos (they can never provide enough!).

The ticket did not say what time the concert would be starting, but the grapevine said between 7 ? 7.30pm. Bruce and the E Street band came on stage at 7.25pm and started straight into the first track of the album, Lonesome Day, an up-tempo number.
The crowd were up and ready to dance the night away.

I had booked seats in the stand to the side of the stage, excellent view, but even without such a good view, there were the large screens to each side of the stage so that even short-arses like me would be able to see. The E Street band were back together for this album and concert, having split several years ago, and the rapport between them all was still apparent. The biggest difference for me was how they had all aged. Bruce himself is now 53, and the large screens were not kind to his features. His energy, though, showed that he was still very agile and fit; fit enough to dance through the concert, throw himself on the stage and slide along on his knees for a few feet, grab a child up out of the audience and dance for a bit before handing her back to her mum. The band members were also making faces for the camera on several occasions, the best one when they were deciding whether to give an en-core or not. This gave a comedic value to the evening and I can still picture Clarence?s screwed up face.

The E-Street band members consist of: Clarence Clemons, great big man with a big sound from his saxophone; Danny Federici, accordionist and keyboardist who gives the band

a distinctive sound; Nils Lofgren, on the guitar and vocals, in my opinion one of the most notable members of the band; Steven Van Zandt, a guitarist and vocalist and possibly THE most notable member next to Bruce and Clarence; Max Weinberg on the drums, Garry Tallent on bass guitar; Roy Bittan, another keyboard artist, Soozie Tyrell, a new member who is a friend of Patti Scialfa, vocalist and guitarist, also the (second) wife of the man himself and mother of his three children.

My favourite track from the album, and one that was performed brilliantly and had everyone bouncing, singing and clapping was ?Waitin? on a Sunny Day?. Absolutely brilliant, went on for approximately three times longer than the original, with Bruce and co dancing and encouraging the crowd to sing along.

Another highlight for me was the rendition of ?Mary?s Place? ?Let it rain, let it rain?... waiting for the shout from the crowd, turn it up, turn it up!!? The band were whipping the audience up into a frenzy ? easily done with the amount of beer that was flowing!

I was looking down at the crowd, swaying in a sea of beige, and noticed what a homogenous lot we looked. All of a certain age and creed, and approximately 30% fairly follically challenged! There were whole families there, and a party atmosphere with people dancing with strangers who happened to walk by them.

The screens had a theme with Bruce?s hands. All through the concert there were times when the camera?s focussed on his hands to emphasise his strumming, plucking, or just hanging by his side, showing his soul. This was particularly in evidence with City of Ruins, written for the people (I believe) of New York, but I felt that it added pertinence also to the recent conflict in Iraq, and to any nation that has to rebuild their cities, homes, lifestyles and families; and that must start with someone?s hands.

Bruce Springsteen and the E street Band remained on stage for three
hour
s almost solidly, just paying respect to the usual nonsense of going off and coming back on for two encores. The song list was mainly from The Rising, but there were a couple from Born in the USA, most notably Dancing in the Dark. There were also a couple that the rest of the crowd knew but I couldn?t recollect. My only defence for this is that I no longer have all the albums in my collection and am blessed with a poor memory too!

This concert was far better than I imagined it could be. I left the stadium with a rosy glow and warmth in my soul having had an extremely enjoyable time of it and, quite frankly, becoming rather smitten with the man for the second time in my life!



(This was originally reviewed by me on Ciao)

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