It was just a regular Tuesday until Roy called. I thought something was wrong because he never calls. No, he just wanted to tell me that he broke down and bought two tickets for the Springsteen show seeing as it was going to be a beautiful night and all, and who wouldn’t want to sit under the stars at Fenway Park with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Well, did you hear me scream? I couldn’t believe it seeing as we decided since we saw him in March we’d pass on Fenway. I could barely concentrate for the rest of the afternoon.
So, what can I say? With the congregation gathered, the band casually walked on stage at about 7:10 and Springsteen followed after them and he began the night with Thunder Road and didn’t stop for 3 1/2 hours and 29 songs. Different from the first leg of his tour, this time he’s looser, running around in the crowd, dancing with a female police officer, pulling a kid up on stage to sing the chorus to Waiting on a Sunny Day. He teased us with references to New York and he broke our hearts digging deep for songs like Atlantic City and Spirit in the Night. His encore, Born to Run, Rosalita, Glory Days, Dancing in the Dark, and Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out where a touching video tribute to the Big Man was shown on the jumbotron. He collapsed on the stage, Little Steven wrung a wet towel on him a couple of times and he rallied, like in the old “I’m just a prisoner of rock n’ roll” days and he told the crowd that the E Street Band would not be curfew-ified and broke into Dirty Water and ended the night with Twist and Shout.
It was as good a Bruce Springsteen concert as I’ve seen, ever. This guy does not mail it in. And to end the night, we saw his SUV leaving Fenway with the windows down, Bruce slapping people’s hands as he turned the corner and headed down Boylston Street.
Fenway Park was alive, maybe for the first time this summer!
