Megan Duffy, also known as my wee little sister, decided she wanted a piece of the donewaiting.com pie and has written up a review of a Springsteen show @ Giants Stadium. When Megan is not living large with the Boss she is making many friends via Friendster
It Doesn’t Get More Jersey Than This
By Megan Duffy
Last night two of my close friends and I packed up the ole SUV and headed to Giants Stadium for what promised to be an eventful night- we scored fantastic seats for one of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s 10 scheduled concerts in New Jersey. As we pulled into the parking lot, I couldn’t help but notice the incredibly eclectic group of people surrounding me; young and old, cool and uncool, hardcore fans that seemingly had been wearing their Greetings from Asbury Park shirt since 1973 and fresh-faced youngsters who were excited to get their hands on a brand spankin new Summer 2003 tour shirt. As you looked into the faces of these fans, you could see that they all shared one commonality- they were ready to rock the night away.
At 8:30pm, Giants Stadium was filled to maximum capacity as the crowd was anxiously awaiting the arrival of The Boss. Suddenly, the screens set up on either side of the stage showed live footage of Bruce and the E Street Band walking toward the stage. The crowd ROARED.
Skeptics who feared that Springsteen was getting too old to rock as hard as he did thirty years ago had their worries swept away almost immediately, of this much I’m certain. For three straight hours, Springsteen put out more energy than any artist I’ve ever seen. He danced across the stage throughout the entire performance, dangled upside down on his microphone stand (while in the middle of performing “Waiting on a Sunny Day”), and every so often would run from one end of the stage to the other and slide on his knees. How rock ‘n roll can this guy get?
Springsteen performed songs off of most of his albums, with particular attention placed on his 2002 release, The Rising. As anticipated, crowd pleasers like “Badlands” and “Born to Run” also held a special place within the concert. Admittedly, there was an undeniable feeling of unity with those around me as we shouted out the words to songs that had been a part of our lives for so many years.
About three quarters of the way through the concert, Springsteen made mention of the War in Iraq, “People of all kinds of political beliefs come to see us. I like that. We welcome them all.. It’s not a Republican or Democratic question, it’s not a liberal or conservative question, it’s an American question, protecting a democracy we ask our sons and daughters to die for.” As those last words were spoken, the E Street Band broke into “Land of Hopes and Dreams.” I don’t think that anyone else could’ve made a political statement with as much class as Springsteen did last night.
Concluding their second encore with “Dancing in the Dark,” Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band brought their thousands of fans to their feet once last time.
I left that concert being more proud of my New Jersey heritage than I had ever been before. Let out-of-staters call my hometown the armpit of America, I couldn’t care less, because I know that Jersey’s got the Boss, and it doesn’t get any better than that, folks. — Megan Duffy