| Springsteen: April 5, 2009 |
On April 5, 2009, The Boss came to Austin, and we were there, in the Pit, 20 feet from Bruce, himself. It was an amazing show. Setlist: Badlands I should have brought my digital camera, but only had my iPhone with me. Here are some of the better shots I got. Badlands
Outlaw Pete
Prove It
Out In the Street
Workin On The Highway
Sherry Darlin Bruce has a tradition of taking requests off the signs in the audience, mostly those in the Pit (to reward his most loyal fans). After Out In the Streets, he collected a bunch of signs, then came to the mic with a gum wrapper. The shot is not good, but on two pieces of gum wrapper were written the words "Sherry Darlin." Bruce got a kick out of it, so they played the song.
She's The One
Because The Night
Kurt and Rick With my setlist, I knew Born To Run was next. They blazed the house lights, and I turned around to take this shot of Kurt and Rick.
Kurt's boyish smile reflected my exact feelings. Rick's expression... did not. Born To Run
Jungleland
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out
I'm A Rocker For the second sign request, Bruce went back to the pile and sifted through it, then smiled a mischievous, boyish grin and pulled up the sign for "I'm a Rocker." Stevie rolled his eyes and smiled, as if to know that this would be interesting because they had not rehearsed it. Bruce still gave it his all and the band muddled through, but it was pretty sketchy. But by this time, nobody really cared; we all laughed at it. Except Rick. He didn't like it.
American Land Bruce had played an extra song in the main set, and had played five songs in his encore, so I knew the sixth would be the last song. He had played American Land every show so far, and had closed two shows with it, so yes, that was the finale for this show. For the song, he brought the keyboard players out on accordions, and everyone except Max stood in a line, as if for a curtain call and the final bows.
Then the curtain call line consolidated into a smaller group, which followed Bruce onto the smaller front stage, just ten feet away from us. They kept bouncing to the Irish jig rhythm and swelled to the finale.
As the band took the above positions for their final bows, Bruce gazed into the audience for one final moment, drinking it in. He clearly had as much fun as we did, if not more. The geeky guy next to me raised his friend's "Glory Days" sign, but we all knew it was futile. The band struck a false ending and burst into the final surge. Then they hit the final chord, and Bruce high-fived the front row. He didn't want the evening to end. Bruce then looked straight ahead at us and saw the Glory Days sign. He pointed to it majestically, and then started quickly gesturing to bring the sign to him. The geek tried to move forward, but the crowd was tight, and he bounced off it. Bruce kept waiving for the sign rapidly, like he was demanding it but wouldn't just stand there if the guy just took his sweet time. So I grabbed the geeky guy by the shoulders and bull-rushed the stage. We got there quite quickly, and the stadium saw the sign. Some people knew what it meant and started cheering. Then Bruce showed it to the band, and they went back to their positions. More of the crowd caught on. Then Bruce propped the sign up on his mic stand. More people caught on and the cheering swelled. Then he hit the opening riff, and the crowd erupted. Bruce somehow managed to take the show to an even higher level with that encore, and everyone in the stadium went nuts. And that is the story of how we got our extra song. Glory Days
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