Last Saturday night, I took ben to the Bruce Springsteen show in San Jose. It wasn't Ben's first concert, and he doesn't know Bruce that well, but he loved it. He was impressed by Clarence Clemmons in particular.

The day started off rocky. We had to get up early, and he lost his baseball game -- to the team he was on last year. And he didn't get to pitch. Then we got a late start and hit traffic. Not traffic, per se, but clumps of cars going slooooowwwwww. And too many dolts in the fast lane. We got there, and the seats weren't as good as we'd hoped. And then we had to wait for our friends.

And then, the show started almost an hour late!

Even after all this, when the band hit the stage, and that first note shook the house, all was right with the world. I saw the Bruce show in October, and loved it. This show was even better.

The E STREET BAND is just plain awesome. A spectacu;ar collection of superb misicians. Of course, watching these six-string masters takes a toll on the psyche of someone in the early stages of learning the guitar. But it was really cool seeing close-ups of Bruce, Steve, and Nils playing their axes.

One of the cool things about the show was how Bruce interacted with the crowd. I didn't figure this out till I read the review the next day, but when he was taking posters (signs) from the corwd, he was fulfilling song requests. He even brought a guy from the crowd up on the stage who'd written GLORY DAYS across his bald head. That says something about Bruce as a performer, that he'd divert from the play list.

And ... the man ROCKS!

Here's the set list:

Out in the Streets
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
Gypsy Biker
Something in the Night
Magic
Trapped
Reason to Believe
Prove It All Night
She's The One
Livin' in the Future
The Promised Land
Fire
Incident on 57th Street
Devil's Arcade
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands


Encore:
Detroit Medley
Born to Run
Glory Days
Bobby Jean
American Land