It was my third time seeing the boss in concert Friday night and it was nothing short of amazing. Springsteen and the E Street band went through the entire Darkness on the Edge of Town album from start to finish. They also played a new song Wrecking Ball, which Springsteen wrote especially for these final concerts at the stadium.
Although I love Bruce Springsteen’s music, Wednesday night I was stuck in over an hours worth of concert traffic on Rt. 3 East to 17 North trying to commute back home from Montclair State University. The last two shows are this Thursday and Friday. If you’re on the road between 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. make sure to stay away from Rt. 3 East at all costs.
Did the boss disturb your weekend commute?
Bruce Springsteen Concert Rocks First Weekend and Rt. 3 East
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No.
I never understood the Springsteen popularity. He seems really average to me.
Ditto what Spiro said. Different strokes applies.
I’ll second (third?) Spiro and Sandy. Like so many stadium-rockers who lost their creative spark when the fans annointed them as demi-gods, Springsteen’s music is just mediocre because he is unwilling to innovate.
That’s three against. Dissenting views?
Spiro, Sandy, spaceck have NO taste.
Or perhaps you don’t get the man.
Fine.
But to conclude he’s unwilling to innovate is just dumb.
What? Should he use Auto-Tune and rap?
For many of us Bruce supplied the soundtrack to our lives. For most of his songs I have specific memories. And some have even changed as my life has changed (Born to Run being the most obvious).
Moreover, after 9/11 Bruce was one of the only popular artist to create a viable work of art that expressed the emotion of the day.
So while I haven’t liked his new stuff at all, I do respect and honor his place.
It’s sad you can’t.
Gonna have to agree here too
As I’ve said before, same goes for Bono and U2
I also find it strange how many of my contemporaries constantly feel compelled to brag about how many times they have seen “Bruce” (as if they are on a first name basis with him).
We didn’t grow up with his music, and in fact he has pretty much been on the decline (musically speaking, I know every new album tops the charts) since the time of our births (late 80s early 90s).
Interesting topic since I took a ride though Asbury Park last week..The Stone Pony is an oasis in the desert that that city has become.
What I don’t understand is why, on the internet, people now just always offer the opinion if they don’t like something?
Why all the negativity? Didn’t your parents teach you that if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all?
I was at Friday’s concert and the ride home on Route 3 after the show was a breeze. The walk from the stadium to our car took longer than the drive back to Montclair. Will be doing it all over again this Friday.
I saw Bruce Springsteen only once, a long, long time ago, at Paul’s Mall, a club in Boston, where he was opening for David Bromberg. He’s not my favorite by a long shot. While I go to lots of concerts, I’m content to watch him on TV. But he’s clearly anything but average. He’s enormously energetic and really skilled at working a crowd and a band. Whether or not his new stuff is mediocre, good or great, I can’t say. It’s still a big job to go out and perform, and he seems to do that better than most.
Bromberg’s band at the time included a drummer, a fiddler or two, a couple of horns and bass, in addition to David Bromberg himself on guitar and mandolin. I’ve often wondered if sharing a bill with Bromberg’s band inspired Springsteen to form a group (much larger of course) with similar instrumentation years later for the Seeger Sessions.
I didn’t see any posts here with any negative or derogatory comments. The internet is precisely the place to offer differing opinions for a specific individual to read, internalize, and then formulate his or her own opinion.
No one was baselessly maligning the “Boss”, just offering personal anecdotes and/or personal views.
If any of the above comments offended you Ted, then perhaps I should question you as to why YOUR parents didn’t thicken up your skin a bit…
I’ve seen Bruce in concert 4 times over the years. His shows are amazing. The guy knows how to light up a room. Even in large venues he communicates a sense of intimacy that I’ve found to be unparalled in any other performer.
His best work was his very first album, ‘Greetings…’. It was a powerhouse and was to presage the greatness that would eventually be his. His lyrical ability was and is superb and his guitar playing, first rate. Perhaps fame and fortune have softened him a little, I don’t know. All I can say is “Thank God, for giving us the man”.
Dr. Robert:
Bromberg is a genius. And it was a long time ago: Paul’s Mall and its sister club, the Jazz Workshop, shut down in 1978, I believe. A short list of whom I saw at those two venues would include Bromberg (with Jeff Muldaur before Springsteen played with him), Keith Jarret (while he was still at Berklee!), ditto Chick Correa, Little Feat, Aerosmith, J. Geils Band, Room full of Blues, Paul Winter Consort, Duke Ellington and so many others it all runs together. I think the last act there was B.B. King. Here is a link to the show you probably saw…
https://www.brucebase.org.uk/gig1973.htm#14
Thanks for bringing back the memories!
Hey King, differing opinions are one thing when warranted but people just chiming in about how they DON’T like Bruce in a thread about traffic just seems like worthless energy.
I don’t see anecdotes about why people don’t like Bruce, I just see comments about” average,” “mediocre” or “I don’t get it.” To me that’s just negative for the sake of being negative and the world has enough of that already.
So I guess in your world their is no space for anyone to express a differing opinion than yours?
You sir have the definition of “negativity” twisted and even if you subscribe to the notion of “negative” meaning “opposition or denial” than prof would be the one contributing to the spiralling-out-of-control negativity you speak of, because he was the one offering the opinion that differed from the first posters.
Me on the other hand I know that “negative” means harmful, derisive, unpleasant and I think that everyone here can agree not one of these posts can boast any of the aforementioned characteristics.
So again…I ask are you so thin-skinned that you can’t handle someone telling you they don’t like something about you (or your favorite musician)? There is nothing inherently mean about me saying I think Bruce Springsteen is mediocre, but there is something inherently creepy in you asking me to either praise him refrain from letting my fingers and keyboard relay my sentiments.
Remember, “…the dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself”.
No one on these boards is 5 years old anymore and presumably no one spends most of their day in the sandbox anymore. Get a grip on reality and especially on the art of human dialogue, deliberation, and refutation.
Sorry, Prof,.I think taste has nothing to do with it. If you want taste, try Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, or something like that.
Listening to Springsteen, to me, is akin to admiring a vinyl sided center hall colonial with a pasted on brick front and a very large chandelier over the stair.
Two weird coincidences here.
Dr. Robert, I was waitressing down the street from Paul’s Mall that night, at The Bulkie deli and was invited by a co-worker to hang out with the band. I’d hardly heard of them, I declined, and have been kicking myself ever since. (Became a BIG fan later.)
And, King Harvest, that quotation about the dissenter was under my high school yearbook picture. I had no idea where it came from, and this is the first time I’ve seen it again in many, many years.
I think that it’s great that we all like different styles and different types of music.
Few would become “stars” if we all loved the identical type of music. I would never put down another person for not liking what I like.
While I am not a fan of Bruce Springsteen, I do admire his staying power and his magnitic power to draw huge crowds. Continued success to Bruce!
I grew up in the searchlight beam of the Empire State Building
on the edge of the Jersey swamps
way before the Boss picked up a guitar.
Many of his songs play in my mind
late at night.
Remembering My Hometown and post war doowop
Acapella on the street corner
Containers of beer
passed out the backdoor
of the local ginmill.
You can’t take the Jersey of the Boss
….Bring on your wrecking ball…
Luna, the quote is from a wonderfully prescient article by Archibald MacLeish in the NY Times Book Review from 1956 about Ezra Pound’s “Cantos” and the importance of dissent.
Thanks, spaceck- never knew that!