I am not a regular concert goer. I haven’t been to a concert since I saw Billy Joel at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse back in 2006. I honestly just don’t like concerts – from the large amounts of people surrounding me to… well, it’s really about being in large groups of people that annoys me.
So, I pretty much avoid concerts. And then there was The Boss.
When I saw a friend on Facebook asking me if anyone wanted to go see Bruce Springsteen at MetLife Stadium, I didn’t really hesitate. It’s Springsteen, after all; I’ve never seen him live and I was happy for the chance to change that.
I won’t pretend to be a huge Springsteen fan. I don’t know his entire catalog by heart, like some of the people who surrounded us in the second to last row of MetLife. But I am a fan of his music (really, who isn’t?) – even if I don’t recognize it. For the first hour and a half of the four hour set he played on Aug. 30, I admit I didn’t recognize a whole lot of the songs. I picked up on cues to sing along and I still enjoyed the music. It’s hard not to when you have tens of thousands of other people singing along.
Even from the second-to-last row of Section 316 (GIMME A HELL YEAH), everyone had a great view thanks to the giant screens behind Bruce.
And I continue to be amazed at the energy Springsteen has at these concerts. The man is 66 years old and he has more energy than most people half of his age. He ran around the floor at MetLife Stadium for four hours, blasting out hits, dancing with fans and having fun with the E Street Band the entire time. Sure, he joked about being tired during the encore set, but regardless, he went right back into another song. Springsteen is just a machine. And his show has amazing value.
While another show at MetLife featured a wedding proposal during Jersey Girl, this time around the fun was had during Dancing In The Dark, when he brought up four audience members to boogie down with Bruce, Patti Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell. One of the girls he brought up even got to play guitar with The Boss. What an amazing experience.
I had a great time at the show and even though I hate going to concerts, to see The Boss, I would do it again, for moments like this: