Rescue Me Sloopy (Columbus, December 16, 2002)

Eleven days ago in Toronto I had one of those life-altering Bruce concert experience. Granted, spending the whole show 5 feet or so from the stage and touching THE guitar may have had a little to do with that, but it was a great, great night.

Last night in Columbus didn't match up.

That said, it was a fine way spend one last night with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, 2002 edition.

The evening's highlights started at the merchandise stand. Sad to say, the bug finally hit me. There is a 3/4 length shirt now, which costs even more than the other shirts. It sports a 20-year picture of Bruce, surrounded by wild lettering spelling out "Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band." It's so bad it's good. It spoke to me. I had no choice. I bought one. Then I went back for a keychain.

The show started with a tilt back towards the setlists from earlier in the tour. "The Promised Land" followed "The Rising" and "Lonesome Day"; a solid performance remeniscent of the performances on the last tour. After that, "The Fuse." While "The Fuse" is always a welcome addition for me to the setlist, in this spot it just seemed to energy out of both the band and the crowd. Whereas "No Surrender" had been at attack/bring it to them experience in Toronto, here the performance was more forced, with the timing in particular seeming tentative.

Before "Empty Sky," Bruce apologized for the earlier postponement of the Columbus date, noted that the band had a "one-eyed sax player" for a couple of weeks. More jokes and poses followed throughout the night, a highlight being when Bruce sang a couple lines of "Rescue Me" during the intro for Patti (in Toronto, it was "Brown Eyed Girl"); Patti was having none of it.

For fans who have seen many shows over the last couple of tours, the audibles and "optional" slots had to be a bit of a disappointment last night. "Out in the Street" and "Two Hearts" appeared to be audibles, both played in the arrangement of the last tour. After another graceful solo piano performance of "If I Should Fall Behind," the last slot went to "Thunder Road," sounding every bit as tired as every other performance of the past 3 years. THE guitar made no appearances, and the little extras such as Bruce joining in the keening before "Into the Fire" were absent as well.

The encores started with "Where the Bands Are." At the time, this choice seemed totally bizarre -- given a chance to get the crowd on their feet, Bruce played a tune unknown to most of them. That was redeemed, though, with the next song: "Glory Days" got everyone up, and when the band segued into "Hang on Sloopy," the roof separated from the building and OSU zealots were deleriously launched into orbit. Well, ok, not quite, it just seemed that way. During "Born to Run," Bruce ran his guitar down the length of the front row, giving about 100 people a chance to have their touch.