Lost my senses to the tour (Madison Square Garden, June 26 and July 1, 2000)

The final chapters of the 2000 tour, so I'll ramble a bit more than usual in wrapping up my final two shows.

AIN'T GOT NO SOUL - June 26

If this tour is one part nostalgia, then there could be no better reminder of that for me than to step in to the Hotel Pennsylvania this past Monday afternoon. 21 years ago, I stayed there for a model UN, and it was there I had my first legal drink, my first trip to a bar, and, most importantly, my first kiss. Well, at least, my first kiss that mattered. Marcie Strasser, where are you tonight?...

On Monday, it was basically just a short stop. Long enough to meet up with the Bretons, who were kind enough to turn part of their room into baggage storage for me. The hotel looks exactly the same as in March 1979, when the hot new single was George Harrison's "Blow Away." Passing from the bar to the elevator area, we passed the freight elevator. The magic location. Don't ask. It made sense at the time.

For once, I actually made it in to the city with time to spare. No canceled flight, no frantic dash to the arena. A nice flight in, during which a majestic ride up the Hudson offered a spectacular view of Manhattan, including the Garden. A day to roam the city, to get a cosmic passport and find the kosher cheese section at Zabar's. A day to remember why there's no place quite like New York, and all the same to remember why I couldn't live there. And a day to fend off attacks back at my work office, where this last intrusion of the Springsteen 2000 tour on to my work schedule would have potentially devastating impact. But I didn't care, at least not too much. A little after 8, none of that would matter.

By now, most of the reviews from the 26th must be in. I have not read them. And the show, it's still fresh. Well, except for "Another Thin Line." Bruce opened with it, and I thought it sounded pretty good, but except for a line about keeping your eyes on the prize, I can't actually remember any of it. Not the melody, not the lyrics. I suppose I'll get another listen some time, but it just didn't stick. By the time Bruce launched into "For You," the opener was forgotten.

Within the first 5 songs of the show, Bruce had performed "For You" and "Downbound Train" - songs that, like "Another Thin Line," I had never seen him do in concert. Not only did he nail the performances, but the details amazed me. When Bruce sang "do you remember how I kept you waiting, when it was my turn to be the God?," he held that last note so long, and with such conviction, that I could only watch in awe. The song might be 27 years old, but you would never know it on Monday.

For the Madison Square Garden stand, "American Skin" has become the emotional core, at least for me. On Monday, Bruce asked for quiet before the song, and when the clapping started early on, he had the band simply repeat the line "41 Shots" and stared down the clappers, until they behaved. Didn't quite work - and he went through four full sets of the line (that would be 17 shots, by the time the first verse commenced), but the song performance was magnificent. My brother - normally a tough customer for Bruce's newer material - commented afterward that the performance gave him chills.

After "Downbound Train," the setlist was more or less "standard" for most of the set. The performances, however, were crisp throughout. Better even than the earlier spring shows that I had seen. Bruce was also unusually loose - for example, doing a silly jig around the microphone when announcing the "New York" things that were really based in New Jersey. The stage rush was in full force by "She's the One," and that made things somewhat difficult during "Born in the U.S.A.," - a "sitting" song.

And then, to start the 2nd encore, I was treated to the type of moment that reminded my why I fly across the country and lose all sense of irrationality in order to be in attendance: The opening salvo to "Night." Another song I had never seen live, one that I desperately wanted to hear, and one that I was not expecting this night. I basically just lost it. How could I not? Of course, the performance was great, loose, fun, inspired, goofy, and so what if Bruce missed a vocal cue. I could catch that 9:15 back to Detroit on Tuesday and not even worry about what great things I'd miss that evening.

BEEN DRIVING 600 MILES - July 1

Three days at work, cramming in a full week's worth of material, all just to do it over again. This time, by car. 650 miles to New Jersey, with a nice Best Western in Dubois, Pennsylvania, being our only bridge to the real world in between.

Saturday's show will go down as one of the more legendary of Bruce's career. 3 hours and 33 minutes on stage - surely an E Street Band record for continuous public performance. 28 songs, a record for this tour, including - in the final concert of the tour - a pair of tour debuts! Outstanding performances of the standard songs, and inspiration throughout.

Bruce and the band came on stage very late. The first half of the show was mostly standard, with the slight surprise of combining the end of tour opener, "Code of Silence," with the beginning of tour opener, "My Love Will Not Let You Down," at the start. Also, the inclusion of both "Mansion on the Hill" and "The River" before "American Skin" caused the first half to be substantially longer than usual - by the time "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" was over, it was already 10:30. Many earlier shows on this tour were already into their encores at that hour.

With the inclusion of "Atlantic City" as well as "Mansion on the Hill," we got a sequence during the first half that went as follows: Atlantic City/Mansion on the Hill/The River/American Skin/The Promised Land/Youngtown/Murder Incorporated/Badlands. Dreams surrendered, unattainable, lost, shattered. Upon concluding this 8-song tour-de-force, Bruce simply announcing, "enough of the formalities!," and on into the catharsis of "Out in the Street." "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" included Bruce's immortal words to Patti, thanking her for "late night sexualization" and a "vacation from masturbation."

Then, Bruce did it to me again. No, not "E Street Shuffle." Been there, don't that two weeks ago. Very nice. No, it was that opening organ note. I knew it right away. So did about 5,000 other people in the crowd, give or take a couple thousand. These would be the folks I call the "Ain't Got No Soul" crowd - we're the ones who pump our fists to that line in "Murder Incorporated" exactly the way Bruce does it, we're the ones who have that arm extended every time the word "faith" comes up in songs such as "Badlands" and "Land of Hope and Dreams." We all knew. By the time Bruce sang the opening words, it was clear that at least half the audience knew this song by heart (excepting, of course, the one dude in our row who decided to make his 4th beer run at this point). Bruce nailed it as if he had been performing it the whole tour, and then combined his first great Vietnam song with his most famous one, "Born in the U.S.A.," a combination so inspired that it seems a shame that this would be the only time for it on the tour.

The stage rush occurred during the middle of "Backstreets." So quick was it, and so obvious - from where we were in section 308 we could plainly see Andy Michael running out in front of center stage to cue the security folks to do it - that it provided one of the few real distractions of the evening.

One final thing that I had always wanted to see: Bruce playing the piano. Finally, in the first encore, Bruce skipped up to the piano, and had 20,000 people transfixed as he played "The Promise." I could leave happy. Bruce must be tiring. I was wasted. It was beyond midnight by the time "Land of Hope and Dreams" ended.

Time for one last song. "Blood Brothers." Stunning. Bruce rewrote the final verse. The "commitment to serve" having been achieved on this tour, the new verse answered the version he released 5 years ago: now he knows why he made that call.

After the show, I couldn't move. I just sat there, on my seat, for about 10 minutes. Heidi and Cynthia were there, they did the same thing. No words necessary.

Rumors are out there'll be something announced in August, that this isn't the end. I don't know. For now, I'm a little too exhausted to care. I've been a paying customer on this train the last 16 months, and if I don't know where I'm going, I know I'll be back whenever it leaves the station. From the first Asbury audience filling in during "Badlands" to the last Garden crowd's "E Street Band" chant, from community to communiTEE, and from a loading dock in Fargo to a Steak'N'Shake somewhere in northern Kentucky, it has been an outstanding ride.

'Til next tour.