BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN CONCERT :)

 

Last week, we had a lot of fun. It was exhausting, too. And to tell the truth, I still have a lot of camping gear all over the house. And laundry. And bills. Stuff to do. From LAST weekend.

Last weekend, when I looked at the calendar, I saw that this is the only free weekend we have this month.

So last weekend, I said to Thor, "MAKE SURE we don't make plans. We are going to sit around the house, clean, and not spend money. We do NOTHING, even if I rreaaallllly want to." And Thor agreed.

That was last weekend.

This week, about Thursday, one of the teachers I work with asked me if I had seen the Bruce concert. "No," I replied. "Tickets are too much, and we have a few other concerts this fall already."

"You should go," he responded. "Everyone going to that concert bought more tickets than they know what to do with. It's at the stadium, and the field is General Admission. If you go stand in the parking lot, you can find someone who wants to get rid of their extra tickets, and is willing to let them go for cheap."

So, I thought about it. I had never seen a Bruce concert. I LOVED Bruce as a teenager. I'm from JOISEY, for 'chrissakes'. Seeing Bruce, with the E-Street Band, at Giants Stadium? And if I don't go now, when will I ever get there? On the other hand, the plan was to stay home, clean, and save money. And I've never gone to a concert that I don't have tickets for. So I didn't really think much more about it.

Yesterday, another teacher mentioned she had tickets for a food, wine, & beer tasting. All the restaurants in town demonstrate their specialties. I thought about going. But the cost, at $30.00 each, seemed high. I'm supposed to stay home and save money. Part of me really wanted to go. I almost bought tickets... but I didn't have cash on hand anyway.

And I thought, if I'm willing to consider spending that kind of money on food, why shouldn't I spend it on BRUCE instead? I eat all the time. How often do I get a chance to see BRUCE?

Surprisingly, it didn't take much to convince Thor. He didn't try AT ALL to remind me of what we discussed last week.

 

So we drove up to Giants Stadium last night. Instead of a fancy food tasting, we went through Taco Bell and wolfed down a soft taco. We knew that we might not get tickets; but we decided that even if we didn't, the parking lot tail gate party would be a fun night out. We were quite surprised to find that the parking lot cost $25.00 to enter! People were POURING in to the lot, at $25.00 per car.

I stood around for a while waiting for Thor, and watched the guys work the crowd. Jersey is a gritty place. Sure, there are a lot of nice people. There are a lot of civil service guys, construction guys, family guys. Jersey girls of every age, some stylish, some 'plain', and some very brassy broads.... some really lovely people, some quite loud and abrasive. There are a lot of people with hearts of gold, who will doing anything for you if you are their friend... but if they don't see you as one of 'their' people... FUH GET ABOUT IT! They will not budge an inch, and if you push them, or if they just THINK you are pushing them, they will knock you OUT. And there are a LOT of people. People everywhere.

The three guys I was watching working the crowd were doing a booming business buying and selling tickets. Thor had gone to the portajohn, and was waiting in line. "Got two tickets," the one guy yelled. "Who needs tickets?"

I walked up to him and said, "How much?"

"Face value," the guy said.

"I don't know, my husband is over there. I gotta ask him."

"Ya gotta get 'em fast before they're gone."

"I don't know, that seems like a lot. I gotta ask him." (We had already discussed this -- we didn't want to see the concert if we had to pay face value -- $110 each. Our goal was $20 each. Our upper limit was $40 each. On the other hand, I was afraid they'd be gone before I got there.)

So I walked over to the portajohn line and asked... "Nah, way too much," he said.

I went back to 'da guy'. "Too much. He doesn't wanna spend that."

Da guy wit da tickets said to me, with heaping scorn and derision, "No way. Whaddya TINK yer gonna get dese tickets for?" as he walked away.

So I kinda gave up. I was fine with just hanging in the parking lot anyway. But Thor went out on the search.

The first time he came back, he had no tickets. But the second time he came back, he'd gotten two general admission tickets for $40 each - face value, $110 each. "I'm kinda kickin' myself," he said. "I coulda done better."

We went right in, and got a great spot. General admission is all one level, and I'm only 5 feet tall. I hate to be surrounded by sweaty, drunk guys that are 6 foot tall. So we scoped out a spot on the rail next to the sound booth. Being on the rail is good, so I've got a little air; And it was a PERFECT view.


Turns out, this is the LAST concert ever being held at the old Giants Stadium. (And later in the month, we'll be seeing the last few concerts at the Philly Spectrum; Pearl Jam is closing THAT venue.) And Bruce was in perfect form, rocking out for about 3 1/2 hours... He opened up with Wrecking Ball, and later he played "Last Time" by the Stones, acknowledging the end of the old stadium. It was very encouraging to see a bunch of "old" people - and by that I mean people my age - still rocking that hard. Although I did wonder at one point if the drummer, Max, was gonna have a heart attack. And Bruce looks GOOOOOD. Maybe not a teenager anymore, but who is? And yeah... reallllly good. Everyone was singing along like crazy, although I must admit that since I don't listen to Bruce like I used to when I was a kid, I don't really remember all the words like I do with the Avetts and with Pearl Jam. Plenty of dancin' in the dark, though, and singing and screaming, and even fireworks....

 

It was high energy all night long, and he barely took a break. He closed the show with Jersey Girl. It was earlier than anyone expected, but in fact, he hadn't had a break between songs for most of the night. And when the lights came up, and the recorded music came on, everyone seemed really surprised and disappointed.

But the crew had obviously been watching the weather channel. Because we hadn't been out of the stadium -- (open air stadium, no roof) - for much more than a minute, before the sky opened up, and the rain started to fall. And we were on our way home, sitting in traffic in the middle of the night on the New Jersey Turnpike.