Alternate Springsteen Review
I'm about to commit a sacrilege here - or if the Journal Sentinel reviewer is to be believed, it's outright heresy. According to the professional reviewer, "magic" happened at the Bruce Springsteen concert here in Milwaukee on Saturday night. Maybe from where he was at the front of the venue, there was magic between Bruce and the concert-goers. But from the back half where I was, there was only tedium. So I offer up a non-professional, but real person review of the concert from the back of Veteran's Park.
Bruce started right on time, and the crowd was excited. Would have been the perfect time to start out rockin' with a big hit to keep the crowd going, wouldn't you think? I must admit, I'm a regular ol' Springsteen fan, not a rabid one. I've quoted him occasionally and used his music in sermons. I've only owned a few albums/CD's. But I thought I was pretty familiar with most Springsteen music. I admit, I believe the Tom Joad era sucked. My favorite CD is The Rising, and that cut from the CD is the main one I wanted to hear on this night. But I would have settled for any big hit to get us rockin' from the start. Instead, we got four of his more obscure hits (at least for us moderate fans...) before one that I recognized. Spirit in the Sky was the first one to get me moving. But even that came after a very long tedious intro - what felt like an eternity of Bruce calling out "Are you feeling the spirit?" We were.... until about the 10th time he yelled it out. Then I just wanted to yell back, "Just play the damn song!" That was about par for the course this night though, I was about to learn. Long intros (including about a 3 minute steady and boring beat of the drum while Bruce was doing something on the stage that those of us in the back couldn't see on the too-low screens)..... repetitive riffs played to death.... mellow music that was hardly rockin'.
One thing I've learned.... bikers don't dance. At least middle-aged bikers don't dance. The closest I saw any of them come to dancing was when Bruce didn't even play his own song. He followed Spirit in the Sky with Wooly Bully. That was followed though with more mellow songs, some downright depressing music of his, and more long intros and dragged out endings. I sort of recognized some songs - mainly when I would hear a phrase or line from the chorus that was recognizable, but nothing to get me going.
About a half hour into the concert, I noticed the crowd was already thinning. By an hour into it, half of the crowd around us was gone. Deanna (my friend with me) was yawning and looking bored to tears but I kept telling her "one more song" as I was hoping to at least hear The Rising. When he was introducing Mary's Place (Having a Party) with another long barrage of "Are you ready to party?" over and over, I was almost ready to leave too. The woman in front of us turned around several times to say "This is bullshit! He's just babbling" and the man with her said "Where's Elton John when you need him?" (They were at the 100th too, and stayed for all of Elton's concert even though most people left.) I convinced Deanna that since this was from the same CD, surely The Rising was coming soon. At that point the folks in front of us (the only fun ones around) left too. So when he followed that song by slowing things down even further, I gave in and told Deanna we could go. There was a steady stream of people leaving - more crowded going out than it was coming in because of the vast numbers making the exodus early.
This was magic? Not in the back half of the Park. Obviously hundreds of others agreed with me as we were leaving. When I read the review the next day, I saw that we missed a lot. Bruce kissing women in the crowd, Bruce jumping into the crowd several times, Bruce dancing with women on stage. Maybe if the screens had actually been high enough for us to see what was happening, it may have been more enjoyable (I did manage to see a little bit of his "mosh pit" experience on those screens when people moved.) But for us, all the time Bruce was doing those things just meant we listened to tedious babbling or riffs.
As I read the set list yesterday, I saw that we did make it through half of the set, and I missed The Rising by only 2 songs. Who knows if I would have recognized it though anyway? According to all I've heard, Bruce played over 3 and a half hours. That's great, if it's good. But I'd much rather have quality than quantity. I figured out that meant each song was an average of 7 minutes in length, based on the set list. Again, if it includes lots of long intros and tedious repetition, doesn't mean a damn thing. Yes he did 10 encore songs - most of them his big hits - but you had to make it through 2 hours of monotony to get to that reward. I just couldn't cut it, I guess.
Bruce is an awesome musician, but this show would have been much better in a smaller, more intimate setting. And Bruce, repeating a call to party is good 3 times max... more than that just makes us lose the spirit, not feel it.
Bruce started right on time, and the crowd was excited. Would have been the perfect time to start out rockin' with a big hit to keep the crowd going, wouldn't you think? I must admit, I'm a regular ol' Springsteen fan, not a rabid one. I've quoted him occasionally and used his music in sermons. I've only owned a few albums/CD's. But I thought I was pretty familiar with most Springsteen music. I admit, I believe the Tom Joad era sucked. My favorite CD is The Rising, and that cut from the CD is the main one I wanted to hear on this night. But I would have settled for any big hit to get us rockin' from the start. Instead, we got four of his more obscure hits (at least for us moderate fans...) before one that I recognized. Spirit in the Sky was the first one to get me moving. But even that came after a very long tedious intro - what felt like an eternity of Bruce calling out "Are you feeling the spirit?" We were.... until about the 10th time he yelled it out. Then I just wanted to yell back, "Just play the damn song!" That was about par for the course this night though, I was about to learn. Long intros (including about a 3 minute steady and boring beat of the drum while Bruce was doing something on the stage that those of us in the back couldn't see on the too-low screens)..... repetitive riffs played to death.... mellow music that was hardly rockin'.
One thing I've learned.... bikers don't dance. At least middle-aged bikers don't dance. The closest I saw any of them come to dancing was when Bruce didn't even play his own song. He followed Spirit in the Sky with Wooly Bully. That was followed though with more mellow songs, some downright depressing music of his, and more long intros and dragged out endings. I sort of recognized some songs - mainly when I would hear a phrase or line from the chorus that was recognizable, but nothing to get me going.
About a half hour into the concert, I noticed the crowd was already thinning. By an hour into it, half of the crowd around us was gone. Deanna (my friend with me) was yawning and looking bored to tears but I kept telling her "one more song" as I was hoping to at least hear The Rising. When he was introducing Mary's Place (Having a Party) with another long barrage of "Are you ready to party?" over and over, I was almost ready to leave too. The woman in front of us turned around several times to say "This is bullshit! He's just babbling" and the man with her said "Where's Elton John when you need him?" (They were at the 100th too, and stayed for all of Elton's concert even though most people left.) I convinced Deanna that since this was from the same CD, surely The Rising was coming soon. At that point the folks in front of us (the only fun ones around) left too. So when he followed that song by slowing things down even further, I gave in and told Deanna we could go. There was a steady stream of people leaving - more crowded going out than it was coming in because of the vast numbers making the exodus early.
This was magic? Not in the back half of the Park. Obviously hundreds of others agreed with me as we were leaving. When I read the review the next day, I saw that we missed a lot. Bruce kissing women in the crowd, Bruce jumping into the crowd several times, Bruce dancing with women on stage. Maybe if the screens had actually been high enough for us to see what was happening, it may have been more enjoyable (I did manage to see a little bit of his "mosh pit" experience on those screens when people moved.) But for us, all the time Bruce was doing those things just meant we listened to tedious babbling or riffs.
As I read the set list yesterday, I saw that we did make it through half of the set, and I missed The Rising by only 2 songs. Who knows if I would have recognized it though anyway? According to all I've heard, Bruce played over 3 and a half hours. That's great, if it's good. But I'd much rather have quality than quantity. I figured out that meant each song was an average of 7 minutes in length, based on the set list. Again, if it includes lots of long intros and tedious repetition, doesn't mean a damn thing. Yes he did 10 encore songs - most of them his big hits - but you had to make it through 2 hours of monotony to get to that reward. I just couldn't cut it, I guess.
Bruce is an awesome musician, but this show would have been much better in a smaller, more intimate setting. And Bruce, repeating a call to party is good 3 times max... more than that just makes us lose the spirit, not feel it.
posted by Kris at 9/01/2008 12:57:00 PM
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