Magic in the Night

On Monday night, David and Alison went with some friends to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in DC. Our seats were in the very last row of the arena - we could touch the ceiling when we stood up - but at least we were "center ice". The show was simply outstanding - it was David's favorite show of the ~10 or so times he's seen Bruce (with or without the E Street band) so far.

There were rave reviews in both the Washington Post and the Washington Times for the Sunday night show. The Post reviewer also did a song-by-song recap of Monday night - and a colleague of his did the same thing (hilariously) from The Big Man's perspective.

David's (My) personal favorites were a loud bluesy version of "Reason to Believe", the appearance of the rare (and my favorite Bruce song of all-time) "Backstreets", and a smokin' duet with Bruce and his wife Patti on her song "Town Called Heartbreak". But the emotional highpoint of the night was the last three songs: "Last to Die", "Long Walk Home", and "Badlands". Just before "Last to Die" started, Bruce said "This is for John!". Now David (I) KNEW that it wasn't dedicated to my cousin John - but that's not what my heart heard. I'd visited his grave site at Arlington National Cemetery earlier that day for the observation of Veterans Day. The next day, it was reported that the song was dedicated to John Kerry, who Bruce campaigned for in 2004 and who inspired the lyrics to "Last to Die" (and who was in the audience). The encores were all better than the last, and included "Thunder Road", "Born to Run", "Dancing in the Dark", and "American Land".