In 3 minutes I will be copping front row seats. Whos been to this show? I got into Springsteen 2 years ago and this will be my first time seeing him, what should I expect? Im sort of making this post out of sheer excitement, maybe I'll come back and post live videos.

it was my first Bruce show post-Clarence (think I've seen him 6-7 times overall).

Definitely in the Top 2 or 3 of the times I've seen him.

Full three-hour show with no breaks.

Great setlist (I'm used to him opening up with a new song but he went right into Badlands) with a couple old songs I haven't heard him play (Something In The Night, E Street Shuffle) along with the new album songs (with Death To My Hometown & Rocky Ground being the highlights of those, I don't count Land Of Hopes & Dreams because he's been playing that for at least ten years).

Tom Morello from Rage made a cameo appearance (the first time he did so was the last Bruce show I saw back in 2008 but led to them linking up for the R&RHOF 25th Anniversary Show. He played on Death to My Hometown & Jack of All Trades (which he'd done on Fallon) then later came out to duet & rip skulls off on the second solo on Ghost of Tom Joad. That's the second time I've seen that live but it was cool watching it with a different audience. I was telling the girl I was with wait until that second solo. When he starts going into those harmonics & finger-tapping alien-invasion tonal shit into the explosions people were losing their minds including the middle-aged woman behind me who kept going 'OH MY GOD' over & over (at least 10 times, grabbing/poking at her husband while doing so).

Instead of trying to straight-up replace Clarence (impossible) they've stepped things up & have a full time horn section now (with a trumpet, trombone & Clarence's nephew who sounds great filling in on some of those trademark alto sax solos). They also have added the 'E-Street Choir' to the mix on backup vocals. It kind of helps bolster the depth of an aging E Street Band (who've suffered the losses of two long-timers now in the past few years). They sound/play 'big' while still giving individuals their spots to shine.

Bruce is as indefatigable as ever, I have no idea where he gets that from but he's about twice my age & probably more than twice my energy. Dude was working it out during the 'Apollo Medley' section of the show where he talks about the soul music he grew up on that he used to play out at bars coming up (usually inserts a cover or two here, in this case The Way You Do The Things You Do by the Temps & 634-5789 by Wilson Pickett). He was working the crowd in preacher mode during this segment, coming down onto the floor shaking hands & kissing babies (I'm not sure about literally in the latter case but he had brought a young kid who'd been watching on shoulders out of the crowd shortly before that to dance & 'duet' with him on the chorus of Waiting On A Sunny Day). Next thing you know Bruce is in the back of the floor seats & then starts crowd-surfing, which lead to him being passed all the way back up along the hands of the crowd from the back of the floor circle to the front of the stage. Shit was amazingly hilarious to watch from an above angle.

Encore (if it qualifies as one because I'm not sure they ever fully left the stage) was a cover of 'California Sun' that had the Professor Roy Bittan and whoever's filling in for Danny nowadays (forgot his name) on the accordian/squeezebox/organ killing it on the keys/organs then going into the obligatory Born To Run followed up by Dancing in the Dark (he never used to play this when I started seeing him but it appears to be back in as a regular nowadays, this time he brought his little sister out of the crowd to come up to dance with him during the Courtney Cox video section). Tenth Avenue Freezeout was the final closer with a big tribute to Clarence when it got to the 'Change Was Made Uptown & The Big Man Joined The Band' part that included a video tribute then Jake Clemons hammering out a solo while joining Bruce to step it out for the final moments of the show.

All around great experience, particularly since a homegirl from Texas (who pretty much hit me up knowing I love music & I'm from Jersey) hit me up *that afternoon* with free tickets she'd been given by her boss at the last minute. The late-afternnon/early-evening running around was well worth as he added another great show to my mental memory books.

That's another time I've went with someone who was barely even a casual fan going in who left grinning ear-to-ear saying its one of the best shows they've seen.

You're gonna have a great time seeing it next month. In a way it won't ever be quite the same without the Big Man but in another way it's exactly the same.

and by the time I realized I wasn't going to be tickets were long gone.