Posted on 09/11/2003 5:55:13 AM PDT by O.C. - Old Cracker
Talk about a home run.
Last night, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off a historic two-night stand at Fenway Park and Red Sox nation gave as good as they got during an ecstatic three-hour performance that found the Boss sprinting around like a wild man and pulling out some terrific setlist surprises just for Boston.
The fact that we trounced the Yankees earlier in the day only helped to heighten the jubilant mood.
After a raucous sing-along of ``Take Me Out to the Ballgame'' with Springsteen conducting, the local love began with the next number as the band lit into Barry and the Remains' '60s garage rock gem ``Diddy Wah Diddy'' with giddy energy.
The familiar willowy synth line of ``The Rising'' followed and the night's community mood was cemented in the first of many shouted choruses.
Springsteen continues to feature tunes from ``The Rising'' but many of them have transformed from their elegiac roots into more optimistic paeans to hope, including the buoyant ``Lonesome Day'' and the gentle ``Empty Sky.'' (No doubt Springsteen and the fans were wishing for an empty sky during this quiet song as two news helicopters hovered overhead like buzzing mosquitoes.)
Crowd-pleasing uptempo rockers came in the form of ``The Ties That Bind,'' a fun romp through ``Out in the Street,'' ``Badlands'' and ``No Surrender.''
Surprises included a forceful ``Because the Night'' and a chugging ``Be True.''
The New Jersey bard performed a rock and roll exorcism during the raucous ``Mary's Place,'' playfully teasing the audience about our pinstriped nemesis to the south and introducing the band with a zany litany that included calling them Viagra-taking sexifiers!
The night's loveliest quiet musical moment came in the lilt and sway of the Tex-Mex overtones of ``Across The Border,'' featuring a slow and wistful accordion solo that sounded like the perfect accompaniment to a dusty afternoon siesta.
He prefaced ``Born in the U.S.A.'' with a public service announcement about holding our political leaders accountable and closed by plugging Al Franken's new book.
Deadline obligations meant this reviewer missed the last of the encores but a source inside said they included a joyous ``Rosalita,'' ``Dancing in the Dark,'' featuring a mysterious guitarist who may have been Springsteen manager and former Bostonian Jon Landau, and a roof-raising ``Dirty Water'' with an assist from Peter Wolf.
Springsteen thanked the city and the neighborhood, to whom he had the crowd give a shout out for the privilege of playing at the grand old ballpark. But it was undoubtedly the fans inside Fenway Park who felt like the privilege was all theirs.
I guess that most of this forum's members, including me, don't much like commies or their commie causes. You talk funny, are you one of them commies? You sounds like a commie. Commie go home!
Everyone knows that commies are lurkers who hate the light of day. Springsteen is a lurking commie, hiding out in the USA because he has a lot of commie friends in high places in this country.
It's time for another McCarthy era!
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