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Why I am so shattered today
20 Dec 2007 02:09 pmSo, last night's Springsteen gig adventure in full:
Figured that if I take the 16:45 train to Kings Cross, I'll get to the venue half sixish, half an hour after doors opened so the queue should have died down. Well, I did get to my entrance (which involved going round all the way inside the dome, marvelling at the queues in front of the restaurants, even Starbucks) at 6:30 but the doors took a while longer to open.
As I had a reserved seat I wasn't in a hurry so had a good look around. There are lots of drinks/food stands around the concourses of all four levels so if you wanted food or drink, the queues were really short (OKish prices for drinks, less so for food), except for the merchandise stand. Also lots of toilets.
The seating is rather steep so the heads of the people in the row in front of you are at ankle height and the seats themselves are rather comfortable.
The audience was rather mixed as usual with me falling pretty much in the average age group. Good not to feel old as I at so many gigs. ;o)
At about 20:40 the house lights finally dropped and the show started with Radio Nowhere from the current album. The sound was perfect in terms of volume and well balanced, too, quite possibly the best sound I've heard in a large venue, especially considering I was sitting in a corner relatively high up (with a clear view of the stage and one of the screens). I would have loved to hear at the sweet spot on the floor.
What followed was almost two and half hours of E Street Band power who played a wide selection of new material (7 from Magic), a couple from The Rising and the rest from between '75 and '84 with the tracks from BtR and Darkness being the crowd pleasers although the re-emerging Born in the USA tracks (I don't think he played Workin' on the Highway, even in '89) got a very good response, too. The other tracks I hadn't heard live before where Reason to Believe (which has involved into a John Lee Hooker style heavy blues number), Because the Night and one of my favourites, Racing in the Street plus Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
It should be noted that two members of the E-Street Band were missing: Danny Federici (replaced by Charles Giordano from the Seeger Sessions band), who's currently undergoing treatment for melanoma and Patti Scialfa (home with the kids) and there was definitely something missing from the sound.
While he has slowed down somewhat since the Rising tour(he is 59, after all), Springsteen still wraps the audience around his little finger, switches from Rock'n'Roll maniac to thoughtful poet in an instance and has lots of fun on stage, especially when he's bouncing off (sometimes literally) Little Steven and the Big Man.
( Setlist with a few notes )
One thing I ought to mention: There were quite a few empty seats (I'd estimate about 100) despite the show being sold out. This can't just be people who couldn't make it for some reason or other but is most likely due to bloody ticket merchants. Even the touts in and outside the tube station were looking for tickets.
I was out of the door literally with the last chord of Santa and ahead of the main crowd into the tube station and managed to get onto the first train with almost 15 minutes to spare when I arrived at King's Cross. I got onto the slightly faster train and despaired when the driver announced that there wouldn't be a replacement bus for this train in Royston but that we would have to wait until the last (slooow) train arrived. This obviously didn't help my mood at all and I resigned myself to a freezing hour of waiting in Royston but thankfully, there was a bus after all and I was home before 2.
Figured that if I take the 16:45 train to Kings Cross, I'll get to the venue half sixish, half an hour after doors opened so the queue should have died down. Well, I did get to my entrance (which involved going round all the way inside the dome, marvelling at the queues in front of the restaurants, even Starbucks) at 6:30 but the doors took a while longer to open.
As I had a reserved seat I wasn't in a hurry so had a good look around. There are lots of drinks/food stands around the concourses of all four levels so if you wanted food or drink, the queues were really short (OKish prices for drinks, less so for food), except for the merchandise stand. Also lots of toilets.
The seating is rather steep so the heads of the people in the row in front of you are at ankle height and the seats themselves are rather comfortable.
The audience was rather mixed as usual with me falling pretty much in the average age group. Good not to feel old as I at so many gigs. ;o)
At about 20:40 the house lights finally dropped and the show started with Radio Nowhere from the current album. The sound was perfect in terms of volume and well balanced, too, quite possibly the best sound I've heard in a large venue, especially considering I was sitting in a corner relatively high up (with a clear view of the stage and one of the screens). I would have loved to hear at the sweet spot on the floor.
What followed was almost two and half hours of E Street Band power who played a wide selection of new material (7 from Magic), a couple from The Rising and the rest from between '75 and '84 with the tracks from BtR and Darkness being the crowd pleasers although the re-emerging Born in the USA tracks (I don't think he played Workin' on the Highway, even in '89) got a very good response, too. The other tracks I hadn't heard live before where Reason to Believe (which has involved into a John Lee Hooker style heavy blues number), Because the Night and one of my favourites, Racing in the Street plus Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
It should be noted that two members of the E-Street Band were missing: Danny Federici (replaced by Charles Giordano from the Seeger Sessions band), who's currently undergoing treatment for melanoma and Patti Scialfa (home with the kids) and there was definitely something missing from the sound.
While he has slowed down somewhat since the Rising tour(he is 59, after all), Springsteen still wraps the audience around his little finger, switches from Rock'n'Roll maniac to thoughtful poet in an instance and has lots of fun on stage, especially when he's bouncing off (sometimes literally) Little Steven and the Big Man.
( Setlist with a few notes )
One thing I ought to mention: There were quite a few empty seats (I'd estimate about 100) despite the show being sold out. This can't just be people who couldn't make it for some reason or other but is most likely due to bloody ticket merchants. Even the touts in and outside the tube station were looking for tickets.
I was out of the door literally with the last chord of Santa and ahead of the main crowd into the tube station and managed to get onto the first train with almost 15 minutes to spare when I arrived at King's Cross. I got onto the slightly faster train and despaired when the driver announced that there wouldn't be a replacement bus for this train in Royston but that we would have to wait until the last (slooow) train arrived. This obviously didn't help my mood at all and I resigned myself to a freezing hour of waiting in Royston but thankfully, there was a bus after all and I was home before 2.
