Published: March 27, 2008 11:01 pm            

KEN HART: An evening with the E Streeters

You may recall a few weeks ago I mentioned in this space I had purchased a ticket for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s March 24 performance in the Schottenstein Center, on the campus of The Ohio State University.

Well, the 24th was this past Monday, as was, obviously, the concert.

Come on. You didn’t honestly think I was going to go to the show and then not come back and tell you about it, did you?

If you’re not a Bruce fan, I’m going to beg your indulgence here. Try to hang with me, because I believe you’ll find that the subject matter actually goes beyond the boundaries of musical taste.

A few words, first, though, about the concert itself.

To paraphrase what a friend of mine, a veteran of more than two dozen Springsteen shows, including five on the current “Magic” tour, recently wrote on his blog, there are great Springsteen concerts, then there are those that are simply transcendent.

Monday’s performance was without a doubt one that fell into the latter category.

After what was, by some reports, a bit of an “off” night a couple of nights earlier in Cincinnati, Bruce and the E Streeters clearly were on a mission from the moment that the opening notes of “The Ties that Bind,” the leadoff track from Springsteen’s 1981 double album “The River,” echoed throughout the Schott.

The musical high points of the show were far too numerous for me to even begin to attempt to name them all. A few of them were a swamp-blues reading of “Reason to Believe,” the closing number from “Nebraska,” the dark masterpiece that is still my favorite Springsteen album; Nils Lofgren’s guitar solo on “Because the Night,” which words like “searing” and “blistering” do not even begin to describe; and rarely performed numbers such as “Sherry Darling” (a criminally overlooked gem from “The River") and “Something in the Night.”

Oh, yes. And then there was “Rosalita,” the song Springsteen used to close every live performance with until he chose to quote, unquote “retire” it (much to the chagrin of many fans) a few years back. When he launched into it Monday night, rightly on the heels of “Born to Run,” some 18,000 folks, myself included, went from just plain bonkers to flat-out ballistic.

Of course, the fact that, thanks to the general-admission lottery system employed at all of Springsteen’s concerts, I was one of 360 lucky ticket-holders who got to view the show from that sacred area directly in front of the stage did nothing to detract from my enjoyment.

However, as I left the arena, with the show closer “American Land” still echoing in my brain, I kept thinking about all the memories I’d made that evening.

I thought about the people I’d met. Folks like Joe and Angelo, those hosers from Canada who drove 7 1/2 hours to be at the show and with whom I shared high-fives and whoops of delight when we all found out we’d made it into The Pit. (Incidentally, they told me they were planning on heading back home right after the concert so Joe, an eighth-grade teacher, could make it to work the next day.)

Like Chris, the expatriate Brit, and his lovely wife, Phyllis, with whom I passed some time waiting for the show to begin by discussing politics.

Like the father and his 10-year-old son, neither of whose names I caught, who stood in front of me in the pit. During the show, Bruce walked over to our side of the stage, reached down and handed the youngster one of his harmonicas. The father looked up with an expression of pure gratitude and mouthed the words, “Thank you.”

There were a lot more, too — folks whom I know will probably never cross paths again, but whom I actually consider my friends.

It’s an amazing feeling, really, that sense of community one feels at a Springsteen show, where everyone is bound by their incredible love for this man and his music, which has formed the soundtrack of my life for more than 30 years and that has meant more to me than words could ever describe.

Thank you, Bruce, for bringing us all together and for an incredible evening.

I can’t wait to do it again. Soon.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.

        

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