Bruce is Back - What Do I Want to Hear?

So Bruce is coming back on tour. Currently, I’ve got tickets to 3 of his 5 shows in the greater New York Area – including floor seats at the Garden, where I may spontaneously combust. I’m likely headed for 4, and the last one depends on how crazy I get. I’m guessing that I’m going to get crazy enough to do it. But I’m on a fixed income. But it’s Bruce. I digress.

Obviously, these shows are going to be unlike the other four I’ve been to (and the 100s I’ve bootlegged onto my overwhelmed hard-drive) because there’s a Big Hole on E Street – the Big Man.

You don’t realize how powerful something is until it’s gone. I’ve been listening to some of the shows since The Rising Tour lately, and I’ve come to really appreciate (even further than I realized) how much the Big Man changed the band. His horn would make songs come alive, and he’d get the bigger cheers. Bruce would always go “Come on C!” before Clarence would chime in. While Clarence’s role haven’t been truly instrumental in Bruce’s music since Darkness, it’s always a welcome addition, creating the sound that very few other bands possess – from a man that no other band ever had.

It makes me upset to think about the shows without him. Maybe I’m just obsessed. Obviously you can replace the sound (C’s nephew, Jake, has been picked to play the horn on tour with the big boys) and it will sound great, but it won’t be the same. Depending on how many beers I have before the show, and if I hear Jungleland, I bet I’ll tear up. I teared up when I heard Jungleland the first time, so it only seems fitting to do it when Big Man’s not there.

The sound will live on. It isn’t going anywhere. We have YouTube and bootlegs and audio recording to carry us for all of our lifetimes. It’s just sad that the sound won’t be the same.

On a lighter note, I’d like to do a countdown of my top ten songs I hope (but really, I’m praying) that I hear live on this set of shows. I’ve been fortunate enough to hear some rarities (Sandy, E Street Shuffle, Kitty’s Back, Darkness, and more) but there’s always those songs that have eluded me (or his playing are so rare that you get mad when you read his set list from another show and are furious that he played THAT song. That’s basically what this list is about). Also included are my expectations for hearing them played. Since I’ve seen so many already, most of them are low.

1) Dancing in the Dark

You’d think this would be an easy one – he plays the damn thing enough, but not once at the shows I’m at! If he’s playing this on a regular basis, I’ve got a good shot.

2) Incident on 57^th Street

I have zero shot in hell. He only plays this in Europe and once in a blue moon. But I have to dream. Working on a dream. This song is actually so great, it’s a shame it doesn’t get the credit it deserves amongst the casual Bruce fan.

3) Racing in the Street

Same deal as Incident. I’d think I’d have a better shot of hearing this than Incident. Either would be great, but my expectations are sadly low – which will make it a great surprise when he plays it from the Garden and I explode!

4) Streets of Philadelphia

My only shot is to see this in Philly. Unfortunately (for me, but not for my bank account), Bruce is playing in Philly during the week. If he comes back to Philly after Europe, count it.

5) Jersey Girl

Seeing 2 (maybe 3) shows in Jersey gives me a chance. Please Bruce!

6) My City of Ruins

For 10 years since The Rising?? Please Bruce!!!!

7) Janey Don’t You Lose Heart
8) My Love Will Not Let You Down

I bunched these two together because they’re both off Tracks, which decreases the chances even further. Both great concert staples – would be great.

9) Backstreets

Such a beautiful beautiful song. When I heard Bruce was playing the Born to Run album in 2009 I almost went on a cross country tour to see it – for the whole album, but because this is the one song off that album that I hadn’t seen live. I’ve seen Jungleland twice. Thunder Road twice. She’s the One four times. JUST LET ME HEAR THE WHOLE ALBUM

10) The Price You Pay

Just for the record, this song was far from my radar until Bruce played it to open his last show at the Philly Spectrum, and ever since I’ve loved it. It’s been 2.5 years. Can’t get enough.

Bonus songs that would be awesome but I’ve given up:

Bobby Jean
Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town
The Ties That Bind
Jackson Cage
Hungry Heart
New York City Serenade
My Hometown

Chris Paul / NBA Fiasco

I've been getting so excited for the NBA season (that is a sentence I never thought I would type) yet the NBA is trying to find Selig-like reasons for me to turn my back on it. First the lock out, which everyone expected would result in a cancelled season. Since that's what we expected, everyone is delightfully surprised when they actually decide they will play 66 games for the sake of the game. Fine. The season needs to be shorter anyway.

But then this Chris Paul / Lakers trade / non-trade happened, and it's outrageous. I understand why the owners are mad. I understand why fans are mad. Like it or not, the CBA agreement was never going to prevent CP3, Dwight Howard, Deron Williams, and future superstars from going to the big market teams. And in reality, it has nothing to do with money so much as exposure, because the NBA has a maximum contract, it's not like a Albert Pujols situation, where he goes to the highest bidder - everyone in the NBA bids the same. So with that in mind, of course players are going to go to where they can be more marketable and hopefully make more money of sponsorship.

The CBA agreement is about market share, revenue sharing, and trying to limit these massive player contracts (that the owners originally agreed to, which is why we're in this mess when Rashard Lewis makes 20 million a year to play 20 minutes a game). The CBA will help limit that. But it won't stop superstars from going where they want.

What happened yesterday was abominable. It's worse than calling the MLB All Star game a tie. Because what happened was a fraud. New Orleans knows CP3 won't resign. Why not try to get some value (and they got pretty decent value for him BTW) now before turning it into a Carmelo Anthony situation last year, and he become more of a focus than the team. And if you don't trade him? You just lose out, making your team worse off than trading him.

Now? The NBA can't possibly trade him anywhere. At all. And if they do - Lakers should file a lawsuit. Seriously. They got conned. If the Hornets & the 29 Owners of the Hornets didn't want CP3 to be traded, it should be been clearly established from day one. But it clearly wasn't - and the GM was acting with the best interest of the team in trying to get good young talent before CP3 walks away and New Orleans gets nothing.

Is the NBA going to try to block every trade? This is a very slippery slope if this is what they're going to do. The NBA Owners picked the GM for NO, so it's not like they couldn't of seen this coming. They need a serious reality check.

It angers me that we're now thinking of what could of been if the Angel of Stern wasn't so concerned about the image of the league and it's bigot owners (I'm calling you out Dan Gilbert.) Let's be honest - the Hornets aren't going to be much of anything. Maybe a 6 seed. And that all depends on if they decide some point later down the line that it's "within the best interest of the league" BS that they pulled yesterday. The Lakers went from "eh, likely to do well, lose in WCF to Mavs or Thunder" to "NBA Finals vs. Heat" to "eh, well, does Odom even still want to play in LA?"

This is an absolute disgrace. I pray they make it right today. Because otherwise, this is really, really bad for the image of the league.

Penn State

This is a tough post for me to write. There's no real easy way to talk about any of this.

Let me describe why this matters to me so much. Beyond the disgust of all of it.

Penn State was/is my school. I would of gone there if I was accepted into main campus. I grew up on Penn State. I believed in Joe Pa. That's Philly's college football team. Every year I would play NCAA football as them. So even though I didn't go there, I had a close connection. I have plenty of friends - best friends - who went there. It's part of me.

So with that in mind, there's a million emotions going through my mind. I'm trying to maintain a relative calm, because I was beyond angry reading the indictment last night. Angry isn't the right word. You can't classify a word for this, because its so awful we're not supposed to have a word for it.

Before we get too far into this, it's important to note that nobody knows the whole story with regards to the cover up. We only know bits and pieces, and I wouldn't be shocked to see if there is more behind that. And I'm sure there is more to the perverted old man too.

The bottom line is the overall: The kids involved. Again, words cant describe how horrible it is. You read that indictment and your stomach ties into a knot. How how how how how did this ever happen? What in the hell was going through anyone's mind? It's awful.

The crime here is life-changing. And any type of "justice" that this old bastard gets is truly far from justice. He'll go to prison for the rest of his life. That's still not fair. These are one of the times when I don't believe in the justice system. Our legal system failed these boys several times, and could have saved more from these acts. I can't say my suggestions for true justice. But it's not good. And I don't want to just kill him either. I rarely get truly angry. This was one of those times. Jail is not fair. Jail is an easy get away. No way.

As far as Joe Pa: He's like everyone's grandfather. Always high in spirits. It's been sad seeing the slow decline, yet he still flashes brilliance every now and again, making him so lovable. I never met Joe. I've seen him. It's hard to hear this and think that he knowingly ignored what happened. I can't justify it. The only possible thought I can have is: He never saw anything (to the best of our knowledge.) So to make an accusation on behalf of McCreary, that's not totally on him. That's an easy out though. It still should have weighed on his conscience. It weighs on me, and I wasn't told about it.

It's tough for me to say what should happen to Joe. He's probably been with the University longer than anyone else (and I don't just mean the football program). He's built the reputation of the school, the program, etc. Penn State is much bigger than football, but that's what most everyone associates with the school. It's hard for me to bring the hammer down on Joe, but I think his time has come. I'm hoping they let him ride this out. I believe in mistakes - if you correct them. Clearly the disgusting man made the mistake more than once - and there are rumors it could be as high as 20.

The school's name will be dragged through the gutter because of this asshole. He was in a position of power and abused it. I honestly don't even want to say his name, because it makes me sick. The onus will fall on the program. It won't truly ruin it, but who knows if it will ever become what it once was. And that's a damn shame. This man was so selfish and acted with complete disregard for these kids, his peers, his employer, and the millions of fans who live and breathe for this university.

It's amazing that at a University that prides itself on their academic and athletic excellence, something entirely different brought the team down. It wasn't boosters. It wasn't money. It wasn't anything anyone would expect. Instead it's one of the worst stories you'll ever here.

It's hard to find any positive in any of this. Penn State has handled it awfully. They don't know what to do. Nobody looks good. Everyone is just upset and distraught. I am too. I honestly had a hard time sleeping last night, thinking about how angry that indictment made me.

There's no easy resolution to this. There's no way to look past it. It will fade away with time, but never truly disappear from the legacy of Penn State and Joe Paterno.

The Throne

I went to Kanye West / Jay-Z's show last night in the Meadowlands. Was very much of a last minute thing, but man I'm glad I did.

Rap concerts are weird. Because their shows can go two ways. It's either a live band in the background playing the beats, or they play a loop of the tracks. So literally the entire show the performer has to be bringing the energy. That's the genre. But when there's a track you can't do a random song. You can't take requests. So in that sense, it's not like music the way I see it, but it's still music. Does that make sense? It's not my definition anyway.

Anyways, so the show felt just on an epic scale, but the thing is that it didn't really sound like the album at all. And that to me is always a good thing. The voices just felt more ummmph. Like they were angry, but not Eminem angry. Like they wanted to be louder than each other. And that's great. It ran through the building and made it sound awesome.

Part of the excellence of the show was that they scripted it to have an excellent balance between Jay and Ye, and both at the same time. They touched on the hits (although let's be honest, between both of them, if they played all of their popular songs it would of taken over 8 hours).

I know I've written on Kanye before, and I think he's excellent. He's annoying. He's cocky. But he is damn talented. And he's always trying to be new, better, on top of everything else. And I love it. Jay is calmer, cooler, got more swag. He's more talented lyrically, but also more reserved. He just loves life. Whereas Kanye is tortured. He wants to be perfect but his instincts pull him other directions.

Something I realized around the last MTV VMA's, there are those artists that a super popular right now, but then there are always those artists that are truly larger than life, even if they're not in the spotlight right now. Jay-Z is like that. Beyonce. Hey pregnancy blew up Twitter. Like Gaga and Rihanna are extremely popular, but Beyonce is trumps them. Britney trumps her, even though she is a blow up doll and on enough drugs that she's not really there. (I really don't listen to much from either of them, but that's one of the better examples I can think of.) It comes with time. It comes with being the best. Kanye isn't there yet. He's on the cusp. But Jay is there. Coldplay is kind of like that too. Respect your elders. Whatever you want to call it.

So anyway, these guys are at the top of their game, and it's sweet to see them tour together. Because we forget how tough touring is - we don't do it. It's probably lonely. Especially when you are a solo artist. Yeah you have your groupies and you've got your posse and you're not really alone, but you're on the road alot. Living literally in a tour bus. So for them - both friends/mentors/etc - to go together, and then perform, is awesome. You can just tell they're having fun. It makes the show that much more fun. It's annoying that they haven't varied the setlist much.

That's another thing (clearly I've got some ADHD tonight) about concerts - part of the fun is seeing something truly unique. Bringing it to Bruce, his catalog of music is so large, one night he can play Jungleland and the next play Thunder Road. He can do whatever he wants. He's the Boss. It feels special when the concert you see perform a song that's rarely played, hasn't been performed in years, whatever. It makes it feel more awesome. I have that feeling with Bruce. Again, Kanye and Jay don't have quite as extensive track list, but it would be cool to see Kanye all the sudden decide to play Chain Heavy. I dunno, it's still early in the tour, there's room for it.

I'm rambling. Show was sick. I suggest going. Go. Watch. The. Throne.

The Legal System

This post is fueled by the Amanda Knox legislation today.

I think our legal system is inept. There are a lot of problems with it. It's not perfect. How do we fix it? That's not my department. I don't hate it. I plan on not really participating too much in it. However it's there.

I don't understand how/why most people get so invested in these cases. They act like they are directly related to the verdict. Can't believe that someone got off/was convicted.

So like today with Amanda Knox. I never heard of her until today. I didn't care. I don't care really. Until everyone is tweeting about it. I don't know the full story. Again, I don't particularly care to know it. She was held in Italy for four years due to some mistrial and other difficulties and today was determined not guilty and let go. Everyone seems so excited.

However, that forgets the whole point of the trial - someone has died. And how did they die? Someone probably murdered them. So while Amanda Knox may not be the one who did it, someone did. And yet our focus is on if they did or didn't.

Same thing with Casey Anthony a few months ago. She got off. People are mad because the believe she did it. Of course it looks like it, but did she really? Who knows. People get so angry and upset. Maybe they should focus their frustration on trying to find the real killer, because at the end of the day, there is a poor child who didn't get to live the life it was given.

Some of the fascination might be because it's real. The same way I've been talking about sports as the ultimate drama because it's unscripted. These cases aren't scripted (although they are scripted into a Lifetime movie.....). It's not what you'll see in a episode of Law and Order or whatever show. It's real. These are people's lives. Amanda Knox was in jail for four years for what determined to be something she didn't do. But how does this affect my life? It doesn't.

I suppose I'm harsh. I should care more about the people in this world. I ask how the outcome affects me but people will think I'm weird when I can't sleep because the Red Sox didn't make the postseason this year. You could make the same rationalization. I have no real connection to the Red Sox. Okay I lied, maybe I do. People can create that feeling with anything - including a cases in the legal system. Everyone's allowed their own interests. I just don't understand the interest in the legal system. You'll never hear of Casey Anthony in a year. You'll hear of the Red Sox every year. But again that also depends on where you come from/your background etc.

I know this post makes no sense, as I just criticized one sect of people and then rationalized it. However it gets back to our greater point - the ineptness of our system. There are so many parts of the process and so many things that make it all a fraud. I don't believe in the death penalty because I believe that there's the possibility that someone could of been innocent. But nobody knows for sure. So the idea of spending four years in prison and then dropping the case is nothing compared to when you are executed and then they find that you're innocent after the fact. Then it's too late. But don't worry - your family can sue and start the legal process all over again!

Let's just stop killing each other and get along, yeah?