Saw Bruce on the Darkness tour and couldn't believe it. FIVE encores, each one louder and faster and then he's got his shirt off and he's climbed up on the speakers for the Devil in a Blue Dress medley and I cannot believe what I'm seeing! One of the greatest moments in my life, and I'm getting teary just remembering it.
Then, the River tour. He does his older songs and tells us, "I did those songs so I can do these..." and then he plays tunes from that album. But still, the high energy finish (see below).

Caught him many many times since then. Always worth it. It was the first concert I took my son to (since my dad had got me tix for Elvis P and I wanted my boy to have the same iconic start). My boy later stood in line for hours to meet The Boss who asked him, "How's it going, brother?"

My two year old grandson? My boy named him Bruce.

His latest album from last year is pretty cool, as well.

 Steely_D wrote:

Beautiful. 

The first Springsteen I listened to was The River, the older stuff never made it to Wyoming until he had a Top 40 hit. A classmate bought it and it was good but never really clicked since I didn't have it on my headphones, just his truck radio. Then he put out Nebraska which I bought sight unseen, as it were, and was stopped cold by——is this a mistake?——I was confused but went into work (Uptown Market and Liquor, on Shattuck in North Oakland) saying I'd just bought the new Springsteen, and my coworker who was from Philly says "ah, does Clarence just tear it up?" and I in my confused state said, "it's just him, solo." And Tom cocked his head and said "that's the dumbest fucking thing ever." So I played it over and over anyway because that's how it went in those days and came to love it. Then Born in the USA was next, right? And he was huge and way beyond my capacity to enjoy a show too expensive, big arenas, plus I was way too snobby by then to consider seeing a big mainstream hitmaker like him. Or the Stones or the Who, all of whom played at the Oakland Coliseum, IIRC. I never saw him play, and stopped really paying attention at all, even though I heard new stuff that sounded pretty good. But he's just gotten better, hasn't he. Not so many anthems as the early days though.

As he said a few times in the Broadway show: "I'm that good."

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:

People can try to pee on Springsteen all they want, but the truth is that he’s a great artist. Yes, he’s fully aware that he’s posing in a cowboy hat in his truck when the sun’s setting and he’s looking pensive. But that’s what authors do: they set a scene, and invite you to be immersed in it. The sign of a great author is, even though you know it’s a fiction (or maybe even not), it’s a fully enjoyable and somewhat relatable ride.

I saw an Amnesty show many years ago when Sting introduced him: â€Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest rock and roller in the world - Bruce Springsteen” and I thought..”hey, wait a min…no - he’s absolutely right.”

From the movie, “Hitch hikin’”
Notice how the music is repetitive as he goes through each brief scenario that he enters and leaves, and then just keeps going. That’s some nice writing.

 Steely_D wrote:

Jeez, just the trailer is pretty nice with some good writing.

I watched the "Western Stars" movie/concert while on a plane recently. Pretty damned good, and his narration around the tunes were really helpful explaining what he'd been thinking about as he wrote them. 

So the conversation in another thread reminded me of the protagonist in Springsteen's "Reason to Believe," where a guy's poking a dead dog with a stick. Thinking about that album, I realized I'd never listened to all/any of the live versions of "Open All Night," my favorite song of his. This one's pretty great: