Dancing in the Dark: Bruce Springsteen

Dwarf Iris (Shakespeare's Garden)

Call me fickle, but I have moved on from Freddie Couples to Bruce Springsteen.  Sadly, I was slow on the uptake for tickets to the Wrecking Ball Tour (currently in full swing tonight at Madison Square Garden).  Sometimes the Internet giveth (floor seats at MSG for one concert) and sometimes it taketh away (locked out of EVERY show in this area for Wrecking Ball).  So, I'll live vicariously through my friends' tweets and posts on this go around.

I well remember the first time I heard Springsteen in a way that made me pay attention.  Vinyl.  College. Good friend Geoff.  Asbury Park.  It was the kind of day where you flung your dorm windows open and blasted music.  Blast away we did and I was a convert.

My first concert was at the OLD Giants Stadium in 1984 -- Born in the USA.  And, we were born to rock with Bruce.  We had delayed our departure for vacation in order to seek out tickets at the Ticketron in Middletown, CT -- driving South and away from Cape Cod.  All in search of the elusive ticket to a Springsteen concert.  I forget the name of the department store on Main Street in Middletown that housed that Ticketron but we were in heaven when we saw the very short line.  In front of us were some New Jersey kids that had been driving all day and stopping at every outlet along the way.  They scored and we scored.  My friend Jodi was a bit irritated with us when we arrived in Boston that night -- this was before cell phones -- some two hours late.  I like to think she was worried but now am wondering if it was because we did not think to buy a ticket for her.  Food for thought.

We drove to Giants Stadium and back in one day for that concert and all went to work the following day.  We were young.  We were energized by the BOSS.  It was a great concert and a good time with good friends.  And man, could that guy perform -- multiple encores -- he still does that to this day (as an aside).  Of course, there is no forgetting a young Courtney Cox in the Dancing with the Dark video that was released with the album.  Ahh, how we dreamed that we were Courtney and it was us that Bruce pulled out of the audience for that dance.

There are other memories of that time and that album.  It was filled with anthems that just made us want to bust a move on the dance floor and so we did.  We could be found dancing in the dark -- from Cape Cod where we celebrated scoring those tickets to many a club in our then hometown of Hartford, CT.  I've lost touch with most of those friends from long ago -- life moves on, we change, our paths diverge but the memories of the dancing and the laughter remain.

These days, I feel like Bruce has grown up right along with me.  He's a little older and a lot wiser.  He can still bust a mean move on tour and gives his all to every concert.  Even better, he has built a repertoire over the years that tells of dark days while retaining some hope for the future.  At the last concert I saw (in 2009 -- a part of his last stand at the old Giants Stadium) -- he did a reprise of his Courtney Cox video, pulling a woman out of the audience to dance with him.  I suspect it was his Mom but am not 100% sure.  He's dancing with Mom this year though.

I love that he is still rocking out and love that he is dancing with Mom when in this neck of the woods.  Most of all, these many years later, I still love Bruce.

I may just have to channel my inner 20-something and do a little dancing in the dark tonight.

Easter Island Vortex