...the LAST time Bruce came to LA. I went to both LA shows at the Sports Arena last week and I'm just now getting around to being able to talk about it. Mezmerizing, shocking, breath-taking, earthquaking, etc etc. Even without Clarence and Danny...who were sorely missed...the band was great...Bruce was phenomenal...Tom Morello, who joined Bruce for a few songs, is from another planet and people's mouths were completely AGAPE when he was soloing during "Ghost Of Tom Joad"...I've seen him do it quite a few times and it was interesting to see people who were obviously seeing it for the first time in complete astonishment at Tom's guitar work.

On Friday night Bruce came out alone early showing some relatives around the stage and taking some photos...then he puts on an acoustic guitar and sings "For You" for about 2000 people who were in the arena at the time...I can't remember him ever doing that before.

Nils Lofgren was playing a Gretsch Black Penguin for the opening tune "We Take Care Of Our Own"...he uses the Black Penguin for some alien sound effect at the start of the song.

So many cool moments...he brought audience members kids on stage to sing with him both nights...he faked a guitar malfunction so his guitar tech Kevin Buell would come out and then grabbed him and explained that it was Kevin's "1000th fuking show" with him...he slid across the stage on his knees...and this was all during ONE song.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

He paid tribute to soul music and launched into "The Way You Do The Things You Do/634-5789" and then crowd surfed back to the stage singing the whole damn time. Even the security guards were dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

This is why I can't enjoy just going to see a singer/guitar player who just sings and plays fancy riffs while wearing flashy clothes all night...sure there's talent...there's hard work....but it just doesn't compare to what you get at a Bruce show...not even close...not in a billion years. I'm not religious...but I know what it's like to go to church and be saved.

LA Times Review

That sounds pretty cool, Mr. T. I'd sure like to see The Boss sometime.

Sounds like it was pretty good. Glad you had a nice time. My cheerios are yummy. It's raining.

That little girl was something else!

I knew this would be all about Bruce just from the thread title and the author!

I'm happy for ya, man.

I'm glad you had a good time. I love Springsteen, and would love to see him live.

Cool.

Dylan

The first live show I saw was Bruce on the "Darkness..." tour. It was great!