Cool Cherry Cream

Monday, March 3, 2008 at Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, Ontario [Photos]

No excitement on the ride to Copps, no excitement going in. I remarked that they filmed part of the Monkees biopic there, as I always do. Found our seats. Way in the back, way at the top. Beautiful.

I don't think Bruce came on until about 8:30, but the tickets said 7:30, so it was nice long wait of doing nothing. As I was looking down at the crowd below, I noticed a man with thick black glasses and a red and white striped shirt. "WHERE'S WALDO?!?" I cried, and promptly forced the rest of my family to find the man in the crowd

Now, at all concerts, it's an accepted tradition that the crowd will randomly erupt in a burst of applause whenever a roadie crosses the stage. Some crowds have been overly enthusiastic, as I can recall someone mentioning during the Mika concert that the previous cheer had resulted because some dust fell on the stage. Understandable.

But this crowd. Bruce, I have to say, you draw the illogical ones. I could not discern any reason for their cheers the majority of the time. At one point, I even measured the cheers as being less than a minute apart. Crazy — crazy (a-ha! There's a movie quote I use in every day language! From "Almost Famous", but I'm sure you knew that).

Concert-goers, take note. You do not cheer until the lights go down. Before that, nothing is going to happen. Nothing.

Eventually, the lights do go down, and the lights do go back up, as they are required to do, so that we can see what we've paid for, because as much as we like watching the people in front of us constantly getting up and sitting down and bringing back beers, and getting up and sitting down as the people in our row decide to pass by the four people rather than the two on the other side, we'd really rather watch the concert.

I happened to see the "Dancing in the Dark" video on MuchMusic a few months ago, and found I actually rather liked the song. I also found that he was bloody young! He was also kind of cute. And that fact didn't at all hinder my ability to enjoy the concert.

I've probably mentioned that I haven't ever been a Bruce kind of gal. I did listen to a handful of tunes my brother sent me before the concert, but after awhile, they just all kind of melded together and got boring. I think I've discovered the reason why I took such a liking to Van Halen. You see, I first listened to my Van Halen CD in March of 2007. The songs all kind of melded together then, too. But come October, I was pretty excited for the concert, since I knew all the songs. It apparently takes me about eight months to properly appreciate an artist. Interesting. Further research is needed however to confirm this hypothesis.

And while yes, the songs did all kind of meld into each other at the actual concert, other than the few that I did know, that's how it always is. However, I could tell that he has some good songs. I didn't particularly care for "The River" or "American Land" or those folky kinds of songs, but that's just because I don't like folky kinds of songs, generally.

He kind of reminded me of Bob Dylan in a way. Maybe just at the folky songs. I didn't feel he has very good enunciation, but it could just be that Copps is crap. I dunno. Being in the back is never all that good sound-wise.

Whenever I notice my mind drifting during a concert — which happens a lot, and which uberly pisses me off, because I just cannot shut off my freakin' mind! — I'll start paying attention to the drummer. And pretty much every time I listened to the drum beat, it was a double kick on the bass drum. This guy was really fond of double kicks. He must have a good foot, so props to him. I was going to describe his style as a kind of "thub-thub… thub-thub…" heartbeat kind of pattern, and then they start singing "beat of your heart… beat of your heart…" and I suddenly realize there are no other instruments, because I was paying such close attention to the drums. It was kind of surreal, actually. And just as I thought there was going to be a drum solo, the song ended. First time in awhile that there hasn't been a drum solo. It's become kind of commonplace at the concerts I've been to lately.

Returning back to the cheers, and the reminding me of "Charles in Charge"-ness, is the "BRUUUUUCE" call, which after experiencing it live, reminds me more of The Simpsons, because it sounded like they were saying "boooo" (which obviously, they weren't) — "are they saying 'boo' or 'boo-urce'?".

I have no idea what song it was during, but at about 9:20 or so, I felt a tap on my arm. I looked up from my camera to see a woman who said "no cameras". "Sorry" I said and put the camera in my pocket.

Okay, so I was kind of taking about twenty pictures a minute, but still. That's never happened to me before. And you know, I could get all pissy about it, but what's the point? I just took it as, you know, maybe I should sit back and actually enjoy the concert. Because admittedly, it is kind of difficult to do both things at once. So I guess it was all for the best.

Earlier in the show, I was looking through the camera when suddenly — wait, no, he couldn't have! — I thought I saw a guitar fly through the air. "Buh-zaaaaah?!" I wondered. Later on, with the benefit of non-pixellated vision, I saw the Bruce did indeed throw his guitar through the air after one of the songs and his faithful roadie faithfully and skillfully caught it! Amazing!

Somewhere near the end of the show, the lights were turned up and the crowd was singing along with whatever song and Bruce goes "everybody in the back!" so Bruce and everyone is looking out at the back, and Clarence Clemons, the saxophone player starts waving and pointing and touching his hat, which I suddenly noticed was exactly like my hat, but black instead of lime green. And despite the fact that he was pointing sort of on a 45 degree angle away from me, he was totally looking at me. We people with hats just get each other, you know?

During "Long Walk Home", I saw a guy in a green shirt dancing on the right side of the stage. At first, I thought he reminded me of the guy with the boom box at Beck, but then I quickly realized that he had jumped up on stage. A roadie followed him to the middle of the stage, not moving very quickly — as I've noticed roadies usually are rather slow when something like this happens — and kind of hunched over as if to try to stay out of the way of the audience, but not succeeding. Then two or three other guys came in and they all grabbed the guy in the green shirt and they all disappeared behind the stage. I noticed Bruce smiling after that, but it all was over in a few seconds.

However, one complaint about this guy. One major complaint. If you're gonna go up on stage during a Bruce Springsteen concert, you do it during "Dancing in the Dark". It also worked out well, because that was the second last song, so you'd get to see the whole concert, and then get dragged out.

My brother commented afterwards that they showed Bruce from behind too much on the screens. But come on, his butt is iconic! It didn't occur to me that they used that shot any more often than they would for any other artist, but y'know, I think it was in fact a conscious decision on their part, and one that I have decided I have no problem with.

SET LIST

1. No Surrender
2. Radio Nowhere
3. Lonesome Day
4. Gypsy Biker
5. Magic
6. Reason To Believe
7. Because The Night
8. She's The One
9. Livin' In The Future
10. The Promised Land
11. Waitin' On A Sunny Day
12. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
13. The River
14. Devil's Arcade
15. The Rising
16. Last To Die
17. Long Walk Home
18. Badlands
19. Girls In Their Summer Clothes
20. Thunder Road
21. Kitty's Back
22. Born To Run
23. Dancing In The Dark
24. American Land