Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

Hey hope that's a great show. My pops is bugging me to go & I may consider it. It's pricey & United Center/Ticketbastard/afraid-I'm-gonna-see-the-strings-holding-them-up acts have gotten too much bread from me lately.

I mean, it worked out OK. General Admission means I can get as close as I can/want, and because those tix started out at $50 the Ticketmaster/fee/secondary market shell game scam of a markup basically put the ticket on par with the original price of his "good" seats. So more or less $150, and of course GA is as good as it gets in my book. Not cheap, but as we've all been reminded, no one lives forever. I feel very fortunate that I've gotten free tickets to so many hundreds of shows over the years, huge and small. If I cheaped out for one of my favorite acts of all time, and one of the best live acts of all time, I'd feel like a chump.

Speaking of which, the current Ticketmaster system is so much worse than it's ever been, a shameful hall of mirrors. Tell me where I'm wrong here: tickets go on sale, sell out immediately (5 seconds in Chicago). Bruce tix are not that much, relative to comparable acts; GA is $50. So someone gets one of those $50 tickets, pays fees and stuff that pump it up another $25, which TM pockets. Then that person turns around and resells the ticket on the TM site at three times face ... and TM gets to pocket another set of those same fees. So TM not only still makes it easy for people to buy and horde tix with the intent to sell them, but actually gives those sellers a platform on which to sell them, doubling its fees in the process. It's really ridiculous.

https://burjintheburbs.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/chris-traeger_pr1.jpg

"Irving Azoff is <literally> THE DEVIL."

man I hope he brings this tour to Europe in the summer

pays fees and stuff that pump it up another $25, which TM pockets

As a former TM employee, I can tell you you're slightly wrong here. The venue sets (and collects) all those "convenience" charges.

and TM gets to pocket another set of those same fees

This is probably true, since the venue has already had their way with your wallet.

Bruce tix are not that much, relative to comparable acts; GA is $50

Those were $150 list without service charges in DC. I consider that a lot. They sold out in 2 minutes

Huh, I think you're right! I missed the one. Which I guess means I just somehow got a GA seat a couple of days before the show. Maybe they released more?

Anyway, I said relative to comparable acts. Just scanning, for best seats for Lucinda Williams in a few months is $65, AC/DC is $140, Mumford & Songs is $60, Adele is $150 ... $150 for GA Bruce ain't cheap but it isn't that bad, considering I can just shuffle my way right up front if I wanted.

Anyway, when I look at what I paid, there was a $17.50 "service fee" and $6.50 "processing fee." These go to the venue? Regardless, given the exclusive arrangement Ticketmaster/Live Nation has with these arenas, it seems to me like one giant pool of money being skimmed off the top. At least the United Center is providing an actual service. Ticketmaster is like health insurance. Bunch of fuckers that offers nothing, let alone "convenience."

I read the way it used to work with Bruce at least was you'd send in money to an address and they'd send you tickets.

Nice that you have the GA ticket. I had one for him at the United Center for The Rising - definitely a good way to go.

Tell me where I'm wrong here: tickets go on sale, sell out immediately (5 seconds in Chicago). Bruce tix are not that much, relative to comparable acts; GA is $50. So someone gets one of those $50 tickets, pays fees and stuff that pump it up another $25, which TM pockets. Then that person turns around and resells the ticket on the TM site at three times face ... and TM gets to pocket another set of those same fees. So TM not only still makes it easy for people to buy and horde tix with the intent to sell them, but actually gives those sellers a platform on which to sell them, doubling its fees in the process. It's really ridiculous.

ticketmaster (or any other ticket company) controlling both sides of that business is problematic in a million different ways.

but the other, missing element here: the thousands of seats that never go on sale in the first place, but instead go straight to the promoter or label or other business interests, who immediately put them on the secondary market themselves. which is to say, for a huge chunk of seats, there is no initial sale. there is only the secondary market. the secondary market has become, in many ways, the primary market.

https://www.periscope.tv/mpslater/1OdKrkEpqaOGX

^Per some predictions, Springsteen covering "Rebel Rebel" at his tour kickoff.

Spoilers? 3.5 hours, Bowie cover, dusting off some seldom-played once staples (Rosalita) and some seldom-played never staples (Brilliant Disguise). I can't believe dude is 66. I wonder how long he can keep this sort of set up? Anyway, if it's anything or just like this, super-excited about Tuesday here.

Meet Me in the City
The Ties That Bind
Sherry Darling
Jackson Cage
Two Hearts
Independence Day
Hungry Heart
Out In The Street
Crush On You
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
I Wanna Marry You
The River
Point Blank
Cadillac Ranch
I'm A Rocker
Fade Away
Stolen Car
Ramrod
The Price You Pay
Drive All Night
Wreck On The Highway

Badlands
Wrecking Ball
Backstreets
Because the Night
The Rising
Thunder Road

Encore:
Rebel Rebel
Bobby Jean
Dancing in the Dark
Born to Run
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Shout

Oh, and because I posted a better quality version on the Bowie thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgmhF0XV8uA

Thanks. So I didn't have to sign up for a periscope account after all?

Thanks. So I didn't have to sign up for a periscope account after all?

Also , so he really hardly ever plays Rosalita?

Sorry for double post, I blame zing glitch. Usually it errs on the other side and sends multiple messages if it thinks you are double or cross posting.

I've seen him seven or eight times in the last five years or so, and he's played Rosalita every time.

Hmm. I've probably seen him play close to 20 times and have heard him play it twice. I looked at this nerd site: https://brucebase.wikispaces.com/Rosalita+%28Come+Out+Tonight%29

https://brucebase.wikispaces.com/file/view/rosalita-graph.png/392298080/rosalita-graph.png

Maybe just not often in Chicago? A lot overseas, too.

RFI for Something I Don't Know How To Find: wasn't there a video someone posted once of a live version of "I'm Goin' Down," I think, proceeded by a long monologue about when relationships hit the doldrums?

That's another one he doesn't play much!

Right, that was the point of the posting, but the monologue was amazing too.

xpost Maybe he just always brings it out in the UK. I haven't counted, but I know I've seen him do it plenty.

Better not play a Glenn Frey song tonight. Don't see why he would, honestly.

think i read somewhere that "new kid in town" was inspired by broooce in some way

Bruce is the 'New Kid'.

well yeah

Henley:"It's about the fleeting, fickle nature of love and romance. It's also about the fleeting nature of fame, especially in the music business. We were basically saying, 'Look, we know we're red hot right now but we also know that somebody's going to come along and replace us — both in music and in love."

...and the guy who came around was Bruce at the Roxy.

bruce singing "take it easy" with jackson browne four months ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUh7HtXyiWg

i'd be surprised if he didn't play it tonight.

but i'd rather hear him do "one of these nights."

The Heat Is On, or one of the other sax-y solo songs.

He can't do this every time someone dies, so I doubt he'll play it, though you never know. It's 90% his pal Browne's song, anyway.

no, he MUST do this every time someone dies! whoever has tickets for tonight, please report back on which blowfly song he does, kthxbye.

Actually, I could totally see him doing this on past tours, when he was taking tons of requests and the sets were changing all the time. But since he's playing The River start to finish, plus a handful of other songs, that means he's got 22 or however many songs that can't change from night to night. So for every Smuggler's Blues he plays that's a Thunder Road or whatever that has got to go.

waiting for Bruce to start "Born in the U.S.A." only to start, say, "Just foolin', y'all!" and launching instead into:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7EjD3SIReM

Haha!

He could pull off "Smuggler's Blues" as well as anyone.

bruce doing smuggler's blues would be rad

Man, one day I will see one of these shows and not be among the youngest 10%.

Crowd surfing:

https://twitter.com/thekapman/status/689644189471096836

Parade float!
https://instagram.com/p/BAv0C0hkyFv/

He's playing Take It Fucking Easy, for real.

So he did play it, acoustic and slow and supported by fiddle, so it was OK. Highlight of the night might have been Bruce fucking up the intro to "No Surrender" like three times in a row, which had the band in hysterics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h3ubC3PkTo

And, other highlight was "Cover Me," which was weirdly intense and featured a ripping Nils solo.

Chicago show being offered as a free download until Tuesday night:

http://live.brucespringsteen.net

Check out Nils on this around 3:10:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO-YZEQRxYM

New York, NY, February 11, 2016 -- Simon & Schuster is proud to announce the world-wide publication of Bruce Springsteen's autobiography, Born to Run, which will be released internationally on September 27, 2016. The work will be published in hardcover, ebook, and audio editions by Simon & Schuster in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and India, and rights have already been sold to publishers in nine countries.

Mr. Springsteen has been privately writing the autobiography over the past seven years. He began work in 2009, after performing with the E Street Band at the Super Bowl's halftime show.

In Born to Run, Mr. Springsteen describes growing up in Freehold, New Jersey amid the "poetry, danger, and darkness" that fueled his imagination. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song "Born to Run" reveals more than we previously realized.

"Writing about yourself is a funny business," Mr. Springsteen notes in his book. "But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I've tried to do this."

"This is the book we've been hoping for," said Jonathan Karp, publisher of Simon & Schuster. "Readers will see their own lives in Bruce Springsteen's extraordinary story, just as we recognize ourselves in his songs." Simon & Schuster acquired Born to Run in an exclusive submission from Mr. Springsteen's legal representatives, Allen Grubman and Jonathan Ehrlich of the law firm Grubman Shire & Meiselas, P.C.. Simon & Schuster previously published Mr. Springsteen's illustrated book with Frank Caruso, Outlaw Pete, in 2014.

http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/i/%5Bcurrent-date%3Acustom%3AY%5D/%5Bcurrent-date%3Acustom%3Am%5D/%5Bcurrent-date%3Acustom%3Ad%5D/autobiography.jpg

actually just transcripts of his onstage intros to "Growin' Up" and "My Hometown."

I wonder how many unreleased pictures of Just Woke Up Bruce they have in archives.

the opening paragraph:

"Screen door slams, Mary's dress ..." what? Waves? Blows? No, that wasn't right. Something was missing. Was that something ... America?