Quadrophenia in the city of light

After I had bought my ticket for the Bruce Springsteen concert in Paris, I checked the web to see if there were any other interesting gigs there around that time. I immediately realized that The Who were playing Quadrophenia there on the 3rd of July, 4 days after the Springsteen concert. At first, I didn't know what to do. 4 days seemed quite a long time. Would I have the money to stay in Paris for a week? So I just forgot about it for a while. But then several things stared happening which seemed to scream at me "You gotta see The Who, you gotta see The Who". First I realized that 2 of my fellow Bruce fans and friends were also big Who fans and one of them would go and see them in the UK. Then I saw them on the 121212 concert, where while I was waiting to see Bruce Springsteen, I was blown away by The Who! Finally, I picked up Uncut Magazine's "Ultimate Music Guide" to The Who. And read it all,from start to finish in just a few days.

 But still, I was cautious. And then, an unfortunate event happened in my life and my reaction to it was "F**k it, I'm gonna see The Who!". So immediately at 4am I logged in and bought my ticket. I would think about the money later.
And so it was that a few months later, I went to Paris, saw Bruce Springsteen, found a nice cheap hostel for the rest of my stay and I was ready for The Who. Not to mention that I gained a few extra days for sightseeing!

So on a rainy-ish and coldi-ish day, I was glad to be in an indoor venue, Palais Omnisports De Bercy, which I had previously visited for a sporting event. Vintage Trouble were the opening act and they were a pleasant surprise for me not to mention (if I'm allowed) appropriate in true mod style. They certainly got our pelvises pushed!

And it was finally time for The Who!

We were of course treated to a complete performance of Quadrophenia with stunning visuals ("as good as those used by Roger Waters" my friend said).

Inevitably the highlights were the ones featuring those who are no longer with us: John Entwistle's solo on "5.15" and Keith Moon's singing on "Bell Boy".

But my personal favourite was the "rain" effect on the final Quadrophenia track "Love Reign O'er Me".

With Quadrophenia finished, it was time for the "and more" bit of the gig. And what a selection it was: "Who Are You", "You Better You Bet" (my personal favourite), "Pinball Wizard", "Baba O'Riley", "Won't Get Fooled Again"... Amazing!

In short, I was right on following my gut instinct and going to this gig!

Setlist

Quadrophenia:

01. I Am the Sea

02. The Real Me

03. Quadrophenia

04. Cut My Hair

05. The Punk and the Godfather

06. I'm One

07. The Dirty Jobs

(Simon Townshend on vocals)

08. Helpless Dancer

09. Is It in My Head?

10. I've Had Enough

11. 5:15

(recording of John Entwistle bass solo on screen)

12. Sea and Sand

13. Drowned

14. Bell Boy

(recording of Keith Moon singing on screen)

15. Doctor Jimmy

16. The Rock

17. Love, Reign O'er Me

(followed by band introductions)

Hits:

18. Who Are You

19. You Better You Bet

20. Pinball Wizard

21. Baba O'Riley

22. Won't Get Fooled Again

23. Tea & Theatre

Bruce Springsteen live in the city of light

In my previous post, I wrote all about how my first Bruce concert was in Paris and what this particular date meant to me. Still, I didn't expect such a thrilling concert especially after what I had already experienced in Italy.

The difference this time was that we didn't just buy arena tickets, we bought pit tickets. And the pit was huge.

Still, some people decided to follow the roll call procedure in order to get as close as possible to the stage (and Bruce). 

Those of us who did not follow the roll calls and just gathered outside our corresponding gates actually got pretty close since this is the crowd we encountered as we got in.

The only problem we encountered, and indeed this is our only, but quite big complaint from the French organizers is that a lot of request signs (some of which took an enormous amount of time an effort to create) were confiscated, like this one of one of our own.

 What did they think we were going to do? Club Bruce in the head if he didn't play our favourite song?

Anyway, just as were settling in our places, Bruce comes out for a pre-show acoustic set, starting with "This Hard Land".

Just as we were expecting him to follow it up with "Growin' Up" like he had done on previous occasions he announces "We'll get some requests"! He picked several from the crowd and of those he chose to play "Burning Love"!!!

After that it was "Growin' Up" as usual. (But is there anything usual during a Bruce Springsteen concert?)

And that was the end of this miniset, giving us a small taste of what was going to come...

...And when the time came, the whole band came on stage and started, typically, with "Badlands".

 After this was followed by "Out In The Street", Bruce looks at the request signs again. He picks up one, looks at it and announces "It seems like someone is trying to stump The E Street Band" It was "Lucille" and they proceed to play it without a moment's hesitation!

After a couple of songs from "Wrecking Ball", it was time for my personal best moment of the night: "Cadillac Ranch". One of my favourite songs from the "Live/1975-85" album (because that's where I heard it first)

After the customary for this tour "Spirit In The Night" it was album time! So, what was it going to be this time? Well, it was "Born In The USA" once again. Personally, I didn't mind one little bit. In Milano I was far away, now I was going to enjoy it from the pit. For others, who got to know Bruce Springsteen's music in the 80's with this very album, it was a chance for them to enjoy and sing along with "the hits"

And after the album was over it was time for more favourites like "Pay Me My Money Down" (one of The Seeger Sessions tracks apart from "American Land" that seems to have found a semi-regular spot on the setlists, "Waiting On A Sunny Day", "The Rising" and "Land Of Hope And Dreams"

It was then time for the encore, starting with "We Are Alive" followed by the customary "Born To Run"

This, was in turned followed by my second personal favourite of the whole concert: "Ramrod". Next came "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", which sometimes means the end of the concert. 

But it wasn't to be. The last song of the night was going to be "American Land" just like 5 years ago at Parc Des Princes. Or maybe not? Because just like Milano, Bruce stayed for a second encore, a solo acoustic performance of "Thunder Road". What more could we ask for?

Setlist
Pre-Show:
01. This Hard Land 
02. Burning Love 
03. Growin' Up
Main Set:
01. Badlands 
02. Out In The Street 
03. Lucille
04. Wrecking Ball
05. Death To My Hometown
06. Cadillac Ranch
07. Spirit In The Night
Born In The USA full album:
08. Born in the USA
09. Cover Me
10. Darlington County
11. Working On The Highway
12. Downbound Train
13. I'm on Fire
14. No Surrender
15. Bobby Jean
16. I'm Goin' Down
17. Glory Days
18. Dancing In The Dark
19. My Hometown
:
20. Pay Me My Money Down
21. Shackled And Drawn
22. Waitin' On A Sunny Day
23. The Rising
24. Land Of Hope And Dreams
Encore:
25. We Are Alive
26. Born To Run
27. Ramrod
28. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
29. American Land
30. Thunder Road (Solo acoustic)

Bruce Springsteen, Paris and some anniversaries

My first Bruce Springsteen concert was on the 27th of June 2008, in Paris, at Parc Des Princes.

My second one was exactly one year and one day later on the 28th of June 2009 in London, at Hyde Park (and we all know what happened there. I wasn't normally planning on going to London, since I had already bought tickets for Rome, Torino and Udine in July of that same year. But I thought it would be nice if my second concert on on the (almost) anniversary of the first.

But this year, my 11th one, if all goes well, is going to be five years and two days after the first one, on the 29th of June 2013, again in Paris (this time at The Stade De France). It's also four years and one day after the Hyde Park concert. So, while in years to come, I will hopefully have Bruce anniversaries on the 27th, the 28th and the 29th of June, June 29th is also the anniversary of one of Bruce's legendary performances, again in Paris, at the Parc Paysager De La Courneuve during the Born In The U.S.A. tour in 1985.

No, I wasn't there at the time, but I know someone who was. It was his first concert. And on the 29th he will also be at The Stade De France, celebrating his 50th birthday!

Bruce Springsteen rocks Italy for the 2nd year running! And the experience this time was revolutionary!

So I'm back from my 2013 Italian tour of Bruce Springsteen. And what a tour it was. I'm talking here about the Padova and Milano concerts on the 31st of May and the 3rd of June respectively. Bruce had already played on a city square in Napoli a week before that, and he has another date for Rome scheduled in July.

It all started on Friday afternoon. After picking up my friend from Treviso airport we headed straight for Padova and arrived just in time to check in at our hotel, leave our bags and head straight for Stadio Euganeo where Bruce was to play. Like in Florence the year before there were free buses from the train station to the stadium (and supposedly the other way round after the concert finished, but that's another story which we'll get to in a - little - while.

We got into the arena on time, managed to get a place just behind the pit and we were ready for our first Bruce concert in less than a year. And when Bruce came on the stage, it was nothing like what we expected. We almost didn't notice him until he straddled in with just his guitar playing an acoustic - and different - version of "The Ghost Of Tom Joad".

And after that, another shock: "Long Walk Home" one of my favourite songs which I had not heard since The Magic Tour and Bruce doesn't play that often, (maybe because he doesn't consider "Magic" to be a good album? Who knows?). Bruce if you're reading this, take a note: just because "Radio Nowhere" was the single from Magic, this doesn't mean that you have to play that song when you choose a song from this album. You can always choose another one. Thank you, End of note.

He then went on to play "My Love Will Not Let You Down" and "Two Hearts" and we all thought that he's never played a setlist like that (although since Padova he has done it again). And then he started playing only requests from the crowd: "Boom Boom", "Something In The Night" and "The Ties That Bind". My friend turned to me and said "this concert is revolutionary!". Little did we know (and only found out after the concert when we came back and logged on the internet) that several miles to the east of us, a small revolution was taking place in Istanbul. After going back to tracks from his latest album, he announced that he was going to play the full "Born To Run" album. So we were going to hear "Thunder Road" (always a pleasure) and most importantly "Jungleland". But for us, there was an added bonus: The jazzy "Meeting Across The River". Sometimes we feel like we are in a minority of Bruce fans who like that song.

After the "Born To Run" album was played, the choices for the rest of the setlist might have seemed a little predictable. But still, there was a small surprise in there for us: "Pay Me My Money Down" from "The Seeger Sessions".

Bruce picked up a guy from the crowd, Caterino, who said he had been playing Bruce's songs with his tribute band. Max Weinberg gave him the beat and it took Caterino about 15 seconds to synchronize with him and the rest of the band. He then proceeded to play the whole song with his... spoons!

It all finished with "Dancing In The Dark" and "Twist And Shout" while all the time we kept an eye out for the weather. The forecasts were not favourable and rain did come, but only in small doses and only kept on falling after the concert. And still it was nothing like Florence.

And by that time we didn't care anyway.

Our problems only started when, after the concert, we realized that we couldn't find the buses to take us back to the train station. Stadio Euganeo is a bit out of the city and it's not easy to walk back to town from there. We simply got lost, not in the flood, but in the crowd. (At some point we found ourselves among the trucks leaving while being loaded with the band's equipment). So we decided to ask for help from people who looked like they knew what they were doing. And as it turned out, we asked the right ones: The Padova Civil Defence. These people are volunteers, they all have day jobs, but in cases like these (concerts, football matches) they go out there to help the crowd, the people. One of them, who happened to be living near our hotel, took us in his car and drove us back not just to town, but to our hotel. He was an Italian-Australian and his name was Ezzio (I hope I have spelled that right). Ezzio, we will always be grateful to you.

After the day of the concert, we had 2 days in Padova to relax, see the city and have a mini-holiday (more about this on another blog post).

The third day was June the 3rd when I had to take my friend to Treviso airport so she could catch her flight home. As for me I had to go to Milano to catch my flight home. So I wasn't planning to go to the Milano concert, but since I was passing by that city anyway and Bruce happened to be playing there, why not go see him? Again?

A very wise choice as it turned out if one takes a look at the setlist...and the length of it! However, when I finally decided to go, there were no tickets left for the arena and besides I would be arriving so late there wasn't even a chance of getting anywhere near the pit. So, I figured that after a week in Italy and all the miles I had walked I deserved, after 5 years to watch a Bruce concert from the stands, sitting down even if that meant I would be far away from the stage. So I bought the cheapest ticket I could find and that meant I was high up, way high up. Now I remember ever since the Italia 90 World Cup how I admired those big towers of Stadio San Siro. My admiration faded somewhat when I realized that I had to go all the way up them - on foot!

Anyway, I climbed all the way up, found my seat, and was ready to watch a Bruce concert - finally - sitting down.

And that's where I realized by reading through a leaflet I found on my seat that I was going to be one of the people forming a special sign for Bruce and the band: OUR LOVE IS REAL.

 So first there was the Ennio Morricone intro which is usually heard at the beginning of his Italian concert and then Bruce and the band came up while we had formed the sign and Bruce was looking at it and showing it to Stevie. And then he went mad! JUST WENT MAD!

Kicking off with "Land Of Hope And Dreams", "My Love Will Not Let you Down" and "Out In The Street". And then the requests came: "American Land", "Good Golly Miss Molly" (which he honoured by playing "Long Tall Sally" instead)

 And then "Loose Ends".

He then went back to the "Wrecking Ball" album, but still found time after a couple of songs from that to play "Atlantic City" and "The River".

And then it was full album time. What were we going to get this time? "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" perhaps seeing as he had played "Born To Run" three days before? No. We were going to listen to the complete "Born In The U.S.A.". An important album for me since it was the first Bruce album I ever owned having received the vinyl copy as a gift for my birthday 29 years ago. In my previous 9 Bruce concerts (yes, Milano was my 10th!) I had managed to hear live almost all of its songs except two: "Cover Me" and "I'm Goin' Down". Now I was going to hear all of it!

After the album and a few other hits, it was time for the encore.

And as it turned out it was one of those times that Bruce didn't want to leave the stage. He played "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", but he played "Twist And Shout" after that. And after that played plain old "Shout".

 Time to leave? Yes, but then he came back with a solo acoustic "Thunder Road" proving to us that his love is real as well!

The return to the hotel was less adventurous this time because the Metro was running until 1am. But nobody seemed to care, because everybody was high on Bruce's music from the previous 3 1/2 hours. A religious experience? Yes, and a revolutionary one as well!

May 31 2013, Stadio Euganeo, Padova, Italy
Setlist:
01 The Ghost of Tom Joad (acoustic) 
02 Long Walk Home 
03 My Love Will Not Let You Down 
04 Two Hearts 
05 Boom Boom (request) 
06 Something in the Night (request) 
07 The Ties That Bind (request) 
08 We Take Care of our Own
09 Wrecking Ball
10 Death to my Hometown
11 Spirit in the Night
Full Album: Born To Run
12 Thunder Road
13 Tenth Avenue Freeze Out
14 Night
15 Backstreets
16 Born To Run
17 She's The One
18 Meeting Across The River
19 Jungleland
20 Shackled and Drawn
21 Waitin' On A Sunny Day
22 The Rising
23 Badlands
24 Pay me my money down
25 Born in the USA
26 Dancing in the dark 27 Twist and shout

June 3 2013, Stadio San Siro, Milano, Italy
Setlist
01. Land of Hope and Dreams
02. My Love Will Not Let You Down
03. Out in the Street
04. American Land (Sign Request)
05. Long Tall Sally (Sign Request)
06. Loose Ends (Sign Request)
07. Wrecking Ball
08. Death To My Hometown
09. Atlantic City
10. The River
“Born in the USA” Full album:
11. Born in the U.S.A.
12. Cover Me
13. Darlington County
14. Working on the Highway
15. Downbound Train
16. I'm on Fire
17. No Surrender
18. Bobby Jean
19. I'm Goin' Down
20. Glory Days
21. Dancing in the Dark
22. My Hometown
:
23. Shackled And Drawn
24. Waitin' On a Sunny Day
25. The Rising
26. Badlands
27. Hungry Heart
Encore:
28. This Land is Your Land (Solo acoustic)
29. We Are Alive
30. Born To Run
31. Tenth Avenue Freeze Out
32. Twist and Shout
33. Shout
34. Thunder Road (Solo acoustic)

You can watch the complete Padova concert here:
Bruce Springsteen Wrecking Ball Tour, Padova [Full Show HD] - YouTube