and i feel fine….
On October 5th we had the pleasure of seeing REM and Bruce Springsteen. Live.
In short, it rocked.
First was Bright Eyes. We had never heard of them, but we were pleasantly surprised.
Then, REM.
Michael Stipe is in-fricking-credible. From the get go, he was singing and grooving and shimmying. And if you’ve never seen REM, yes, they sound that amazing live. He was sporting a white tuxedo (yes, I said white) and looked incredibly (in a Michael Stipe sort of way) hot. They opened with “the one I love.” I wanted to groove my little heart out, but since we were in the relaxed section, I didn’t want to block the people behind me…so, I grooved from my seat. The show continued. Neil Young made an appearance. “Man On the Moon” was performed with Bruce Springsteen. It was amazing. The politics was pretty low key. More about every person making a difference than anything else. Unfortunately, the set was only about 75 minutes long.
Now, as for Bruce Springsteen. I really only know the early/mid eighties stuff. Every time I think of him, I think of the episode of Kate and Allie where Kate gets Emma a gift, and it’s a bandana. A used bandana. Emma is totally grossed out, until she finds out that it belonged to Bruce Springsteen, and that the sweat on it is his. (so I remember weird stuff) And of course, who could forget Courtney Cox and Dancing in the Dark? After seeing him live, I feel like I should catch up on his more recent work. He opened with a guitar version of the National Anthem, leading into “Born in the Usa.” It was a pretty incredible performance, only made stronger by his band. I can now also say that I have seen Max Weinberg. Anyway, It was pretty amazing. Even more amazing was the addition of Neil Young and John Fogerty. Michael Stipe joined Bruce for a rendition of “Because the Night.” Incredible. I have now seen both of the original artists perform the song. Both were amazing. The best part of the show was the end, at which point, the entire line up rocked out together. It was really powerful.
The show was over five hours long in total. I really can’t do it justice by writing it out. It was one of those things you really had to be there for. Definitely one of the top concerts I have ever seen. I am hoping that ACT puts out a cd or dvd of the tour. There are some performances I would love to own. There was so much passion and talent there.
Again, it was in-freaking-credible. Worth every penny…and then some.