Rick's boss's boss gave us tickets to see The Boss last night at Giants Stadium. Bruce Springsteen was saying goodbye to his home town stadium before they demolish it, and he even wrote a special song for the occasion :) In addition to being an amazing artist, Bruce has quite virulent fans! The parking lot opened for tailgating at 1:00, and people took advantage of it! This made for very disgusting port-o-potties (I mean much more disgusting than usual). Although the parking lot did not appear as party-centric as a Jimmy Buffet concert (nothing resembling a Springsteen version of a tiki bar or shark fin in sight), inside was an entirely different story.
We walked in to the field as we had general admission tickets, and since we had just seen the Patriots play 2 weeks ago, it was really cool to be on the field where they just played! Looking up into the stands was surreal! While we were meandering around the field, I serenaded Rick with a version of the Star Spangled Banner only he could hear - but now I've sung in Giants Stadium too :) I think that general admission is the best way to go to one of these concerts if you can - yes you stand for the concert, but you'd stand if you were in the seating area too. And there is so much room to dance and run around, and the concessions are right there with you, so you don't miss anything if you go get a beer or a water. We did sit on the ground for a while - you could still see the huge screens from the floor so it worked :)
Bruce gives an amazing show - though I'm really surprised he doesn't have nodes on his vocal chords by now. He sang, and played and danced his heart out - he ran down into the "pit" (the area in the very front of the stage where some general admission winners are allowed) and he was interacting with the fans. They must have been *thrilled* to have his so close! I know I would have been ;) And some of his songs he just held the mic up to the crowd and the ENTIRE stadium was singing the song, and you could even understand them! It was amazing!! I guess that's how you avoid the nodes - have the fans sing :) It really did make for an incredible experience.
While the concert was going on, I was really surprised to hear all these BOOOOOOOOO's in between the songs. I was like - what the heck? How can they Boo the Boss? Isn't he the home town hero? Let the guy breathe for a sec while the band transitions. While in line for a beer, I asked the chick behind me - Are you from around here? Why are they boo'ing??? And she laughed - Oh you aren't a *real* fan 'eh? They are saying Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuce. Oh. Hmmm. Well that makes sense I guess!
On the way home, I was very much looking forward to PIZZA! Some late night food was in order - we hadn't eaten since 4:00. I was so disappointed when we got home - the city that doesn't sleep actually does sleep. Our favorite pizza places closed at 10, and the chinese place closed at 11:00. Damn. I made some fried egg sandwiches, but would have really liked pizza. I'm going to have to scope out which places are open late night so we are ready for our next adventure :)
