It's Cool Again

When I got home this morning, there was a comment on my blog from my still-unmet Norwegian friend. Over on his own blog, he'd written, in his discussion of the new album, that "The biggest surprise as a dedicated fan for the past 20 years is that all of a sudden, for the first time since I was 12, it’s cool to be a Bruce fan."

I can remember high school, when Nick Alicino, Kevin Guilfoile and I were the only Springsteen fans in the building, if not the entire Village of Cooperstown. Now, we're everywhere, and that's a good thing.

So yeah, it's cool to be a Bruce fan (not that I've known anything different since 1984). I'm just glad to have so much company.

Having worked most of my professional life on a variety of Democratic campaigns, I'm struck by how many Democratic operatives are rabid Springsteen fans. I rode to Hartford with four other Democratic operatives last night. Two, I'd known for years; the other two, I met for the first time just before we left Boston. If you were to total the aggregate number of Springsteen shows we've attended, it approaches 100.

As I wrote earlier today, the concert was spectacular. We all agreed on that. Here's the review from the Hartford Courant. This one is from the Boston Globe. Finally, here's a take from the Boston Herald.

Backstreets has the setlist, which I've pasted here:

Setlist:
Radio Nowhere
The Ties That Bind
Lonesome Day
Gypsy Biker
Magic
Reason to Believe
Night
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
The Promised Land
Town Called Heartbreak
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Darlington County
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
* * *
Girls in Their Summer Clothes
Thundercrack
Born to Run
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
American Land

As I wrote this morning, the "Reason to Believe", "Night", and "She's the One" trifecta was absolutely stunning. All the new songs were great, and of the classics, "Born to Run" and "Badlands" brought down the house. There was nothing from the first two albums in the Springsteen catalog, but nobody seemed to mind, because the resulting show was heavy with cuts from "Darkness" and "Born to Run".

The overwhelming consensus is that as great as last night was, this tour can only get better. That, too, is a good thing. See you in Boston.

Adam