TRAMPS LIKE US


I don't even have words to describe how I feel. Would it suffice to say that at one point during the show, my eyes smarted with tears I held back, so taken with emotion over the fact that I was there? No matter what adjective I give... whether it be awesome, quintessential, phenomenal and no matter if I say that he took live performance high up to an exponential level... it wouldn't do justice to what transpired at the Honda Center last night.

How could I describe the pandemonium as he came out in total darkness, ran through his signature, 'Ah-one! Two! Ah-one, two, three, bam!,' as he began Light of Day for his opening...

Or make you feel the total surrender as we rocked through Radio Nowhere, Murder Incorporated, Reason to Believe, Working on the Highway and The Rising...

Or how we all swayed or did our own little shindig to Lonesome Day, Magic, Last to Die, Gypsy Biker and Long Walk Home...

Or illustrate the silence as we listened to The Ghost of Tom Joad, which he did with the equally incredible,Tom Morello, the Nightwatchman himself, of Rage Against the Machine, with nothing less than utmost reverence...

Or the sensation as the audience became one clapping in rhythm to Livin' in the Future or singing wo-ho-ho-ho-hoh to Badlands?

How can I give you a taste of the air, dark and thick with anticipation, each person in the audience stunted with bated breath, as we tried to beckon him back to the stage with the light from our mobile phones?

And how do I express our glee when he did come back and sang the misleadingly playful Girls in Summer Clothes, the classic Rosalita, Born to Run which predictably brought the house down, Out in the Street which is a rarity, and finally, American Land to which I did the Irish jig almost by instinct?

I have decided that in my next life, I will become a Springsteen groupie.

And my signature shirt will say, 'JUST ANOTHER BRUCE TRAMP!'

I will wear it everyday for as long as I live.