bruce springsteen and the heart-stopping pants-dropping house-rocking earth-shaking booty-quaking viagra-taking love-making legendary e street band!

i can't sleep. i just got home from seeing bruce springsteen and the e street band close their workin' on a dream tour. after waiting in lines for close to three hours, it paid off -- our numbers were drawn, along with 496 other springsteen fans, to be given spots in the pit. basically what that means is we were second row center.

i can't even begin to form the words to explain how amazing the concert was. they played for almost four hours without pause -- something you'd be hard-pressed to find another band do. not only that, but they played their first album "greetings from asbury park, n.j." in its entirety for the first time in years. and, on top of all of that, it was little steven's (who plays both the guitar and mandolin in the band, and is also silvo dante on the sopranos) birthday. at one point they brought him out a cake emblazoned with both "the e street band" and "the sopranos" and covered in 59 candles.

the playlist, in its entirety:
Wrecking Ball (with trumpeter Curt Ramm)
The Ties That Bind
Hungry Heart
Working on a Dream
Blinded By the Light
Growin' Up
Mary Queen of Arkansas
Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?
Lost in the Flood
The Angel
For You
Spirit in the Night
It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Restless Nights
Surprise, Surprise
Green Onions
Merry Christmas Baby (with Curt Ramm)
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (with Curt Ramm)
(I Don't Want to) Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes
Boom Boom
My Love Will Not Let You Down
Long Walk Home
The Rising
Born to Run
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out (with Curt Ramm)
* * *
I'll Work For Your Love
Thunder Road
American Land (with Curt Ramm)
Dancing in the Dark
Rosalita (with Curt Ramm)
Higher and Higher (with Willie Nile and Curt Ramm)
Rockin' All Over the World

every song i wanted to hear was played and, i have to admit, i cried throughout thunder road. springsteen knows how to work the crowd so well -- he crowd surfed at least three times and kept running around the perimeter of the pit and sticking his hands into the audience. at one point he was right in front of my brother and i and we reached right up and touched his hand. i touched bruce springsteen. i can die fulfilled and happy now.

i have, and always will have, an undying love for bruce springsteen and the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-shaking, booty-quaking, viagra-taking, love-making, legendary e street band. i only hope that the rumors aren't true and tonight wasn't their last concert. but, if it was, they went out in style.



p.s. it needs to be noted how much i adore clarence "the big man" clemons. he makes beautiful, beautiful music with that saxophone of his.