massbound

i made the drive back to school today and it only took an hour-ish longer than it should have -- thanksgiving weekend added on unwelcome bumper-to-bumper traffic. it was the first time i'd ever driven a long distance alone and it was surprisingly fun. just driving listening to music and being with myself was calming in some strange, unexpected way (at least for the first five hours). and then, while unpacking and listening to music in my room, i discovered a song that seems to fit perfectly.







i'm in love with massachusetts
and the neon when it's cold outside
and the highway when it's late at night
got the radio on
i'm like the roadrunner

b & bn photos

i don't have the time/energy to talk much about it, but i just got home from my second concert of the past three days -- brand new. i've loved them since junior high school and they finally came through the area. janette bought tickets for us to go see them for my birthday (side note: my birthday was in july). it was a special concert for me; seeing one of my oldest, favorite bands with one of my oldest, best friends. they were really good -- high energy, great live -- but, unfortunately, any concert in the world would have been a let down after bruce springsteen and the e street band on sunday. which brings me to the connection between the two -- photos! i have some photos from bruce (taken on my cell phone, so they're not too great) and some photos from brand new. enjoy!

bruce crowd surfing

this was right before i touched bruce springsteen
photo taken by my bro

bruce and some of the members of the e street band --
you can see clarance clemons and nils lofgren in the background
photo taken by my bro



brand new

brand new's lead singer, jesse lacey, singing "play crack the sky"
with audience members waving their lighters in response

brand new

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.

beauty

mashup

i really love mashups. there's something about taking two songs that seem completely different and making them work together in a new way that is so compelling. since i stumbled upon the song "is this digitial love" -- a mashup of bob marley's "is this love" and daft punk's "digital love" -- earlier today, i can't stop listening to it. here it is in all its glory: