Is there anybody ALIVE out there?

Short on time for obvious reasons, but I can't let last night pass without comment. First it was great to finally meet Steve & Elaine before the gig. I've known Steve through this weird world of the internet for - what, at least 10 years now? He's been one of the most helpful people I could ever have hoped to meet online - hell, he designed my whole website for me, and has recently helped me redesign it (relaunch soon), for which he didn't even want paying. He's obviously quite insane, but in a good way. (And being the jerk I am, on meeting him I completely forgot to say thank you for all this. Idiot.) I'm sure if you go visit their blog, he and Elaine will soon have a story to tell about how I'm quite insane too. ("We're crazy, we are!" Don't you just love people like that?) They decided last night that I have a bit of a Courtney Cox fetish. No, not a fetish for Courtney Cox (who was it who said - "a crow on a broomstick"?), but a desire to get up on the stage and dance with Bruce just as she did in the video that brought her fame...

But hell - I can't deny it. What true Bruce fan wouldn't?

Oh, damn, I might have just spoiled their anecdote now. They'll have to think of something worse to say about me. Shouldn't take much thinking.

Anyway, the gig itself...

Sometimes there's a gig... sometimes there's a gig that's just too damned right for words. I don't think I've ever seen a performer who gives more of himself live than Bruce Springsteen, and yet also seems to be having the best time of his life as well. There was undeniably magic in the air last night, and I could wax on about it forever, without doing any justice to the event at all. Even the rain held off (apart from a thin, cooling drizzle, which was welcome on such a muggy night) and though there was no 'Thunder Road' - not even a 'Girls In Their Summer Clothes', there was over two and a half hours of nonstop Springsteen and an atmosphere among the crowd that was crackling like lightning. Full setlist below - highlights for me (beyond the obvious: 'Born To Run', 'No Surrender', 'Growin' Up') were 'Mary's Place', 'Long Walk Home', and a rare 'It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City'. Great to hear 'Because The Night' again too. And 'Rosalita', and...

Bruce Springsteen - Old Trafford, Manchester - 28/05/2008

1. No Surrender
2. Radio Nowhere
3. The Night
4. Lonesome Day
5. The Promised Land
6. Magic
7. Trapped
8. Adam Raised A Cain
9. Darlington County
10. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City
11. Because The Night
12. She's The One
13. Livin' In The Future
14. Mary's Place
15. I'll Work For Your Love
16. Devil's Arcade
17. The Rising
18. Last To Die
19. Long Walk Home
20. Badlands

Encores:

21. Growin' Up
22. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
23. Born To Run
24. Rosalita
25. Dancing In The Dark
26. American Land

Bruuuuuuce! Still the man. Still the boss. Wow.