Bruuuuuuce, The Boss!
I’ve seen him with his E-Street Band once — never again!
Don’t get me wrong — this was an impressive performance! It was some years ago, but even then, the man was a senior citizen, and he performed for three hours nonstop! Impressive!
Why then will I not go again? Especially as my wife will…and go again, and again, and again!
She’s a Springsteen Superfan. She’s supported The Boss since before we met, since before Bruce Springsteen was a well-known name here in the UK. He’s her music hero.
In fact, as I write alone in my home, my wife is ‘up country’ as the Cornish say, staying with family because tomorrow evening, she and our daughter will be in Manchester enjoying yet another epic Springsteen performance.
She did manage to get me to one of his concerts in London — you’ll have realised that from my opening paragraph and I was genuinely impressed with his performance.
But I’m not going again!
In fact, I’m not going to go to any ‘big name’ concert at all — not even to see and experience a performance by one I particularly like.
I’m happy for my wife to go. She’s been to many Bruce Springsteen concerts over the years, in fact, to at least one, and sometimes more, every time he tours the UK.
She’s also seen The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, and several other well-known pop and rock bands over the years and will, no doubt, continue to do so — but without me.
Why?
It wasn’t because he didn’t sound much like he does on his LPs, CDs, downloads, et al. I couldn’t tell, not being a big fan. It wasn’t because it was The Seeger Sessions tour, and some of the British music press thought we’d all booed him because he didn’t perform all his famous tracks. The crowd was calling out ‘Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuce’ as they always did! Even I knew that!
No, nothing like that at all.
There are other reasons.
It’s not only Springsteen I won’t be going to see. I like The Eagles — I have (I think) all their albums. The same applies to Fleetwood Mac — though I have attended a couple of their concerts in the past. I won’t go again, even if they did reassemble and perform as Mick Fleetwood suggested might happen last year.
No, it’s not going to happen.
My wife gets a little surprised and irritated by my insistence and refusal to join her at what she sees as great events.
“You’re going to miss a great concert, with a great atmosphere!” She never fails to point out.
But here starts my list of reasons for not going!
The atmosphere!
I do not want to sit or stand for hours on end amongst huge numbers of other irritatingly annoying concert goers who often smell of BO, of beer, of wine or spirits as they belch and fart and drunkenly sway all around me.
Often, they will sing along with the performers so loudly and out of tune that I won’t be able to hear the band I’ve paid to listen to. Worse still is when they enthusiastically ‘sing’ with the band until that point when they don’t know the lyrics to the song, and they simply chant random words or the band’s name. Often this is so loud I still can’t hear the performance.
At one of the aforementioned Fleetwood Mac concerts, I had the unpleasant experience of sitting behind a group of young women who, when one of the very few songs they knew began, jumped up, waved their arms, and cheered and shrieked their appreciation.
Fleetwood Mac? I couldn’t see or hear them.
Whilst this was highly annoying, it didn’t make much difference to my lack of enjoyment. The venue was so large, and I was seated so far from the stage, it could have been anybody down there blasting out their latest album tracks, and I wouldn’t have been able to tell. I would have needed binoculars to see and identify faces.
Then there’s the cost. Not only the concert tickets — running into hundreds of pounds — but also the travel. A tank full of fuel would cost me up to another hundred pounds. An overnight stay — perhaps another hundred or more.
I often think of the alternatives, including the televised recordings that many of these bands arrange. It’s quite likely that Sky Arts TV will broadcast any number of famous bands. If so, I can sit in the comfort of my favourite armchair, glass in hand, TV remote ready to pause or rewind at my leisure.
I’ll get close-ups, long shots, and excellent audio reproduction — in fact, everything I won’t get at a live performance.
“They’ve always had huge TV screens in the venues I’ve been to.” My wife thinks she can win me over.
“So I can get to watch a TV performance together with all the disadvantages I’ve mentioned, eh? — I really would love that!” Sorry, love, you lose again.
There is, however, another alternative.
Tribute bands have some outstanding advantages. Ticket prices, for example, are always a fraction of those one has to pay to see the big names.
Smaller venues with much better views of the performers, who are more able to hit all the notes (some of the originals are now too old to hit their top notes).
Tribute bands are also more likely to perform a wider range of old material. Face it, top names are using live concerts to promote their latest albums as much as to play their established hits.
Some tribute bands excel at what they do. For example, ‘Rumours of Fleetwood Mac’ is endorsed by Mick Fleetwood, which means they must be pretty good!
My wife, having driven for several hours, has just called me to tell me she’s arrived safely and is looking forward to tomorrow’s event.
I hope she does, after all, it’s cost us hundreds of pounds for her to watch The Boss from a distance of hundreds of yards whilst sitting or jumping around, surrounded by hundreds of other cheering, chanting, smelly drunks intent on ruining her evening.
…and she calls me a kill-joy!
