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On March 22, 1977, the first date of the Boston stand, Springsteen won a motion in his dispute with Mike Appel which put Bruce on the offensive and made a settlement very likely. There can be no doubt that Bruce's enthusiasm over this development translated to his stage performances with a vengeance. The Boston shows are considered by many to have been the finest of his career.
On that Thursday night I attended the concert alone because none of my friends cared for Springsteen and I simply did not want to miss the opportunity to see him again. In the `75 show he opened the first set with a dramatic version of ``Thunder Road", accompanied by only a piano; on this night he came out rocking with a killer version of ``Night" followed immediately by a visceral ``Don't Look Back", and he never let up all night long.
I remember the poetic beauty of ``Incident", the angry power of ``Saint in the City", and the incredible emotion of ``Backstreets". The crowd was with him 100%, with the front rows becoming a sea of outstretched arms. It all seems like such a blur...
I can't remember if it was after the second or third encore, but the house lights came up and folks started heading for the exits. I'll bet about 20-30% of the crowd had already stepped outside, and I was just a few steps from the door, when a roar came from behind. I turned around to see Clarence Clemons carrying Bruce back onstage for one more song, ``Higher and Higher", the band's first ever public performance of the song.
What else can I say? There are some good bootleg recordings of this concert if you are lucky enough to happen upon a tape, and the following night's concert (3/25/77) is widely available in trading circles. No photograph and no recording can capture the ``magic in the night" present at that concert. I consider myself lucky to been there.
Chet Kresiak ~ chet@icrafters.com |
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