(Rob:) Here's our concert recap- I'm going to put some pictures in and then recruit Zanny and Tessa Jean to tell their story of being in "The Pit" for the first time! For the uninitiated, The Pit is the exclusive cordoned-off area right in front of the stage where Zanny and Tessa found themselves last night.
Here are the girls out in front of the Pepsi Center before the show:
Me and The Peach- her sixth Bruce show!
Close-up of her concert makeup
The doors opened at around 6:30, and Tessa went with Zanny to the "E Street Lounge", which is the hospitality suite backstage- sometimes band members will come around and say hi to the lucky fans with access passes (they had them through a charity auction that provided the tickets for the show)
Now, please welcome guest blogger, Zanny!
(Zanny:)
"OK. Here goes. In September of 2003, Mom and I scored backstage passes at the Bruce concert at Mile High. I really wanted Mom to have a cool experience, so I decided that if I saw a band member, I would make sure she got introduced to him or her.
Well, we were just kind of standing around and I saw this guy just kind of standing around too. No one was clamoring to meet him or talk to him. He was just standing there by himself. Well, I thought I recognized him as the bass player for the E-Street Band, but I doubted myself, because surely if a band member were standing around, there would be people bugging him for autographs and stuff. Well, like an idiot, I walked up to him and said "Hello! Are you in the band?".
It really cracked him up. He told me that it had been about 30 years since anyone had asked him that. I introduced myself to him and he did the same to me. Then, I told him that my mother would really like to meet him. (Also, apparently also an idiotic thing to say to a band member.) It cracked him up as well. He said he must have hit a new era in his career when a beautiful young woman approaches him backstage and asks him if he is in the band, all because she wants him to meet her mother! Anyway, he did meet Mom. He was very gracious to her and to me, and spent quite a bit of time talking to both of us.
Well, last night, Tessa and I ran into him again. I gave him a brief run down of our last meeting, and he remembered me and Mom. He seemed truly sad to learn that she had passed away. He gave his condolences and then spent quite a bit of time talking to both of us just about lots of different stuff. We explained to him a bit about the tough year Tessa has had, and he told her "It must feel good to be moving again!" I'm sure it does. It felt so good to move in fact that she moved right in and we took this picture! He was a super nice man and really made our E-Street lounge trip a success!"
Thanks, Zanny! Here's Tessa with the Southern gentleman, Gary W Tallent!
Here are some concert shots from my phone and from Tessa's:
From our seats, we had a great view of the stage. There's a new video board behind the band, and a small stage that juts out into the audience front and center:
Tessa and Zanny are in this packed mass of people in front of the stage:
Here's Tessa's vantage point: it's a whole different show from down close:
The place was rocking!
Getting closer!
Bringing it down, singing "The Wrestler":
The lights come on for Born to Run:
Bruce skipped Denver on the 2008 tour, and the local fans were great- very enthusiastic. Bruce concerts are very much a "get what you give" type phenomenon- When the crowd is good, he puts that extra energy into an extra-awesome performance. At the end of the show, he said "this is the best crowd of the tour right here!"
He did a cover song called "Hard Times" from the 50's.
The 1850's!
Glory Days!
And now- welcome guest blogger, Tessa Jean!
(Tessa): "Here is an account of what went down in the pit: Zanny and I arrived on the floor and took our places in the back end of the pit. That is where we spent most of our concert time up until maybe a third of the way through the show when we managed to push our way a little closer to the stage. At that time, we were about twelve people away from the edge of the stage. Right as BTR was starting up, a large bubble of space opened up a little to the left of us. Zanny, knowing that Bruce was going to come into the audience, shouted "Go!" and then gave me a huge heave towards the stage.
Bruce came into the audience and immediately the twenty people around me flocked in to touch him, squishing me in the process. During the mass squishing, Zanny was pushed slightly in front of me, so when the Boss came within five feet of us, Zanny was able to touch his hand and microphone. I, however, was about three feet too short and came about that close to touching him as well, but no such luck. Although, Zanny was kind enough to let me smell her hand. . . . . That was the "official" end of the show, but, as most Bruce fans know, he will usually make a four to six song encore, which we happily waited for in our smushed little area of the pit.
Bruce came back on and played four songs on the stage before he came back into the crowd for "American Land." Since this was his ending song at the last concert I attended, I was determined to get a little bit of Bruce on me before the end of the concert. Now, I was about two feet away from the Boss, which is an amazing experience in itself, but I was still shy of touching him. Then, an amazing thing happened. While my whole body was being crushed and I was trying desperately to get a small bit of my and my parent's hero, Bruce looked at me, smiled, and said "That one!" With that, Zanny promptly gave me a huge shove and Bruce grabbed my hand and held on tight!
Now for those of you that have never experienced something so amazing, or exciting, or (excuse my cheesiness) so utterly beautiful, this is sort of what happens; when Bruce grabbed me, there were only three things in my universe- me, our hands, and his shining face. The rest of the extra stuff around you simply has no affect on your inner or outer consciousness. This fantastic moment lasted for about twenty seconds until it was broken by Bruce returning to center stage and Zanny spinning me around and shouting, "Oh my God, Tessa Jean!!!!" Bruce carried on to finish the concert with "Glory Days" and I have to say, out of my six concerts, that one was most definitely the best. A big thanks to Bruce and the band for making my night so fabulous and a shout out to all the people who I hope will comment on this post. It's Mile High Boss Time!"
Pretty cool, huh? To paraphrase Jon Stewart: for those of you who like joy, get yourself to a Springsteen show this tour! To close out, here's a picture of Tessa and Zanny showing off their Bruce-touched appendages:
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