Bruce Springsteen

We have multiple friends in Belgium and abroad that are strong Springsteen fans and that travel to concerts regularly.   I must admit that I am not a vivid fan so I never really paid attention to his concert scheme and when friends this winter suggested buying tickets together I shrugged without much energy.

And then those same friends had bought tickets, yet decided to go on vacation nevertheless (since it would have been their 3rd concert in 12 months) and they offered us their tickets.  I was in June in a particular social and energetic mood and wondered if I should let this opportunity slip.  After all , Bruce Springsteen has a rock solid live reputation, so has his E-street band with top musicians.  And I do love passionate good musicians.  I also always enjoy the Blues festival, watching those live performances, while I do not spend any time during the year listening to Blues. 

So I figured this was an opportunity I had to grab, and I managed to get a babysit booked. I ignored the fact that the first week of July was the most complex to juggle the children's day camp schedule.  I completely didn't realize that the one-day concerts in Werchter also trigger a traffic infarct around Leuven each year. 

The 2nd week of July I happened to have a complete off week: digestion issues, fatigue, stress, my period, ... all together and I am not sure which triggered which as cause and consequence, but I dragged myself through the day as a zombie with some tears.  I had to go and pick up the children at 2 locations in Leuven and got myself stuck in hardly moving traffic jams, I panicked, I managed to mobilize other parents to pick up Beertje in time while I hardly managed to arrive at Kabouter after an hour in sheer panic stress. 

Needless to say I wasn't quite in the mood anymore looking forward to going to Bruce Springsteen.  But giving up last minute felt silly too, so I took paracetamol against my headache and Imodium and stomach pills for my other complaints, took a deep breath and started walking with Jan to the train station. At least I knew I'd not be driving any more tonight. Pheww. 

While queuing for the festival buses at the train station, I started to feel a bit more calm.   We arrived at the festival area without issues and I was relieved to see that the terrain was indeed well drained so I had the right decision not to come in rubber boots. The parking lots on the other hand were still a lot of muddy mess. 

We queued for ages to get some unhealthy food which we had just in our hands when the Boss stepped on stage right on time. 

The Boss launched his concert with energy and kept moving along...the first 6 songs came without any break or chat or ...just "1, 2 , 3 , GO"... 
I observed, chilled, looked around, listened.  The majority of songs were new to me.  But I admired the energy.  The whole evening I thought "I wish I could grow old to 75 with this level of fitness, energy, passion".  You could just but admire. 
And his band is indeed fabulous. So many passionate artists that play with such verve and get the room to do solo's etc.  Absolutely cool.  

While the evening progressed during his 3 hour lasting concert, he took more and more time to step along the fan base on the front rows with cute moments like when he handed his harmonica to a young boy or when he seemed touched that someone pregnant was due on his birthday (which turns out to be Kabouter's birthday...didn't know). 

When he started the list of encore numbers, ...his true greatest hits that I know well, we decided nevertheless to leave before the entire crowd of 55000 people had to leave at the same time. We had calculated that the bus companies had a capacity of probably driving back 3000 people per half hour to Leuven and while I felt better now, I could not imagine queuing up for hours at night to try to get back into town.  That had been on my mind all day as well. Since the parking lots were not at full capacity after all the rain and flooding, more people would need to take the bus. 

A rational decision that is truly a pity, but we did see and hear most of the concert and enjoyed it very much. And I was relieved to be able to hit a bus almost immediately and arrive home at a not too bad hour to try to give myself some more needed rest. 

And we were happy to have been part of it and have seen the Boss. If he decides in some years to stop touring, at least I've seen him. And I wouldn't mind at all going to another concert in the future if the occasion would arise again.  But he's better live than on the radio.