(Thirty-) Seven Nights to Rock
I went to my first Bruce Springsteen concert - in Dublin's RDS - in July 1988. My most recent live encounter with him was in Croke Park last month. In the intervening years I've only missed one of his 19 Dublin appearances. I think we can agree that's a lot of Bruce Springsteen concerts. And that's only the half of it. Since 1992 I've been to his gigs in Italy, Spain, New York and the UK. Even Milton Keynes. I think, unless I've miscalculated that, since that first show in the RDS in 1988 I've been to another 36 Springsteen shows.
Look, I know. I've been regularly going to live shows since the late 80s and there's nobody that comes close to Springsteen in terms of my repeat attendance. Granted, there's a lot that are around the 5 to 8 shows mark (Elvis Costello, Josh Ritter, Richard Hawley and Aimee Mann spring to mind) which seems vaguely acceptable but in this, as in many things, Bruce is out there on his own.
I've never encountered anyone who's heard how many Springsteen gigs I've been to that considers it to be normal behaviour. "Why would you go to see the same show several times?" is the most common response. Fair enough. There's really no way to answer that without sounding like a defensive fanboy scrambling to justify his obsession. I mean, I could ask people why they go to watch football or rugby matches again and again - especially when they could watch the same game on tv. Or when they know that their team is going to obliterate the opponent. Why would you pay to watch something that predictable? See, I'm already sounding defensive. Of course, their obvious answer to that response is that you never know what's going to happen in a football match. But then you never know what's going to happen at a Springsteen show either. I've seen some thrilling victories at Bruce shows. Seen a few rotten scoreless draws too. And then there was Milton Keynes.
But it's a fair question and I've been struggling for many year to come up with an answer that works. I suppose you either get it or you don't. And most people don't. Here's what I do know. I don't go to Springsteen shows to hear Born to Run or Dancing in the Dark. Or to punch the air during the choruses. For a start, everyone knows the most interesting things in Bruce Springsteen songs happen in the verses. In fact sometimes it seems like the choruses and verses belong in different songs. And I don't go because he plays for 3 and a half hours. Nor do I go to hang out with other Bruce fans and talk about how that tour was better than that other one or how he should stop playing this song and replace it with another. I don't really care about that. Oh and I don't go because he gets out in the crowd and interacts. Although, as you can tell from this picture I don't really object to it either.
So what do I go for? Well, part of it is because I can't not go. If Bruce is in town, I have to be there. It just wouldn't seem right for him to be playing down the road and for me to be anywhere else. A friend of mine who goes to around 80 or 90 concerts a year told me, when I asked him why he goes to so many gigs (see, I can recognise the madness too), that if a band he's aware of is playing in Whelans, and he's 15 minutes away, he can't rest knowing they're there and he's not. I get that. Well I get it with Bruce anyway. But that doesn't explain why I'd also go to New York or to Florence or San Sebastian or, yes, even Milton Keynes, to see him.
Springsteen once said something along the lines of this: "My job is to come into your town, play hard, tell everyone to keep going and move on to the next place". I think that's it. When I see Springsteen in concert I feel like I've been placed in front of a mirror for 3 hours and everything I've ever felt or experienced is held up in front of me. There's isolation, joy, fear, anger, happiness, certainty, uncertainty and loss. And that's just in the first 10 minutes! If you've been in love, you'll see yourself up there. If you're divorced, that's up there too. Parenthood and Death as well. And, of course, if you can drive, you're golden.
Some of the things Springsteen sings about I know all too well. Others I'll never experience and some are still ahead of me. But he holds it all up for me to see. That time I thought I could never be happier. That other time I felt like I'd never be able to leave the house again. There's no hiding place - it's all there. And it's not about that 'working class hero', 'poet of the oppressed' bullshit that the media trots out all the time. It's about understanding the human condition. About being a husband or a wife or a mother or a son. About being a person with feelings and hopes and dreams that probably aren't going to come true. The unexplored life isn't worth living, said somebody. A Springsteen concert gives me a crash course in exploration that I don't get many other places.
And then at the end, after 3 hours of self-analysis, hidden under the guise of a hard-rocking stadium concert, I'll look up and he'll still be there, still giving – and demanding – more before leaving me with my take-home message: "Work harder. Commit to what you love. Hold on to your dreams but stay in the real world. Be true to yourself. Try to be a kinder, more generous person. And keep going." I'm not saying that's the common experience, but that's what I get out of it. Other people just like the songs, I suppose. Which is probably a better answer, now that I think of it. "Why do you go to so many Bruce Springsteen concerts?" Because I like the songs.
Speaking of keeping going, I'm off to see him in Zurich at the end of next month. It's like this: as long as he's still doing it, and I can still afford to be there, that's probably never going to change. Now try to explain rugby to me!
