concert

Original Article Published On The JPost

TAMPA – When the house lights went down at exactly 8 p.m. Wednesday night at the Amelie Arena in Tampa, Florida, and Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band took the stage for the first time together in some six years, I knew I had made the right decision.

After deliberating for weeks, I bought a ticket and flew from New York to join thousands of other Springsteen fans to celebrate his return to stage at age 73 for the opening night of a six-month tour that will see him traverse the United States and Europe, but not Israel.

I have seen Springsteen over the years in arenas and stadiums from St. Louis to Philadelphia to Bridgeport, Connecticut and in such famed venues as Madison Square Garden and the old Meadowland “somewhere in the swamps of Jersey.” I have enjoyed shows with my kids, my wife and my father-in-law.

I was eager to get tickets to a show somewhere in the northeast on this tour. While I knew competition for tickets would be fierce, I was hopeful. When tickets were announced, I followed proper procedures and submitted names of three or four arenas within a couple of hours of my home that I would consider attending. I received the presale code for the venue closest to my home and I was pleased.

When the sale went live at 10 a.m. on the given day, I eagerly watched my I got closer in the queue. I waited and waited. Prices reached $600 (NIS 2,055) before running out entirely. I, like other fans, felt betrayed and disappointed. Loyal fans who view Bruce as the champion of the working person had their first introduction to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model. The real cost of the ticket was nowhere to be found as prices were automatically adjusted. The cost of the tickets was adjusted based on supply and demand in real-time. And some tickets quickly reached $5,000 (NIS 17,144).

I tried to put the shows out of my mind until the tour start date neared. I secretly checked Ticketmaster and Stub Hub every day, multiple times a day. Prices varied so widely. From $600 (NIS 2,055) in Connecticut to an almost affordable $250 (NIS 857) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Columbus, Ohio. Admittedly, those seats were very high up in the $300 (NIS 1,028) or $400 (NIS 1,371) section. Nonetheless, I started working on my wife to agree that both or one of us would catch the March 5 and 7th shows.

Then, I got an even crazier idea: go to Opening Night. The know it all on the plane told me he hadn’t missed an opening night since 1990. I came to learn that he is not unique.

While continuing to monitor Tampa Bruce ticket prices, I also checked airfare, hotel prices and affordable options for airport parking at LaGuardia Airport. Airfare was not bad and to my surprise, ticket prices seemed to keep coming down. Slowly, slowly. I watched. I dreamed. When I travel, I am a very efficient planner. I plan routes for road trips, hotels and attractions, and I pack way ahead of time.

Waiting until the last minute would not usually be an option. In this case, it might work in my favor.

My children and wife would mostly be out of the country, I could theoretically go to the show. More importantly, my family gave the green light and I was off and running.

Delta Airlines flies from NYC to Tampa and the price for parking at the airport was reasonable. Now to figure out lodging, given those hotels close to the venue were outrageously expensive: not worth $400 (NIS 1,371) or $500 (NIS 1,714) a night for 2 or 3 nights.

THEN A lightbulb went off: Chabad is everywhere. They have helped me in Saint Thomas and Copenhagen and Beijing so why not Tampa? The website for Chadad in the lovely Hyde Park neighborhood listed three hotels nearby. Then, in small letters, it mentioned a room in the Chabad House for rent over Shabbat and holidays. I called Rabbi Rifkin, explained my predicament and asked if the Shabbat rooms might be available on weekdays as well. I am writing my review from the 2nd floor of the Chabad House in the residential Hyde Park neighborhood of Tampa – a 40-minute walk from the Amelie Arena and around the corner from a large Winn Dixie supermarket which has a very nice kosher selection.

All I needed was a ticket to the show. Could I actually bring myself to come to town empty-handed and gamble that prices would continue to plummet? Maybe Five days before the show, I was connected to some nice people from Spring Nuts, a Springsteen superfan group that meets in person at shows and on social media. Members of the 10,000-plus member group discuss possible show openers and share wisdom on what shoes or sandals and shirts (short or long sleeve) to wear given the anticipated amount of standing and the 80-degree temperatures. They also share wisdom about tickets.

With three days to go, a fan texted me that more tickets had dropped and were available for $199 (NIS 682). They were in the $100s, right behind the stage. I was nervous about sitting behind the band but the group was encouraging: the sound quality is excellent, you are very close and Bruce faces you a few times during the show. With that, I took the plunge and got a single ticket. Some fans posted on Facebook that they had paid $550 (NIS 1,885) for those same seats when they first went on sale.

The Opening Night concert

Despite morning snow in New York resulting in a two-hour departure delay once we had already boarded the plane (so the plane could be de-iced twice), we made it to Tampa with plenty of time to spare. I even got to meet up and tailgate with fellow fans at Sparkman Wharf.

There was a large crowd waiting to enter the arena at 7 p.m. for a 7:30 p.m. show but everyone – mostly in their late 50s to 70s – was patient and in good spirits.

When I found my way to section 124, Row R, I smiled. I was in the third row behind the stage and the sight lines were amazing.

Bruce and his animated sergeants at arms – Steve Van Zandt on guitar and Jake Clemons (the nephew of the late E Street sax legend Clarence Clemons) – did indeed turn to our section many times and we had amazing views of the 18 backup singers and brass and percussion players who joined the ban for this tour.

Bruce looked relaxed, fit and handsome in his new short haircut. He was all smiles and high energy as he directed the band through 28 songs in 2 hours and 43 minutes, introduced seven new songs and didn’t disappointed with such fan favorites as “Born to Run,” “Rosalita,” “Glory Days” and “the Rising.”

My personal favorites were real seminal tunes “E Street Shuffle” and “Katie’s Back,” which were both long and full-spirited.

The highlight for me was sitting close enough to watch Bruce direct each band member and change guitars after every single song. I felt a strong connection to Mighty Max Weinberg, the drummer. In addition to being a proud member of the tribe, he is such a talented drummer. From up close, you can see just how integral he is to the band and how Bruce relies on him to keep pace. I left Tampa with a smile on my face and a desire to grab affordable tickets for me and my family members for later in the tour. I now know that sometimes, good things do come for those who wait.

Read more

Walking out of the Bruce Springsteen concert in Philadelphia last week, I heard a yalmuke-wearing teenager exclaim, “If Bruce Springsteen was a rabbi, I’d go to his shul [synagogue]!” The 62-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee had just delivered a three-hour concert—without even an intermission—during which he crowd-surfed across the pit of the Wells Fargo Arena, danced on stage with his almost 90 year old mother during crowd-favorite “Dancing in the Dark,” and pointed heavenward for several minutes during the encore, “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out,” paying proper respect to “The Big Man,” Clarence Clemons, who died last June. Springsteen kicked off his Wrecking Ball tour on March 18th, to promote the release of his 17th album.

The young fan was suggesting that Springsteen knows how to connect with people and inspire them with his message. Charismatic and caring, he even knows his fair share of Bible.

I overheard another, less-observant, friend confided that he was planning on spending the eve of Friday April 6th—seder night—with Bruce, the E Street Band, and 20,000 close friends at Manhattan’s famous Madison Square Garden!

Many Jews are connected to Bruce. Fans have long speculated on the extent of the Boss’s connection to all things Jewish. Here is a partial list of obvious (though admittedly “long shot”) connections to Judaism, the Jewish People and Israel.

1. His Name

Many have (incorrectly) speculated that the Boss’ last name gives him away as Jewish. Adam Sandler set the record straight in his “Chanukah Song Part II”:

So many Jews are in the show biz/ Bruce Springsteen isn’t Jewish/But my mother thinks he is.

2. Jews in the Band

The Mighty Max Weinberg (drummer), spoke at the American Museum of Jewish History in Philadelphia the night before two gigs at Wells-Fargo. Weinberg played his first bar mitzvah at age 7, attended synagogue at Temple Sharey Tefilo in East Orange, and in a recent email interview with the JTA, reported that drumming “was my way of living a life of tikkun olam.” Weinberg also said, “I was greatly influenced by the poetic approach to leadership by the late Rabbi Avraham Soltes, who made the stories and scripture come alive through music and his charismatic teachings.”

Max’s son, Jacob, briefly toured with the E Street Band when Max was tied up with his commitment to the Conan O’Brien TV show, and Springsteen’s longtime manager and producer, Jon Landau, is Jewish. Pianist Roy Bittan is Jewish. And Suki Lahav, an Israeli post-army violinist from Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar, toured and recorded briefly with Springsteen in the 70’s before returning to Israel. Her then-husband, Louis Lahav, was a recording engineer for Bruce.

3. Biblical References

A former student of the St. Rose of Lima Catholic school in Freehold Borough in New Jersey, Springsteen knows his bible. Aside from the occasional Jesus reference, lyrics contain gems such as these three:

“Rocky Ground”

Forty days and nights of rain have washed this land…
Flood waters rising and we’re Canaan bound

“Red Headed Woman”

Well, push comes to shove
Man, and shove comes to push
And I was Moses standing ‘fore the burning bush

“Adam Raised a Cain”

In the Bible Cain slew Abel
And East of Eden he was cast,
You’re born into this life paying,
for the sins of somebody else’s past,

4. Jewish References

Springsteen’s hometown of Long Branch, long associated with the seaside town of Asbury Park, is a stone’s throw from Deal, New Jersey—home to nearly 5,000 Syrian Jews who vacation in there each summer. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but as one blogger noted, a line in “Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” might have been inspired by the Syrian Jewish Beach Club Casino in Deal:

And the boys from the casino dance with their shirts open like Latin lovery on the shore/Chasin’ all them silly New York virgins by the score

5. “Shtick” in Concerts

Generally reserved for klezmer bands, “Hava Nagila” is not the first song you’d expect “The Boss” to play. Columnist Jeffrey Goldberg reports that Rahm Emanuel, President’s Obama’s former White House Chief of Staff, prompted Springsteen to play 45 seconds of the Jewish melody at a Washington, DC area show in May, 2009. Emmanuel spotted a sign made by a hardcore fan, requesting the famous—albeit unlikely—song:

“My daughter (a Jewish day school student) didn’t want to go because of homework, so I figured she needed a Jewish excuse to go to the concert. I made the ‘Hava Nagila’ sign—I’m in the mortgage credit market, so there’s not a hell of a lot for me to do these days—and we brought it to the concert,” he said. “I made it like the Torah, two sticks on each side.”

And, in his Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live in New York City record, while getting the crowd pumped up, Bruce references…a bar mitzvah! He says, “ I’m gonna throw a rock and roll exorcism…a rock and roll baptism and a rock and roll bar mitzvah!”

6. Israel

First the bad news—he ain’t coming to Tel Aviv.  But, back in November, there were articles in several Israeli publications speculating that he might finally perform in the Promised Land. Unlike Elvis Costello and Pete Seeger, Bruce has not criticized Israel or called for its boycott or divestment. When Bruce completes the US leg of his tour in May, he will then traverse Europe before wrapping up in Helsinki, Finland on July 31st—he just doesn’t have enough time to hit the Holy Land. The closest the Boss gets to the Middle East is Lisbon (June 3rd), Milan (June 7th), Florence (June 10th), Trieste (June 11th) and Madrid (June 17th).

But I can’t hold it against him—The Boss is clearly a fan of the Jews! His lyrics, show antics, and band that nearly comprises a minyan point to his connection to Judaism. He  might not be Jewish, but I’m convinced: I want Bruce to be my Rabbi.

Read more