There are times you go to a show and there’s just a song you have to hear. Back in ’81 when I drove a 1,800 mile round trip from Tucson to Boulder for the Stones it was “Under My Thumb.” Third freakin’ song. Sweet. 22 years later after missing the early years of Bruce Springsteen because of “Warren” (and you know who you are…) and my punk baby brother, I walked onto the wet floor of Gillette Stadium wanting to hear pretty much the whole set list I got, but having to hear “Prove It All Night” from Darkness. Actually, I wanted the left jab, right cross of “My Love Will Not Let You Down” and “Prove It” back to back, just like the opening of the live NYC DVD from 2001, but that was probably too much to ask…

I’ll admit I’m not a life and death Bruce fan like some. My buddy Pete has seen the Boss twenty something times and Barb… well Barb’s from Freehold, NJ. If I have to explain that, maybe you should stop reading.

Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll… There are probably thousands of rock songs about sex, but this one gets to a place where most guys wish they could go, even one night in their life. Now I grew up with some, um, confident friends and I’m not naming any names, but do recall hearing the bravado as a younger man and claims like, “Oh yeah, we went at it all night.” Yeah, sure you did. The only thing that probably went all night was the snoring after 30 crappy seconds, but I digress.

As I looked up at the canyonesque pit from around the 20 yard line, I simultaneously thought what the view looked like on a Fall Sunday and about a woman. Yeah, I multitasked. Then the band hit the stage.

Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA, Friday, 8/1/03 Night 1

  1. The Promised Land
  2. The Rising
  3. Lonesome Day
  4. My Love Will Not Let You Down
  5. Prove it All Night

This song evokes such raw emotion with primal, guttural vocals and screams, pitched, blistering guitars and the consistent thunder of Max on the drums. By the end of this, only the second song of the show, Bruce is dripping with sweat. The way it should be. Rock ‘n Roll, that is. Heart and soul and one of the best rock songs ever.