We went to Milwaukee to see Bruce Springsteen last night. Way up in nosebleed territory in the basketball arena, along with 20,000 other middle-aged to elderly fans. It was kind of fun, but stadium shows are not really my thing.
view from our seats
It’s The River tour – so Bruce & the E-Street band perform the record, and then it kind of turns into an endurance test – they play for another hour or so, greatest hits all round. Here’s the setlist. I’m ashamed to admit that we left. I couldn’t take it. Too much beer, I was sticking to the floor, too many people, standing on cement too long. We grabbed our coats and started down the steps after Rosealita, and by the time we got to the door, they were finishing Tenth Avenue Freeze Out – it was a long way down. So all we missed was Shout – and here it is from Pittsburgh – opening night of the tour, back in January.
We were home by 1:00AM-ish – so well before bar time (1:50 is when last call is usually called in these parts) a time at which I was often still out in my youth but no more. I ate a couple handfuls of teddy grahams, and went to bed. It’s impossible to go to a concert in Milwaukee and not come home with you coat smelling like the beer, so my down is going to have to get washed. It’s March; I guess it’s time anyways.
It was an OK way to celebrate Robyn Hitchcock’s 63rd birthday. Bruce was good, but I felt like the stories in his songs are becoming relics of a past time – that the stuff that happens – where people get the vibe out on the street – are less relevant in the Twitter-Facebook-smart phone era. Not that we don’t still love old rock & roll from the ’50s, But still … I think I would have rather seen Robyn, who was performing in Phoenix at something called the Musical Instrument Museum.
Thank you so much to all my twitter birthday well-wishers, I wish you all well from my wishing-well xx
— Robyn Hitchcock (@RobynHitchcock) March 3, 2016
After a late night it didn’t seem wise to plan much for Friday. I got home around 5:30, and Mark was out for a walk. I had the last of a Costco carton of cheese tortellini in the freezer, and I made a quick sauce for them with diced tomatoes and roasted sungolds and arugula pesto that I got out of the freezer, too, and a drizzle of cream. I grated a hunk of Parmesan, but the pasta didn’t need it after all. To go with, one more from the freezer: a hunk of rosemary focaccia, and also a spinach salad with last week’s indoor market spinach, bacon, and ground salted nuts. With an adaptation of this bright red dressing – minced shallot instead of onion, chili sauce instead of ketchup (and about twice as much) and whisked together instead of blended.