The Boss.

"You can’t start a fire, you can’t start a fire without a spark
This gun’s for hire even if we’re just dancing in the dark."

Nearly 40 years ago, I attended my first concert at the Arena in St. Louis. This was before it was known as the Checkerdome (eventually named the “Echodome”) and well in advance of its demise.

There is a level of irony about it all; the concert was the pairing of the Beach Boys and Chicago. It was a great concert of what I recall. The date I took was someone who I liked but she for sure did not feel the same. We did however have good seats, so I am assuming that’s why she decided to go with me. Now, as I learned a couple of years ago, she is dating one of my best friends from high school.

Move ahead 25 years and 240 miles to the West, and I am attending a concert in Kansas City with 20 clients. We are on our way to see Bruce Springsteen---AKA “The Boss” ---at Kemper Arena. Everyone was excited; we gave them all his greatest hits CD, dinner and more—and now we were in a van heading to the concert. More than 3 hours later, as the Boss signed off, I was elated it was finally over. He was so boring, and I vowed that if I was ever invited to see him perform again, I would pass.

Why?

He played songs that were not his hits or even close to hits at least those that I knew.

Now, move ahead 14 years and we are in the year 2012. The Boss is playing at Wrigley Field in Chicago, and we have been asked to go. My opinion carried absolutely no weight whatsoever; we were going.

As we arrived at Wrigley, late, our friends were not happy. I can’t blame them and they had every reason to go into the stadium without us. They are nice and waited. Thankfully the show had yet to begin---as we walked on the field to our seats. Yes, we were actually “on” Wrigley Field about 60 yards from the stage. I checked my watch and figured I had 3 hours to deal with something I was not interested in, no matter how excited everyone else was to be there. Plus, there were thunderstorms in the area and I figured that could be our way back home earlier than expected.

About 20 minutes after our arrival out he came. The first song he played I actually knew; the second and third songs were even more familiar than the first. By then it didn’t matter that I was not familiar with the 4^th song, I was "into it." Big time. I suddenly experienced what die-hard fans knew—The Boss is “The Boss.” About one and half hours into the show it started to rain. I figured, this will delay the show and we might even have to leave as the show might be cancelled. Wrong. Not only did he play in the rain, he came out into the audience to experience what we were experiencing.

Without my trusty Nikon, I took out my less than impressive iPhone out of my pocket and started to take pictures. The Boss was no more than 25 feet from us. I was actually star struck. I looked at a picture I had taken and thought…this looks clear. (I was not sure, but hoped it was.)

As he played for another hour plus, my respect for him grew as I learned he was one of us; not bothered by the rain---he relished it. No wimpy “Thanks but we can’t play any more for you all due to the weather” coming out of the Boss's mouth. He was just as wet as we all were and he played music and played in the rain,.

The photo above was taken at the show. In the background is his beloved partner Clarence Clemons who passed away last year. Clarence seemed to know the Boss would play to the crowd and he was darn sure going to be a part of it no matter what the weather.

Thanks for stopping by.