A little over a week ago I was fortunate enough to see Springsteen on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York City.
When Springsteen on Broadway was first announced I put my name on the TicketMaster “Verified Fan” mailing list and didn’t think too much more about it.
I did not get selected from the first batch run of shows. When the second run was announced I didn’t think too much about it but a couple months later I got an email letting me know I would have a chance to buy tickets. Wow! Very cool. I don’t live in NYC nor anywhere close – I live outside of Raleigh. I figured if I was lucky enough to get tickets I’d worry about logistics later.
When the day to buy tickets finally came I logged into Ticketmaster and began the process of trying to find seats for a show. It is a panic driven process and calling the purchase process cumbersome would be an understatement.
I still don’t know why but due to some Chrome cookie issue each time I tried to complete a purchase, it would fail. At one point I had pair of orchestra seats which would have been phenomenal but I couldn’t make it through the checkout process and I lost them. This went on for about 20 minutes at which point I had selected and lost 4-5 sets of tickets. I decided to try a Chrome Incognito tab and much to my surprise, it worked. I had purchased tickets to Springsteen on Broadway for late September. Woo-hoo! Now could I actually go?
I first saw Bruce Springsteen at the beginning of The River tour in 1980 at the Capital Center in Landover, MD. It was the second concert I had ever been to and it was amazing. The show was 4+ hours long and I got in trouble for getting home so late on a school night. My mom said “no concert lasts that long” but the next day there was a review in the Washington Post about the show and how it didn’t end until almost 1:00 am or something to that effect. So my grounding was lifted, the reason for my late arrival at home validated by the Washington Post.
I saw several other Springsteen shows while in college but hadn’t seen him live since then. My wife and I decided to make a short trip to NYC to be tourists for a couple days and see the show. We did a Carriage Ride in Central Park, ate in a couple of great restaurants, rode to Roosevelt Island on the Tram, and general enjoyed ourselves in the City.
The highlight of the visit was of course the show and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My wife had never seen Springsteen before so she wasn’t sure what to expect but enjoyed the show, probably not as much as I did. If one wasn’t familiar with a lot of the songs I think the stories told in between wouldn’t make a lot of sense. It certainly was a wonderful evening, one I am glad to have had the chance to experience.