"The great E Street Band and the people of Perth, the two of us are about to make magic." Bruce Springsteen. PerthNow (Sunday Times) by Jay Hanna, music writer from PerthNow February 06, 2014 6:33AM
Although this blog is not about Bruce Springsteen, his
Australian tour or his fans I have been reading a range of professional
articles about the recent concerts on the west coast of Australia. I absolutely
love what I have seen and what has been made available for fans who went, those
who are about to go or those who were unable to go and who are following the
tour from where ever they are in the world.
I have read some lovely professional reviews of the concerts
complete with photo slide shows, brief videos and news reports. (Viewers
unfortunately had to watch part of an advertisement to view them and the amount
of advertising affected their access). I have read some articles about fan
interaction and how dreams came true for fans singing and playing music with
Bruce on stage. Today in the daily newspaper The West Australian, a journalist
reflected on appropriate fan behaviour at concerts. Then there was the
unfortunate incident of desperate fans wanting tickets getting caught by ticket
scalping.
The Bruce Springsteen concert has moved on to the east coast
and Sydney and Melbourne. So I went to Bruce’s official website to see what was
available. Wow. There is an amazing experience for fans on his official web
page. There are short exerts from the road about what happened at each concert
in Perth, accompanied by some absolutely brilliant photography by Jo Lopez. The
thing I noticed about the photographs (approximately 10 for each concert) was
how inclusive they were of Bruce, the E-Street Band and his fans. I loved it and
all of it legal.
Below are some articles from the local news, a review from a
happy concert goer journalist, the experience of a fan who played guitar with
Bruce on stage and how some fans were stung by a ticket scalper. No copyright
infringement intended. Pictures of the concerts are available at the articles
online or on the Bruce Springsteen official website.
“Bruce
Springsteen. Turns it on for adoring Perth fans". PerthNow (Sunday Times) by Jay Hanna, music writer from PerthNow, February 06, 2014 6:33AM
(no copyright infringement intended)
Still there were no hard feelings as Springsteen kicked off the show by addressing the packed house and asking us to rethink some basic mathematics.
"Hello Perth, it's great to be in the most
remotest place on earth," he said.
"And the great E Street Band have travelled
f**king thousands of miles to prove one and one is not two.
"In love, in art, in rock 'n' roll one and
one makes three.
"The great E Street Band and the people of
Perth, the two of us are about to make magic."
And that we did.
Fuelled by his "vegemite sandwich" the
Boss kicked off a relentless three hour plus show with Frankie Fell in Love,
High Hopes and The Saints' cover Just Like Fire Would from his
latest album High Hopes, released last month.
High Hopes in particular was a rip-roaring live number that
saw Tom Morello shredding the guitar with his teeth.
The Rage Against The Machine guitarist initially
came on board to cover for Steve Van Zandt for the Wrecking Ball tour,
but now seems an integral part of the band.
And Van Zandt doesn't seem to mind the
competition happily hamming it up for his very own
"Stevie's Angels"
cheersquad. The group of five, in their pink bandannas, later got invited on
stage to dance and bum wiggle with their idol.
Badlands was the first taste of vintage Bruce, before
singalong Hungry Heart saw the evergreen 64-year-old crowd surf
backwards to the stage from a walkway in the middle of the floor.
The 17-piece E Street Band seemed to be having
the time of their lives as they showcased their incredible talent and
occasionally joined Springsteen for a spot of line-dancing.
The setlist was everything and more. A 27-song
blend of party-starting hits, classic album tracks and ballads. From E Street Shuffle
and Death To My Hometown to The River, American Skin (41 Shots)
and the brilliant Because the Night, which had guitarist Nils Lofgren
spinning in circles while rocking out.
Morello helped breathe new life into The
Ghost of Tom Joad on the High Hopes record, and live he was even
better, as he sang along with Springsteen and the two battled it out on their
axes. It was an incredible display.
A master at whipping the crowd into a frenzy,
the match-fit singer had everyone roaring after Wrecking Ball.
"I'm on the edge of the world, you've got
to make more noise than that."
And so we did. The house lights were on and
Perth Arena felt like a sauna, but we didn't care as everyone was on their feet
for Born to Run.
The band backed it up with Dancing In The
Dark.
A lady in a sequinned stars and stripes waistcoat
got to live out her Courtney Cox fantasy, but then she strapped on an acoustic
guitar and rocked along with the Boss.
Springsteen stripped down to his sodden wet
t-shirt and jumped on the piano for Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out. The image
of late, great E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons appeared on the big
screen behind the stage while Springsteen worked his way into the crowd once
more, paying tribute to the big man as he went.
The energy exploded for an amazing rendition of Shout
that saw the whole band lined up at the front of the stage. Springsteen called
their names one by one and the crowd roared their appreciation.
"Perth, thanks for a wonderful night. It's
not that far away," Springsteen yelled as the band took their bows.
"What does one and one make?"
"Three," we bellowed.
The Boss ended the show in solo mode performing
the glorious Thunder Road. More than one or two audience members were
reduced to tears.
What a man, what a show, what a night.
We laughed, we cried, we danced and we cheered.
And we floated out of the Arena on cloud nine.
Was this the best show Perth has ever seen?
Quite possibly. At least until he does it all again tomorrow night.
“Bruce Springsteen fan Vel Holland's 32-year dream comes true at Perth
sell-out show.”
by Claire Moodie. Updated Thu 6 Feb
2014, 8:42pm AEDT at abc.com.au
Long-time Bruce Springsteen fan Vel
Holland has achieved a 32-year dream to dance with her idol at the musician's
first concert in Perth.
The 63-year-old from Balcatta was
invited onto the stage by Springsteen for Dancing In the Dark, as part of the
encore at the rock star's WA debut.
Ms Holland, who has been worshipping
the Boss since Born to Run was released in 1975, is still basking in the
euphoria.
"I snogged him and I wouldn't
let go," she said.
"I told him I loved him with all
my heart... and I always will.
"And he said, 'I know'."
Ms Holland, who has a room in her
townhouse dedicated to Springsteen, told the ABC before the concert that her
ambition was to dance with Springsteen.
She says the musician has seen her
through some tough times.
"No matter what comes and goes
in your life, like friends, relationships, there's one thing that's still there
all the time," she said.
"I love him better than
anybody."
Springsteen's first
Perth visit a sell-out tour
Springsteen and the E Street Band
played in Perth for the first time on Wednesday, with the Boss telling the
16,000-strong crowd: "It's great to be in the most remotest place on earth".
The sell-out concert was the first of
three in Perth, with Springsteen again proving that you are never too old to
crowd surf.
It is Springsteen's epic live shows
that get fans hooked, according to Sydney-based music critic Stuart Coupe.
"It sounds like a cliche but
there's nothing like a Springsteen concert," he said.
“He’s always been about glorifying the so-called ordinary the day-to-day lives of people who they’re not all that special. Music critic Stuart Coupe”.
"I don't think there's been a
live performer as great as Springsteen and I struggle to imagine that someone
will be better.
"Now he's in his 60s and he's
still ridiculously exciting."
A self-confessed rabid fan, Coupe
first met Springsteen in Paris in 1981 and says if anything, the rocker's
following is growing.
"I think he's probably more
popular just because you've got more generations of Bruce nutters," he
said.
"They become sort of life-long
obsessive converts to this thing called Springsteen-ism.
"He has a particular hold over
his fan base and part of that goes back to what makes Springsteen so attractive
in the first place.
"He's always been about
glorifying the so-called ordinary, the day-to-day lives of people who think
they're not all that special."
Queensland fan Graham Atkinson,
camped out at the Perth Arena before the concert and says the three Perth gigs
follow last year's Wrecking Ball tour, when an estimated 5,000 fans travelled
from WA to attend shows in the eastern states.
"[Springsteen] knew how many
people had flown from the west coast to the east coast to see him," Mr
Atkinson said.
"And he has honoured all those
Perth-Steens by coming over here.
Meanwhile Ms Holland has added a
precious item to her collection of Springsteen memorabilia, after the rock star
handed her his harmonica at the end of playing The River.
She has tickets to all three Perth
gigs because she believes this could be Springsteen's last Australian tour.
"I hope he doesn't leave this
planet before I do," she said.
"I don't know what I would do,
honestly."
‘Ticket Scalping’ The West Australian. 11 February 2014. (no copyright infringement intended).
Police are a hunting a man involved in a concert ticket scam, with the
fraudster believed to have pocketed thousands of dollars from desperate WA fans
chasing tickets to sold-out shows on websites such as Gumtree.
The fraudster, who has no fixed address, creates stories to trick would-be
buyers into transferring money into his bank account for tickets that do not
exist.
In one case, it is believed the man conned a young Rockingham One Direction
fan for $1000 for tickets to the teen group's concert last year.
A Perth woman paid $720 for two tickets to the Rolling Stones concert next
month after responding to the man's advertisement on Gumtree, but the tickets
did not exist.
It is understood WA Police know the name of the fraudster and believe he
has been scamming would-be concertgoers on Gumtree since 2010.
Police have told his victims the man allegedly scammed about 300 people
across Australia. The figure could be higher because of the number of
unreported incidents.
The man has told his victims that he lives in the Goldfields town of
Norseman. It is not known if he lives in WA and it is believed he travels
between caravan parks.
Ashly Evans, 27, paid $720 into the man's bank account for two tickets to
the Rolling Stones concert as a present to her mother.
The man said he had "tongue pit" tickets for the Rolling Stones
Adelaide concert and was going on a "road trip" there with friends,
so no longer needed the Perth tickets.
"In hindsight, I feel pretty silly," Ms Evans said. "But at
the time the story was so believable and I thought it would be a great present
for my mum. I transferred the money and two days later I called but his phone
was switched off."
WA Police said the man has conned Perth people for AFL tickets and entry to
a Wiggles concert.
The scam is the dark side of a lucrative ticket black market emerging in
Perth, with tickets to sold-out shows selling for more than 10 times their face
value.
Tickets in the tongue pit for the Rolling Stones' Perth Arena show, which
had a face value of $1300, were being advertised for $13,706 each on online
site Viagogo. Other sellers were offering the tickets for $2112.
Tickets for US comedian Dave Chappelle's show this month, which sold out in
seconds at $100 each, were on offer at $500 each.
