Bruce Springsteen has been on a serious tear lately—he recently wowed audiences in Austin, turning a 10-minute keynote speech at SxSW into an hour-long treatise on how creative greatness is a paradox of both ambition and humility. And then this week, at a “Wrecking Ball” tour stop in Philadelphia, he runs into the crowd to sing with fans, and when one sticks half a beer in front of his face he chugs it like a college bro.
Springsteen is now sixty-two years old, wiser and more eloquent than ever, and also apparently at his most unpretentious. Guess that’s why he’s still The Boss. The epic chug comes at 1:30 in the video below, but the whole thing is really worth a watch.
[TMZ]
March 30, 2012 at 5:52 pm, Timothy Romang said:
That made my day.
March 30, 2012 at 9:35 pm, Arlen Schumer said:
Years from now, historians will study these videos as the closest approximations of what it must've been like to attend a Bruce Springsteen concert; but unless you've ACTUALLY been to one, sorry, but you STILL have NO IDEA what it's like to actually EXPERIENCE it! It's Rock & Roll Heaven on Earth!
March 30, 2012 at 9:37 pm, Arlen Schumer said:
I think John Hocking and John Michlig would agree with me, no?
March 30, 2012 at 9:40 pm, Arlen Schumer said:
I think my Bruce Buddies the 3 Johns–John Hocking, John Gandour and John Michlig–would agree with me, no?
March 30, 2012 at 10:01 pm, Arlen Schumer said:
I think my Bruce Buddies the 3 Johns–John Michlig, John Gandour and John Hocking–would agree with me, no?
March 30, 2012 at 11:27 pm, Tracy Rotkiewicz said:
Too many artists are way too pretentious or kiss up to corporate bigwigs. VIP suits in front rows or their families who couldn't give a damn, or strippers for band members to look at. You just know they didn't get tickets from a ticket outlet. Thankfully, Bruce is a man for the people. Average Joe's and Jane's. He's one in the history books. Somebody else said a few days ago, he's not a great singer, and he's not a great guitar player. What he is though, is a master showman who is there to entertain. I'm still hoping to get to a show.
March 31, 2012 at 1:28 am, Arlen Schumer said:
But Tracy, i have ALWAYS taken issue with this damning-with-faint-praise idea that Bruce is NOT a "great singer" or even a "great guitar player" but, in a backhanded-compliment, is a "master showman and entertainer." Just PART of the reason he IS a "master showman and entertainer" is because he IS a "great singer"! Because there's MORE to being a "great singer" than being soothing to the ear. And don't get me started on his underrated guitar-playing: in the prosecution of Rollingstone magazine for not even ranking Bruce in their Top 100 Guitarists of All Time, I submit exhibits A-D from the Capitol Theater, September 19, 1978–probably all available on YouTube–his 4 guitar solos from Prove it All Night, Because the Night, Streets of Fire, and Backstreets; it was the night Bruce chanelled Hendrix.
March 30, 2012 at 10:10 pm, John Michlig said:
Who else could do something like that and get out unscathed?
Now that concert security and artists have accepted the existence of iPhones, it great to see these small slices of greatness from right in the fray.
June 26, 2012 at 9:45 am, Fan gets kicked out of Kenny Chesney concert for looking too much like Kenny Chesney | Death and Taxes said:
[...] around him, asking to take pictures with him, believing he was Chesney pulling a pre-show Springsteen style tour of the stands.What happened next was significantly less awesome: According to Fox News, Blankenship claims he was [...]