Epic night in Des Moines

My tenth Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band show, on Monday in Des Moines, unseated April's Denver show from the top of my concert rankings. Just hearing "Incident On 57th Street" live for the first time would've been enough for me. But the whole experience, from start to especially the finish, was epic…

• This was Rachel's fifth show, but the first she's experienced in the pit. Only 255 people showed up between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to enter the lottery for access to the area directly in front of the stage. (I've never seen fewer than 500 show up.) So, all of us got in. As you can see from the photos, we were 5-10 feet from the stage all night.

• I almost never say this about a concert venue. But kudos to the Wells Fargo Arena staff. Nice people all the way around. From the ticket takers to concessions to security.

• To those who wonder why anyone would see a performer ten times, here's my explanation. I could point to the value one gets for the money (this show went almost three hours without a break) or the fact that bands like this just don't come along very often. But the biggest reason is simply that every show is different. I don't just mean the crowd reaction is different or the songs are ordered differently. I mean I've heard at least two different songs at every show I've attended. In Des Moines, I heard four—"Satisfaction," "The Wanderer," "Into The Fire" and the aforementioned "Incident." (Granted, two of those were covers. But I can't tell you how cool it was to see that band play "The Wanderer.") In total, I've heard 70+ different songs at ten shows.

And for the cherry on top…

The show ended just after 11:15 p.m. and we decided to let traffic clear out before heading for the car. We saw a handful of people, most carrying Springsteen memorabilia, standing near a loading dock. So, we thought that must be where the band exits and we may as well catch a glimpse.

About 10 minutes later, an SUV creeps out, the window rolls down and there's Springsteen. (As total luck would have it, I purchased a tour poster as we left the arena. They sold out of them at the Denver show and I got the "display model" here after the guy in front of me bought the last of the main supply.) Springsteen motioned for the waiting throng to come on over and he started signing autographs.

I have to say it was a pleasure to see the lack of pushing, shoving and general poor behavior that I would've expected in this situation. I waited at the back of the group, fully expecting him to meet a few people, wave goodbye and be on his way. But, as the crowd thinned out, I thought, "Holy crap, I might actually meet the guy." Sure enough, my turn arrived. I think I thanked him for putting on a great show and I think he thanked me for coming to see it. All I'm sure about is he asked my name and I responded correctly, because my poster was signed "To Chris" when it was all over.

Others used their audience with The Boss to tell him how much his music affected them. But I'm afraid I didn't get to ask about his writing process or any other interesting subject. I figured the poor guy probably just wanted to get back to the hotel and go to sleep.

Frankly, I had the same thing in mind, after eight hours in downtown Des Moines. A long, epic day.

First impressions, second chances

Former Iowa State basketball player Paul Shirley writes a fun blog for ESPN.com. The subject is often music. A few weeks back, he wrote about how he decided to listen to a CD several times (seems it was seven) before making a final determination on the CD's worthiness.

It's a great idea, though unrealistic for the average person who can't spare the time (or effort) to re-listen to a CD that initially doesn't seem all that great.

I thought about Shirley's blog while listening to the latest albums by Bruce Springsteen and U2. Each of them seemed, at best, average on the first listen. But I stayed with them, thinking surely I was missing something. Turns out I was. Now that I've spent some time with each CD, I really enjoy them both.

Springsteen's "Working On A Dream" follows last year's "Magic." He hasn't made consecutive records this quickly in a long time, leading many people to feel The Boss sacrificed quality for speed. WOAD certainly is a departure from Springsteen's recent work. "The Rising" was heavily influenced by 9/11, while "Magic" is Springsteen's response to the George W. Bush presidency. WOAD isn't quite as deep as either of those. Songs like "Surprise, Surprise," "Kingdom of Days," "My Lucky Day" and "This Life" find The Boss in a celebratory mood, which I found to be a nice departure from the tone of his previous two albums.

That's not to say WOAD doesn't have some meat to it. "The Last Carnival" is a moving tribute to Danny Federici, the E Street Band member who died of complications from melanoma last year. And "The Wrestler," which won a Golden Globe, but somehow didn't get an Oscar nomination, is a great tune as well.

While Springsteen has been producing work at a rapid pace, U2's "No Line On The Horizon" is their first album in nearly five years. Again, I wasn't wild about the first listen. But I'm appreciating it more and more. I dig Edge's work on "Magnificent." I like the whole feel of "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight," which is the song we heard live at the Letterman show. And Adam Clayton's bass on "Moment of Surrender" is addictive.

Of course, there are certain artists who've earned repeated listens from me. Springsteen and U2 top that list. But I'd like to think I'll take the time to give other artists more of a break in the future. Because you never know what you'll miss on that first listen.

I read the songs that make the whole world sing

I would wager that most people don’t pay attention to song lyrics. To that point, I reckon the majority of Americans think Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” is a tribute to the country, rather than a scathing commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans upon their return from war.

But the great thing about music is a listener can take as much or as little from a song as he wants. For my wife, the words aren’t so important. As a result, her favorite Springsteen songs are “Pour Me A Drink Theresa” and “Spanish Johnny.” (Don’t bother Googling them. Those are her titles for “I’ll Work For Your Love” and “Incident On 57th Street.”)

Me, I love the words. They’re why I enjoy Springsteen so much. Someday, I’ll come up with a list of my favorite Springsteen lyrics. Until then, here are 10 of my favorite song lyrics, in no particular order.

“My biggest mistake was loving you too much…and letting you know.”
The Band, “Don’t Do It”

“God it’s so painful, something that’s so close and still so far out of reach.”
Tom Petty, “American Girl”

“You make me feel so close to home, so far away, like nowhere else I’ve ever been.”
Kenny Loggins, “Too Early For The Sun”

“You don’t need a penny just to hang around. But if you’ve got a nickel, won’t you lay your money down?”
John Fogerty, “Down on the Corner”

“She gets a long letter, sends back a postcard. Times are hard.”
James Taylor, “Mexico”

“We never even said a word. We just walked out and got on that bike. And we rolled. And we rolled clean out of sight.”
Bob Seger, “Roll Me Away”

“I started a joke, which started the whole world crying. But I didn’t see that the joke was on me.”
Bee Gees, “I Started A Joke”

“Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king and a king ain’t satisfied till he rules everything.”
Bruce Springsteen, “Badlands”

“The only baggage you can bring is all that you can’t leave behind.”
U2, “Walk On”

“No matter how close to yours another’s steps have grown, in the end there is one dance you’ll do alone.”
Jackson Browne, “For A Dancer”

There’s at least one person reading this and screaming, “Where are Bob Dylan and Neil Young?” Well, John, I figured that list was best left to you. In the meantime, perhaps the peanut gallery has other lyric suggestions. I’d love to read (and hear) them.