From: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org (LuckyTown Digest) To: luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Subject: LuckyTown Digest V9 #70 Reply-To: luckytown@luckytown.org Sender: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Errors-To: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Precedence: bulk LuckyTown Digest Sunday, August 18 2002 Volume 09 : Number 070 NOTE: Sale/trade posts should be emailed to luckytown-ads, *NOT* to luckytown. That includes tix wanted/tix grovels, post them to luckytown-ads, please. Contents: official European tour dates ["Kevin Kinder" ] Still #1 [Tom Ross ] Concert review on National Review Online [GoCart Mozart ] Detroit Rocks Too!!! ["Jason Crowley" ] Rising clips ["Shelley Stebbins" ] Cleveland and Detroit Rocked ["Jeff LeBlanc" ] change is now [jsavage@concentric.net (Johnny Saulovich)] MSG Sound [JZellers@dhhs.state.nh.us] FW: LuckyTown Digest V8 #96 ["Barnett, Karen (CSC)" ] GA lines need to be handled MUCH better ["Dave Miller" Subject: official European tour dates The European dates are now official from www.brucespringsteen.net : Oct. 14 Bercy, Paris Oct. 16 Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona Oct. 18 Palamalaguti, Bologna Oct. 20 Velledrone, Berlin Oct. 22 Ahoy, Rotterdam Oct. 24 The Globe, Stockholm Oct. 27 Wembley Arena, London ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 00:37:21 -0400 From: Tom Ross Subject: Still #1 Springsteen Remains Number One "The Rising" holds off Nelly, Eminem Greetings from the top of the charts After weeks of speculation about which guys with guitars were going to bring rock back to the top of the charts -- the Hives, Strokes, Vines -- it's one of rock & roll's elder statesmen who gave the genre a blockbuster. Bruce Springsteen's The Rising sold 239,000 copies in its second week of sales, according to SoundScan, for its second straight week at Number One. The tally gives Springsteen three quarters of a million units sold in two weeks, and a seller that might not be in the same league as hip-hop titans like Nelly's Nellyville (2.5 million copies sold) and The Eminem Show (4.5 million), but nevertheless one that dusts any rock album this year that wasn't released by the Dave Matthews Band. Speaking of Nelly, he's become something of the hip-hop equivalent of Smash Mouth, a soundtrack to the summer. After seven weeks of sales, Nellyville is holding tight at Number Two. Its sales, 208,000 last week, continue to drop, but at a considerably less acute rate than typical releases. The 208K it scanned last week, was only a decrease of 36,000. With Springsteen's sales receding at a faster rate, Nelly even stands a decent chance to leap back into the Number One spot next week. In addition to Eminem and Nelly's continued success, all four of the chart's biggest newcomers were hip-hop, or hip-hop-related albums. Former Geto Boy Scarface's The Fix jumped in at Number Four with sales of 160,000; Trick Daddy's Thug Holiday was Number Six with sales of 130,000; the half-hip-hop/half-rock XXX soundtrack nearly hit the Top Ten, at Number Eleven with sales of 76,000; and Project Pat's Layin' Da Smack Down bounced in at Number Twelve with sales of 68,000. Next week's chart entries are not likely to shake up the chart. James Taylor's October Road represents for the vets, while Bright Eyes' Lifted goes to bat for youthful indie rock. This week's Top Ten: Bruce Springsteen's The Rising; Nelly's Nellyville; Eminem's The Eminem Show; Scarface's The Fix; Now That's What I Call Music! 10; Trick Daddy's Thug Holiday; Linkin Park's Reanimation; Toby Keith's Unleashed; Avril Lavigne's Let Go; and the Dave Matthews Band's Busted Stuff. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 13:05:08 -0700 (PDT) From: GoCart Mozart Subject: Concert review on National Review Online There a good review of Bruce's recent concerts at National Review Online at http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-cherry081402.asp I think the author description of how the new songs work in concert is accurate. "The Rising" and "Lonesome Day" worked great live. "Waiting on a Sunny Day" is a good live song despite being a mediocre album track. "The Fuse" and "Worlds Apart" were only so-so. Did anyone else catch Big Man Clarence with the tiny finger cymbals on "Worlds Apart"? Man, that was a weird juxtaposition. After checking out the review, read some more of NRO. They have good commentary, although it is not Bruce's political point of view. Ken __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? HotJobs - Search Thousands of New Jobs http://www.hotjobs.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 20:08:50 EDT From: EliLehrer@aol.com Subject: Eric Alterman on Bruce in The Nation Eric Alterman has an interesting column on Bruce and recent criticisms in the media in the newest issue of The Nation. The piece is called "The Mayor of My Hometown" and is available online at: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i 020902&s=alterman ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 23:09:29 -0700 From: "Michael Stark" Subject: Dave Marsh examines Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" on WPMD On Saturday, August 24th, on WPMD on the Net , "Rock 50" with Mike Stark, will examine song-by-song the "The Rising" from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band with Dave Marsh. The program will air from 11am to 2pm (Pacific Time) on WPMD on the Net . For listeners in the Cerritos College Communities, in Southern California, it will air on WPMD 1700AM at various times throughout the day for those on their way to the Springsteen concert that night at the LA Forum. The show will also repeat at various times throughout the following week on WPMD on the Net , including Saturday, August 31st from 11am to 2pm (Pacific Time) Michael Stark mikestark@mikestark.net http://mikestark.net [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 07:31:48 -0400 From: "Michael Fleeter" Subject: Detroit Ticket Buying Experience - Day of Show This may help out some of you Luckytowners who got shut out for tix. I wanted to go to the Detroit show, but I could not justify spending $172 for tickets when they went on sale. Once my finances cleared up a little, there were only behind the stage available. So yesterday, the day of the show, I surfed to the Ticketmaster website at about noon to check for a ticket drop. Not only were there General Admission Floor available, but I was able to purchase 2 tickets, 7 rows up on the side, in section 101. I picked them up at Will Call, and I was overjoyed with the quality of these seats. These were not side stage, they were in the first section over, in front of the stage. So for those of you in high demand markets, you may want to check out the Ticketmaster website or outlet the day of the show. In a related note, I called a friend of mine at 2pm, and he tried the same thing, but the website was not selling tickets anymore - only the outlets were open. I hope this helps someone get tickets to one of the sold out shows. - --Mike _________________________________________________________________ Join the world's largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 16:07:07 -0400 From: "Douglas W. Corkhill" Subject: Into the pit Some folks have asked about GA, when to get there, how it works. I queued in DC and talked with some folks in NJ and can offer these observations. You will need to get in line earlier on weekends than on weekdays. This is an older crowd, most folks are working and will get to the show as soon as they can after they get off work, or leave a bit early. In NJ you could have been in the first 300 at 4:00 in the afternoon. In DC I was number 97 at 8:00 am. I think the line will also get longer earlier in the urban arenas where there is not a big parking lot scene. The lot was huge in Jersey and folks hung out, tailgating during the afternoon. In DC, there was nothing to do once you got to the arena except get in line. The fans at the front of the line usually run a list. There seem to be some folks who went to a lot of the U2 shows last tour seeing Bruce, and they know the drill. Go to the front of the line, get your name put in the book, go to your place in line and meet the folks around you. Get to know your neighbors. No one wants to see line jumpers, so look after one another. You don't have to be in the line every minute once you get there. Early in the day there is a roll call every two hours; later on it becomes each hour. About mid day your number is written on your wrist in magic marker, and checked during roll call. Miss a roll call and your name is crossed off the list. I moved up nine places between 8 am and 4 pm. At about 4 pm the last roll call is done and you line up. The next two hours you spend watching the potential line crashers snake by. There is this one guy, about 50, balding, nicknamed the Weasel because he gets there every show late and weasels his way into the line and into the pit. I didn't see too many others crash the line. You get two wristbands going in; one for GA, the second for the pit. Once you get in to the pit and folks get settled you can leave and return. I was on the front row, turned and very pointedly said to the guy behind me "I'm going to go pee and get some water. Stand here in my spot until I get back." I went and he moved back when I returned. Folks are pretty civilized. There is just a little bit of pushing, but not much, once the show starts. If you are on the wings the first time Bruce comes out that way be ready for the crowd to surge forward. Other than that, everyone is pretty cool just to be so close. I had fun hanging out all day with other folks, the time went by quickly, and now I have some terrific memories. A few random comments concerning some other posts: Steve hands his mandolin to a fan in the front row at the start of Glory Days and then, just before the solo, gestures for it to be tossed up to him. It's kind of cool to see his mandolin come flying up out of the crowd. I don't think THE guitar has been refinished. The grain on this one is different. I think THE guitar has been retired. Has anyone seen it yet? Wasn't someone a guitar tech during the rehearsals? The 'hieroglyphics' on the back of his shirt in DC were the two characters that spell Japan. If you haven't seen this show with Two Hearts in it please don't say Bobbie Jean should be retired. It was sooooo much better. And finally, Amy Winston (if you're reading this far), don't ever change. Doug ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 12:15:30 -0400 From: "Jason Crowley" Subject: Detroit Rocks Too!!! Hi all, I must admit, I had concerns regarding the Detroit show. After all, the number of tix that were readily available on the LTD and at Ticketmaster was alarming. The interest did not appear to be there as there was in other cities. Secondly, I felt that of the eight shows I saw on the Reunion Tour, the Detroit shows were the weakest...partially due to a weak crowd. To say the least, I had concerns.... that the new material would not be as well received, and that the crowd would not be into it...boy was I wrong!! After reading reviews on LTD from the first three shows, it was obvious that the shows were coming together with each performance. On Wed night in Cleveland, I witnessed it first hand, and after last night....believe me, this train is gaining speed very quickly. The setlist stayed the same as the previous few shows, except the beginning of Mary's Place included a verse from "Dancing In The Streets", and included the line "Can't forget the Motor City". Other than that, surprises were few. Bruce appeared very loose and judging by the way he hammered the strings on his telecaster, was ready to go from the opening lines of The Rising. From the start, the crowd was in a frenzy, and the intensity only seemed to increase as the show went on. The sound again was excellent, as was the band. Faith was definitely rewarded!! Thunder is rollin' down this track...all aboard Waiting for Toronto tix to go on sale....Jay [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 09:52:13 -0400 From: "Shelley Stebbins" Subject: Rising clips Saturday, August 10 I was NOT in DC at the show, but instead had tickets to the Yankees-A's game at Yankee Stadium. At the start of the game and 2 more times throughout the game, clips of the song "The Rising" were played. It was great because so many people started "BRUCCCING" when they heard it. Unfortunately, the Yanks lost 8-0. Also, in the Star-Ledger is a note about several Yankees players not taking the team charter plane to Kansas City yesterday (Monday). Seems they received special permission to fly to KC today (Tuesday) so that they could attend the Bruce Springsteen concert at MSG last night. So... which Yankees were at MSG last night? Shelley [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 09:57:59 -0400 From: "Jeff LeBlanc" Subject: Cleveland and Detroit Rocked Wow...what great shows. Arrived at Gund arena 2pm and got stamped #225 for the pit. Crowd organized by a fan- everyone respected the number system and 300 or so of us got into gund by 6pm. The pit is not deserving of its name. What a great experience. Being touched several times by Bruce as he worked the main floor crowd. Getting a direct point and "how are ya?". Really neat. Been a fan since 78. Cleveland really does rock. Crowd was on its feet all night- even way up in the risers. What a great city- flannerys...hello to the NYC polic officers, the ladies from Jersey, and the Cleveland 11 pm news anchor (there for the show not for the news)who used my cell phone to make a call...fun to talk to the group from Italy, and the elderly man from Germany with his granddaughter- he decided to keep his floor seat- got in the pit and really enjoyed himself. The ladies from Johns Hopkins- did you have fun?? Drove back home to Detroit with buddy john and got ready for the Detroit show. Scored GA seats at 1230, got 15 year old daughter in the van and immediately drove to the Palace. We were stamped 123 and 124 at 230 pm. Got in the pit in Detroit. I first started listening to Bruce as a HS Sophomore, my daughter gets her rock and roll baptism going into her sophomore year- how fun. She gets a deliberate double finger point and touch of the hand from Bruce. The crowd was great in the pit in Cleveland. Very calm- no pushing... Detroit pit was a bit tighter...I wouldn't say pushing but there were a few times when we had to hold ourselves as the crowd swelled forward- but it was fine. Other than the 50 year old guy that asked me and my 15 year old daughter if Detroit partied (referring to pot) the event was great fun. He later profusely apologized to me, saying he didn't realize she was so young...but did find his pot and was smoking it on the floor- oh well!! Finally- just got a call from a friend...My daughter Katie is on the front page of the Detroit Free Press Lifestyles section next to the heading: Fans in their glory as they await the boss!!! What a blast!! Jeff LeBlanc, Realtor Century 21 Riverpointe www.c21jeff.com jeff@c21jeff.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 17:02:40 -0700 From: jsavage@concentric.net (Johnny Saulovich) Subject: change is now After scanning recent LTDs, it's evident: change is difficult. Bruce Springsteen is alone among his peers in making a very deliberate effort to remain an honest, relevant and viable artist. Yet it seems this sentiment is finding major resistance amid the presumed "hard core" who populate this email digest. How sad. The old songs will always have their place, and in performance they may still speak to us, but what's happening right now is The Rising. Bruce's outstanding new tunes, and how they evolve and resonate in concert, is what this tour is about. It's 2002, not 1980. He's well past 31 and I'm no longer a teenager. If I want pure nostalgia, I can turn my credit cards towards the Who, Big Star, the Rolling Stones, Television, Cheap Trick and scores of other 50+ musicians who have found the pull of taking the easy route too strong. It's tough enough that Bruce has to fight through the preconceptions of his band, management, media critics and the average fan. To learn that many here detest his desire to remain vital, not to mention a slight scaling back of the length of the live set, is incomprehensible and repugnant. Johnny Albany, CA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 13:06:49 -0400 From: JZellers@dhhs.state.nh.us Subject: MSG Sound I was behind the stage, somewhat "off center" and up from the stage a bit - section 318 - for the show at MSG. I was very surprised that the sound was superb, especially after what I thought was horrible sound during the "reunion" tour (at multiple venues). For example, I think if someone had gone to the show not knowing any of the words, they wouldn't have had a problem with understanding the large majority of them. In addition, I never felt a need to turn down the volume, something I did during the reunion tour many times (i.e. by putting cotton or plugs in my 53 year-old ears). The sound at MSG was plenty loud. It's just that it was not distorted or painful at all. There was also very minimal "mud" in the mix. By that I mean primarily that the bass (or other low frequencies) did not get in the way of the music. The bass drivers did, however, get overloaded at times; and one certainly could not hear much pitch definition at all from Gary! (i.e. the low frequencies were just there, in a diffuse sort of way) There was plenty of "punch" from Max's drums when needed, though. All in all, excellent sound from a rock concert. I was extremely, and very pleasantly, surprised. I'm very curious to hear what other people who were at MSG thought of the sound - and where you were sitting. I'm curious about the other venues as well; and I appreciated hearing from John Leopold that the sound in DC was horrible (not that I was happy you had bad sound, mind you!). Hopefully Jon Landau, et al read some of these posts, and would appreciate this kind of feedback as well. Thanks for your thoughts/reactions. John p.s. For what it's worth, I'm in the "camp" of people who greatly enjoyed the new stuff. I was personally happy Bruce played as much of it as he did. p.p.s Thank you, Bruce, for asking for quiet during the quieter songs. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 18:25:36 -0400 From: "Barnett, Karen (CSC)" Subject: FW: LuckyTown Digest V8 #96 In migrating to a new mail system I've been cleaning up old messages and file folders. Last September I fell way behind on my digests because I just didn't care about them. I kept them filled and forgot about them. I just read the first digest sent out after 09/11/01 and found this very prolific message about how the events of that horrible day will effect Bruce's music. I only included part of the message below. I hope that Paul is still on the list and enjoys knowing that his innocent little question ended up being answered by one of Bruce's best albums ever. karen Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 09:26:58 -0400 From: Paul Schattel Subject: Bruce and the NYC tragedy Hello. Weirdly enough (but, I suspect, like many of you), my thoughts turned to Bruce after I heard about the WTC tragedies. What was he thinking about this stuff? I remember his reaction to the LA riots, and found myself wishing I could hear his opinion on this new tragedy. Sadly, I couldn't (and still can't) help thinking that the devastation might affect Bruce's plans for any new work. [application/ms-tnef attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2002 14:57:31 -0500 From: "Dave Miller" Subject: GA lines need to be handled MUCH better It's time for the Springsteen camp to personally take control of the general admission lines throughout the day of the show. The venue officials at the Palace in Auburn Hills could not have been more clueless about the GA lines. At 3:30 a.m., a buddy and I were the first to arrive to start the long wait. A list was started a couple hours later and the early arrivers introduced themselves to a few venue workers, who to a person looked at us if we were speaking a foreign language when inquiring about the GA procedure. The trouble started when the 20 or so people in line were chased off the property by Palace security by threats of arrest at 8:30 a.m. We were told we weren't allowed to come back until 4 p.m. The whole group of fans moved to a nearby Shell gas station to form some sort of plan to maintain the integrity of the line. An hour or so later, newly-arriving fans were starting another list and lining up on a patch of grass running along the highway bordering the outskirts of the Palace. Caretakers of the original list, Ted and Todd, soon met with the second group and thankfully the lists were combined to honor a first-come, first-served order. Meanwhile, the Shell kicked us out of its lot so we moved our cars down to a BP gas station. Finally, a pizza place next door allowed us to park in its lot for a few hours before asking us to leave. During the four-plus hours of waiting dangerously along the highway in the afternoon, the GA line heard a new story about how it would be handled every half hour from a venue official. A couple fans reportedly bribed the head of security for the line to be treated more reasonably, but that eventually amounted to nothing except for the supposed firing of the head of security. [ To clarify, the bribe was solicited by Palace security. - KVK ] Thank goodness at least a fan didn't get hit by a car as people ran back and forth across the highway all day moving their cars, checking in the line, getting something to eat, finding a bathroom, etc. Thankfully, a young security guard named Chris did everything he could to make sure the line was upheld and we were treated fairly. List organizers Ted and Todd deserve a ton of credit for keeping everyone in line and working beyond the call of duty to stay on top of the situation. And the fans all did each other and Springsteen's music proud by looking out for one another during an unsure day. We were finally allowed to park in the Palace lot at 3:30 p.m. and allowed to form a line at a side entrance. That isn't to say the trouble ended there. For some reason, Palace security disappeared completely from the line from 5 p.m. to the time we were finally let in after 6 p.m. Scammers started wandering into the GA waiting line area and that of course just made everyone who had been waiting all day more anxious and nervous. When we were allowed inside to receive wristbands at a row of tables, Palace workers continued to be clueless. Some took tickets and handed back only the small stub with the bar code, which needed to be scanned to pass through the turnstiles. Some incorrectly kept the small stub with the bar code, therebye causing fans difficult when passing trying to pass through a turnstile. (Some fans were mad we weren't allowed to keep the main portion of the ticket as a souvenir. This is the only show I've attended where you couldn't do this.) I thought GA ticket holders would be escorted to the floor once we received our wristbands. Wrong! We were left to fend for ourselves against a crowd of reserved ticket holders who was already in line at the turnstiles in the lobby. As I quickly tried to find the shortest line, some GA ticket holders did the smart thing and forced their way to cut in front of the line of reserved ticket holders. Those people made it into the pit first. I was first in GA line outside the Palace, but was about the 20th fan to enter the pit. One girl who finally made her way into the pit was in near tears after a Palace official insisted on taking her entire ticket before giving her her wristbands, which caused her to temporarily be held up at the turnstile. Auburn Hills doesn't appear to be the exception. I've heard and read reports that the GA line in D.C. was a fiasco where some fans feared for their safety, and that Madison Square Garden wasn't run smoothly. That makes problems with the GA lines at three of the first five shows. This is inexcusable. Why can't the Springsteen camp personally oversee the GA lines? It's clearly not nearly enough to simply tell venue officials what should be done. From numerous personal experiences, many venue officials either don't care about the fans or are simply incompetent or both. It's naive to think the fans will be treated fairly and the GA lines will be run smoothly by leaving it up to the venue. The Springsteen camp can certainly afford to pay someone to control the line with a typical show grossing in the neighborhood of $1.5 million in ticket sales. The new GA policy makes fans jump through hoops to see the show up close. That's fine. I'm willing to pay the price. Can someone in the Springsteen camp please make sure the fans are treated safely and fairly while we wait? Rave on, Dave Miller P.S. Thanks again to fans Ted and Todd and security guard Chris for overcoming the obstacles at Auburn Hills. Your help was very much appreciated by all of us waiting! I'd love to hear from anyone who I talked with in line throughout the day. _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com ------------------------------ End of LuckyTown Digest V9 #70 ****************************** ********************************************************************* ** LuckyTown WWW URL ** The LuckyTown FAQ, back issues, web-based subscription/unsubscription, and many other things can be found on the LuckyTown WWW Page: http://www.luckytown.org ** LuckyTown mailing list addresses ** You can send email to go into the next LuckyTown Digest to: luckytown@luckytown.org You can send email to go into the next LuckyTown-Ads Digest to: luckytown-ads@luckytown.org Any questions for the list admin should be emailed to: owner-luckytown@luckytown.org To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@luckytown.org with message body: unsubscribe luckytown-digest To get further information on how to subscribe/unsubscribe/change your subscription address, as well as the other available commands, send email to majordomo@luckytown.org with message body: help ********************************************************************* The contents of this digest are not necessarily approved by the list admin.