September 20, 2003

The original venue for the Springsteen concert in 2003 was to be the Ralph.

They changed the venue a couple of months prior to the show, and suddenly we all needed to get to Darien Lake.

For some reason, Kathy decided we needed a limo to get there and so that was the plan. We had also bought the great seats for the show as an anniversary gift for each other (I paid the entire tab, of course)…

…but we were set up!

Kathy and I were about 8 rows back and 6 other people were sitting about 50 rows behind us.

Bruce opened the show with ‘Tunnel of Love’ which they don’t play all that often, and after the first or second song, Kathy said, “Give me your ticket stub. I’ll go get Jeff.”

Her plan was to go get one person at a time so they could all spend a little time in the close proximity to the stage.

One problem:

“I ain’t leaving,” Jeff announced.

John said the same thing.

In fact, he had tears in his eyes during ‘Badlands’.

And on and on the show went on.

‘County Fair’ is a song that had never been played before.

We saw it.

A good 3 hours in, someone tossed a silly Christmas hat on stage.

Bruce put it on, and then smiled broadly.

I had the feeling before he even struck a note.

“‘Rosalita!’” I yelled.

Bruce turned to Nils. Grabbed the mic and said:

“Wherever you may be, Rosie, come out tonight!”

When I close my eyes I can still see the glee on the faces of all the band members as they turned ‘Rosalita’ into about a 40-minute sing-along.

Hard to believe that 19 years have passed.

From the show where 8 of us spent the entire concert jammed into a spot where 2 people were supposed to be.

The entire crowd around us had just moved along to accommodate our entire group.

Only in Western New York.

Not saying it was the best show we’d ever seen but it was certainly in the top 5.