Heresy,off with his head. :-)

Actually,the feeling out here is that Bruce may be committing career suicide with his Bruce on Broadway Show.

Really? I haven't heard that perspective. Care to elaborate?

P.S.- This is totally related to OU since Bruce performed at the Convo in April of 1976.

Right you are! I knew that, brain fart!

Had a chance to see Petty in London at the Royal Albert Hall in 2012. One of our all time best concert experiences. Ranks right up there with McCartney in Madison Square Garden, Springsteen in the Meadowlands, Santana at Red Rocks and Pink Floyd at Blossom. The folks in England embraced Petty long before we did on this side of the Pond. WMMS in the good old days would be playing him all night long tonight.

I entered that process and while driving through upstate NY on vacation got the text that I was "in." Put in my preferred night (Wednesday before Thanksgiving - plan to be in town to see the 110 in the Macy's parade the next day) and bingo, two tickets in the 13th row center. Price was $750 each. Had to pass. On StubHub, people are now asking a minimum of $2300 for those seats.

Couple of things:

1.Again,going only from what I've read,Bruce sets the price.
He decided to charge the same as Broadway musicals.

2.When the first batch of BOB tickets went on sale,Backsreets.com put together a seating chart, based on input they got from people who had gotten tickets.
The chart showed the last 2 rows in the balcony @ $75.00.
So, at least for those shows,you could get $75 seats.
As far as I know,the $75.00 lottery is something like the Book of Mormon does, where they offer a few "good" seats at a lower prices.

3.According to the rumor mill,look for an HBO special like Billy Crystal did for his one man show.

4.As far Bono,I remember "Spider Man Turn Off the Dark".
But,that's a lot different than doing a one man show you wrote,directed and star in.

5.I don't know how huge Bruce is anymore,at least in the states.
The last couple of tours he didn't sell out a number of venues.
Although it did make road trips much more tempting.
Around here,tickets used to be impossible to get.
Starting with the Working On A Dream tour, tickets weren't hard to find.
In fact,for a number of shows,I was able to get tickets,below face.

Except for closing night,you could get tickets for the last few Giant's Stadium/Metlife tour shows up till the day of the show.In fact,there really weren't any "drops".You could walk up to the box office the day of the show and get tickets.

I think the people who want to have seen the "Greatest Hits" shows.That's how he ended The River tour.

Personally,I think that,unless Bruce can put out a really good album,something I don't know if he's still capable of,his popularity is going to go down not up.

1.Wrecking Ball isn't my favorite album.
I have a lot of boots and they have better versions of LOHAD,Wrecking Ball and American Land.

To me,Bruce's last great album was The Rising.

2.Metlife may have "officially" sold out but my wife and got tickets to every show on the last 2 tours there by going to the box office the day of the show.
There were also a lot of empty nose bleed seats.That could have been no shows.

3.Pru sold out fast.
So did the Garden.
But,you're talking about a couple of shows for the entire NY/NJ/Conn area.
Plus, at that time, there was no hint of a stadium tour.

Having to cancel the first Garden show for snow worked out great.
We got to download the Chicago concert for free.

4.No question about Bruce's worldwide grossing.
His shows outside the states sell out like the BITUSA days.
He's just not as popular back home,especially outside of the the 2 coasts and places like Chicago.

5.What remains to be seen is what direction he goes in after BOB.
Last week's NYT article did talk about a new album,but no details.
There was also talk of a follow up Seeger Sessions album/tour.
Just have to wait and see.

6.The other thing that will be interesting is what happens to ticket prices on the secondary market after the show officially opens.

I'm personally completely agnostic on this issue, because I know next to nothing about Springsteen. I have not kept up on the music scene since I left college, and I was not that much into it then, either. But, in reading this thread, I get the impression that the same is true of you (Del) and some others here. Your view of Springsteen is colored in a favorable direction because of his politics.

Might want to put away that 8 track player, OCF. Those of us who go back to the WMMS days of Springsteen like his work for what his work is. I'm not a huge lyrics guy - heck, one of my favorite songs is Maggot Brain - but Springsteen's stories much like those of Harry Chapin which is a totally different genre, tell the stories of Americans.

I was just kidding, hence the wink emoticon at the end. You definitely go back further with Bruce than I do, especially since I wasn't born until the late 80s haha. Of course his popularity isn't what it used to be though. That's just logical. I saw Paul McCartney two years ago. It was amazing and it was in front of a huge crowd, but I'm sure he was even better in his prime. Same goes for Bob Dylan, who I saw in June and thoroughly enjoyed. And I wouldn't compare Wrecking Ball to those other albums or any of them to each other. They're all unique and different experiences. Plus, I said WB is the best album of the 21st Century. BTR is probably the best rock album of all time in my opinion.

Del, not the first time I’ve been wrong, probably won’t be the last. I accept the correction.

I like that version of MTG. Very lively. It’s one I have on my iPhone, along with about 20 other versions, including one by Acker Bilk in jazz style. The OCMS version has only one negative in my mind: they changed a word in the second verse that destroys authenticity. But overal I really like that version.

Del,some interesting,at least to me,Bruce stuff.

1.I have an old video CD of the first time he played BTR in public.
The lyrics weren't finished, so he hummed some verses

2. I've got a boot of an early version of Thunder Road.
At that time it was titled "Wings for Wheels" and Angelina's,not Mary's,dress waved.

3.Bruce's popularity exploded after the BITUSA release.
He sold out 6 nights at Giants Stadium as fast as they could take the orders.
That was when they used an "open" stage so they sold seats for virtually the entire stadium.

My wife and I couldn't get seats to opening night,so we went to the stadium to try and score seats in the parking lot.
No luck,so the two of us,and about 100 other fans, sat in the parking lot,near the back entrance and listened.Sound was actually pretty good.
When he started the encores,they opened the stadium gates and let us go up to the stage area.

4.The BITUSA GS shows were pre 9/11 so security wasn't too bad.Mostly looking for cameras.
I do a lot of photography.
Using a few of my friends I was able to get a 35mm camera and a "long" telephoto into the stadium.
(Actually tested it out on a football field to determine settings)
Was able to get pictures from the back of the stadium that look like you were in the front row.

5.My all time favorite Bruce concert was Boardwalk Hall in A/C.
It wasn't a concert,it was an event.
All the casinos and restaurants were blasting Bruce onto the boardwalk.
He opened with Atlantic City and it got better from there.
Really weird walking back along the boardwalk,after the show.