Bruce Springsteen Concert

11-21-12 holiday brain

Thanksgiving weekend has arrived and I am looking forward to some family time.

Since I wrote about my experience at Madonna's concert in late October, I think it only fair to write about my experience at Bruce Springsteen's concert last weekend...... night and day difference!

Bruce started his concert 2 hours earlier than Madonna, and he played for 3 hours instead of Madonna's two.... plus his tickets where less expensive. Of course there was a difference in staging.... nothing fancy for Bruce, but he did have a larger E Street Band.... I especially enjoyed the large horn section.

Bruce's music has been a part of my life since 1975...... and covers every decade since then. He sampled music from every decade in a very satisfying way, playing about 25 songs and even included "Santa Clause is Coming to Town".... well it is the season!

In summary.... BEST CONCERT EVER!  Bruce still rocks in his 60's. This inspired me to know that I need to keep moving and keep rocking and rolling myself!

Here is a good review with more details if you are interested.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/18/3923428/springsteen-gives-the-faithful.html


Happy Thanksgiving!

MADonna in Concert 2012: "What was that?"

11-2-12 "still scratching my head" brain

I was a big Madonna fan back in the 80’s, so it made perfect sense for Greg to get us tickets for her concert in KC which fell on my Birthday. I was excited since I never  thought I would have a chance to see her live. Friends are asking me now…. “How was the show?”….. so HERE is what I have to say about it.

Madonna, at age 54, still “has it”…. But sadly, I’m not buying “it” anymore…. Maybe because I’ve aged too- BUT in a different way than Madonna.

 I’ve been working up a scathing review of the concert in my head over the last few days, but now I’ll back off a bit…. Since I think I need to own up to the fact that I probably went  into the concert with unrealistic expectations. I was hoping for, and looking for some fun 80’s music escapism. After all, Madonna’s music represents “good times” to me and I still often play her top hits when I am looking for a positive boost of energy. I love dancing and exercising to many of her songs.

More realistically, I should have expected that Madonna would be trying to stay fresh and relevant by creating NEW music and the concert would focus on her new music. But gee- you’d think she could have worked in a few more of her top hits. AND I ask you, shouldn’t I have been able to expect the show to start sooner than 10:30PM since the time on my ticket stated 8:00PM? Good grief….. how rude to keep your fans waiting that long…. Or course the fact I had a head cold didn’t help my mood much either.

Long story short: Her NEW music didn’t appeal much to me at all- and I think that is what disappointed me the most. Sure the whole stage production and dancing was awesome, but the content was too violent for my taste. Give me back the sexy Madonna any day.  Right from the start, Madonna was carrying an assault rifle and sang some song about shooting her boyfriend in the head. The video screen was splattered with blood.

My real disappointment came from wondering what happened to the Madonna of the 90’s who was studying the Kabbalah- Jewish enlightenment.  At her age, I was expecting Madonna to have grown in wisdom and able to understand  her power to influence the world in a positive way.  Unfortunately Madonna is still stuck in her narcissistic, ego-based material world, reflecting the world....... rather than CREATING a new positive movement to CHANGE the world for the better . 

I later read that theme of the show as: “a journey of the soul from darkness to light”…..  and her concert ended in an uplifting gospel version of “Like a Prayer”…… some of us didn’t stay around for the end of the 2 hour show to experience the “light”….. instead I left confused and depressed by what I experienced.

As one couple leaving at the same time as we did (midnight)- they asked us….. “what was that?”  I shook my head unable to come up with an answer.

The KC Star Review gave the concert a more positive review than I, however a few others who posted on their blog seemed to agree more with me:

“It could have been a good show but she played way too many unknown songs and concentrated on everything but the music” - Clint

"The dancing was great, the music was terrible. I’m sure she gets tired of performing her hits from the 80’s and 90’s, but that is what most of us want to hear” JB