In July of 2022, while in Wilton, CT visiting friends and family, I was able to get 4 tickets to the second show of Bruce’s tour. It would be in Atlanta, GA, closest venue to our new abode in SC. (I got 4 as Tori had said she was interested in going as well)…so on Thursday 2/2 Sue and I headed further on up the road with excitement. Tori and Paul were flying in and we were going to dinner that night, the show was the next night and then we had another dinner planned for the last night of the mini trip.

The drive to Atlanta was very easy, (my GPS did reroute me the last 2 miles due to a major kerfuffle on I-75 right as we were coming into town), we checked into a very mediocre hotel with a King room that would have only been truly King if you were in Lilliput. We tried to get actual wine glasses or even anything that was not disposable coffee cup type so we could enjoy the wine we brought along. Eventually, even though we needed 4 (and there was a full bar at the hotel) we “scored” 2 and Tori and Paul ended up using the one glass that was in the room (yup, ONE glass) and another stemless that mysteriously was brought along with the wine glasses. Chris and Shelby (who live in the East Lake area of the ATL) met us for dinner and the company was wonderful (the meal…somewhere between mediocre and ok…but priced way above that). Sleep was not our friend that night, and the next day after wandering around some shopping area, we got back to the room and I did get a little time to rest (no sleep but did recharge)…a pre show HH led us up to where we were leaving to head to a Pub near the arena (we were only a few minute walk from everything), the pub was PACKED so we ambled down a block down to a Margaritaville and after a 40 minute wait had exactly what you would expect from them for dinner…(now the irony of it is that the last time we saw Bruce live was at the Mohegan Sun and we also had dinner at the Margaritaville there). And then we headed to State Farm Arena…found our seats and not too much later the first notes to “No Surrender” hit the air…

I have been incredibly lucky to have seen so many great shows over the years ranging from Doo-Wop to Frank Sinatra to Meatloaf, to Pavarotti, Linda, JDSouther, Eagles, Jimmy Buffet, Sting, Allman Brothers, and on and on but there is one absolute truth…Bruce Springsteen is, without even a close second, the greatest live performer I have ever seen! His shows are are like a controlled but runaway roller coaster at a revival meeting. There are truly no words to paint the picture that must be experienced to understand. You could feel the pent up energy he had from the years of lockdown and it was an explosion of joy from the stage and back to the stage from “the faithful”. While I was hoping for some different songs that were not on the setlist it didn’t matter…what he played he played flawlessly. For me the holy trinity on any setlist is She’s the One, Rosalita and Jungleland….he played 2 of the 3 (alas, Jungleland was the one missing)…however he did play The Rising, maybe the most emotionally charged song in his catalog for those of us who’ve been through that time. The E Street Band is so incredible, it’s as if they are all attached together by an unseen umbilical cord. While Clarence’s presence is missed, he’s always hovering in the air. Jake Clemons is now playing Clarence’s actual sax and that adds a depth to his playing that was missing from early tours when he was using his own horn.

As is fitting, the show ended with Bruce, solo, with an acoustic guitar and a newish song…For close to three hours he raised us up and gently lowered us back to earth to walk back to the hotel in the afterglow. As tired as we were, we did stop for a bit of libation at the hotel (along with seemingly half of the folks who had been at the show) and the following day had a great dinner at Ray’s in the City (the best meal of the weekend by far)…

Sunday morning, Tori and Paul headed to the airport and Sue and I drove back…but….there was a stop on the way…Macon, GA and “The Big House”….the home that the Allman Brothers Band used as their base of operations when starting out (and for a long time after)…I almost decided to not make the stop and that would have been one of the things I would have regretted…

I have been listening to their music since 1971….yup, over 50 years and that amounts to about 72% of my life. There was something both magical and surreal about being there…The “Big House” is anything but…it’s actually not much larger than our former home in CT, and when you think about how many folks lived and worked there it is kinda funny. To be able to stand in the same rooms they played in, to see (and yes occasionally touch) some of the things that produced music I listened to this very afternoon while on a walk. To read correspondence, see some of the clothes (they were really, really skinny and tiny gents) and just take in the air was almost an out of body experience for me…(no I’m not being overly dramatic it’s exactly how I felt)…To see the picture of Elizabeth Reed, the real person was great. [I did decide not to go to Rose Hill Cemetery to see Duane’s, Greg’s, Berry’s and yes, Elizabeth’s graves as I was not feeling all that well but that didn’t take away from the experience at all]

The way I can positively state that Bruce is the best live performer I’ve ever seen, I can also state that the Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore album is the best live music album I’ve ever heard (and holds up after 50+ years as if it was recorded yesterday ) so it was fitting that it closed down what was a wonderful experience.

Rosie did come out Friday night and we found that there a’int but One Way Out…