The Springsteen Pilgrimage

For anyone who has made this pilgrimage, James Gillespie's story is all too familiar.

A bunch of us went down to East Rutherford for the August 31, 2003 show at Giants Stadium and took a little detour to what can only be described as a Springsteen fan's Mecca, Asbury Park.


First of all, it is not THAT close to New York but we managed to find it eventually and the first stop was the funhouse (glad we made it while it was still standing).


This was the first time I'd been there and was immediately blown away by the imagery -- songs actually coming to life. None moreso than this:

Madam Marie. It seemed so much bigger in the song.

Of course we followed the well-worn track down to the Stone Pony and had a pint, hoping for a glimpse of someone/something but all we saw was the bottom of our beer glass. This truly was the center of the Bruce universe:




We walked around, found a myriad of bars that had names like "Thunder Road" and made our way to the convention hall and the circuit and the casino -- all in rough shape. The streets were pretty deserted and the beach was empty.




And then it was, of course, time to head back to NYC to get to the show.


What a great day - the next time I'm down that way I will absolutely stop by his home town of Freehold...

For more pictures of this trip, head here.