Umpy's report from the Road: Rochester & Buffalo

Well, he was there and boy our man Umpy was treated to two VERY fine shows. His report:

Our trip to see two more Bruce shows was in doubt after having received fifteen inches of snow in my hometown the day before we were supposed to travel. However, nor rain, nor sleet, nor snow will keep me from seeing a Bruce show.

It was a beautiful day in Rochester. A perfect day for "stalking". Bruce and the band arrived late, getting to the arena at 6:45 pm. Neither Bruce nor the band stopped to sign autographs.

Bruce and the band took the stage at 8:30. Bruce was in a very playful and excellent mood. He was joking and hamming it up for the capacity crowd as he was very loosy goosy.

The chair that Clarence had previously been using during the first leg of the tour has been replaced with a much more comfortable looking gold plated throne.

The Blue Cross Arena was built in 1955 and has a capacity of about 12,000 people. The quality of sound in the arena was fantastic. Bruce even commented on the arena by saying that older arenas are the best.

This was one of the best crowds that I have seen on the tour. Bruce commented on their enthusiasm after "Waiting on a Sunny Day" by telling them that "that was some of the best singing in the United States".

Aside from Bruce, Nils has been my personal highlight of every show. I do not know how much credit he gets as people seem to be infatuated with Clarence and Little Steven, but his work is very underrated. His performance during his solo during "Because the Night" is something to behold and listen to. It is truly amazing.

Both of Roy's pianos malfunctioned during "She's the One". The roadies were scrambling to fix the issue and finally rectified it about 3/4 of the way throught the song. This is not the first time that this has happened on the tour.

Every Bruce show always has some sort of OMG moment. Tonight's OMG moment was definitely "Rosalita". Bruce took a sign from a young fan, which said, "Roasalita Please", slowly turned it around to show the crowd, then leaned it against the microphone stand and then went into an audiblized version of ROSY has the crowd went nuts.

A personal bonus tonight was that Bruce didn't perform "Dancing in the Dark". It was replaced with "Jackson Cage" earlier in the show.

All in all this was a very strong show; a top 5 show that I have seen on this tour...so far.

Whereas Rochester had beautiful weather, It was a cold, windy and blizzardy evening in Buffalo as the city was being hit with a snow storm.

I realized early that The Buffalo show had a completely different crowd atmosphere to it. As I took my seat, the person sitting behind me asked if I was going to stand for the whole show. I told him "absolutely, this is a Bruce Springsteen show!!"

The side stage and rear stage seats were much further away from the stage than other arenas that I have seen. There were at least nine section of seats in the 300 level that were completely empty.

Bruce and the "biggest little bar band" in the land took the stage at 8:26 pm. Bruce was much more workmanlike tonight. It appeared that he had to work harder to raise the crowd's enthusiasm as compared to the previous night in Rochester.

Bruce performed seven songs which he did not sing the night before including an impromptu version of "Buffalo Gals". He started it acoustically and then instructed Suzie to join him on the violin. Shortly thereafter, they were joined by Nils and Max on the drums.

Tonight's OMG moment may have been the OMG moment of the tour so far as Bruce audiblized into a exceptional version of "The Detroit Medley". Who would have seen this coming? Certainly not me.

All in all, this may have been the best double shot of the tour so far.
I'll have to reflect and give it some thought as the two shows in Chicago very excellent.

As an aside, to date, I have heard sixty songs played at least once.
Hopefully there are many, many more to come.

Next stop...I am sick and tired of the winter and snow...I need some sunshine...Florida can't get here quick enough.