T5CE : Bruce Springsteen (27 July 1974)

Top 5 Concerts Ever : #2

Bruce Springsteen - Celebrity Theater - 07/27/74

Thanks to Google and the Internet, the exact date for this concert can be tracked down.

The concert took place more than a year before Bossamania hit the USA with the release of the album Born To Run. Springsteen had released two awesome albums so far - Greetings From Asbury Park and The Wild, The Innocent, & The East Street Shuffle. But he was largely unknown. Except in four cities - Philadelphia, Cleveland, (I forget the third), and Phoenix.

Phoenix was gaga over him, thanks largely to KDKB giving heavy play-time to those two albums. Originally, only one concert was scheduled for 27 July, but it sold out quickly, and a second one was added - on the same night. When's the last time you heard of a rock group doing two shows on the same night?

For those of you unfamiliar with Celebrity Theater, it is a small venue - maybe a couple thousand seats max. The stage is in the middle, and slowly rotates, which means every seat in the house is a great seat, although everyone at some time is looking at the back of the band.

The audience was stoked, stoned, and ready to rock. Bruce had his classic "East Street Band" line-up, including Clarence Clemons (sp?) on sax. And what a show it was! Solid, steaming rock-&-roll for two hours. I was at the early show, and to this day, I don't see how BS&tESB managed to have enuf energy for a second concert.

HIGHLIGHT : The opening number that night was the 60's rock/Motown classic - "And The (S)he Kissed Me". Its never appeared on any Springsteen album, but it left the whole audience with their jaws on the floor, and the band had us eating out of the palms of their hands for the rest of the night.

LOWLIGHT : The opening act was a folk singer named Danny O'Keefe, who did a 45 minute set of his songs, solo, and on acoustic guitar. I'm sure Mr. O'Keefe is a fine act, but the crowd was ready to party, not sink into reflective meditation on some thought-provoking lyrics.

We booed each song, and screamed for Bruce! About halfway thru the set, O'Keefe put down his guitar, took the mike, and said something like this :

"Look. I am being paid by Bruce Springsteen to do a 45 minute set of music. I am contractually-bound to do so, and indeed I will do so, whether you are booing me or not. All the screaming in the world won't bring Bruce out here one second earlier. Now you can boo if you like, but I am going to play my scheduled set anyway".

Of course, we booed that too. Now, 23 years later, I have to issue an apology to Danny O'Keefe for our inhospitable actions that night. Maybe I'll pick up a used Danny O'Keefe LP at Rockaway Records (now called 'The Rock Zone') as penance.