Bruuuce!!!

It really is hard to fathom that nearly 25 years has passed since I saw Bruce Springsteen at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. I was a student at the University of Southern California and the LA Sports Arena is located adjacent to the campus. This is not exactly the most desirable area which is why a block wall adorns the entire campus of USC. Since the concerts were so close to where I was at the time I did my best to see as many as I could. Bruce played seven nights in late October that year and I was able to see him on five of those seven occasions.

Yes, I was in college and certainly didn’t have the disposable income to pay for tickets so I did what any other “intrepid” college student would do; (since I think the statue of limitations have passed I will come clean!!) I snuck into the arena on several of those nights. There was one night where I was standing out in front of the Will Call window seeing if I could “score” some tickets at a discounted price. I took the very low key approach and would never ask someone unless they volunteered first so when an older gentlemen (most likely he was my age now!) came up to me and said “here have a ticket” I was dumbfounded. I asked how much and the reply was, “nothing, enjoy the concert you have good karma” (it was LA after all!) I did enjoy the concert those may have been one of the best seats I have ever had for any concert as they were on the floor but elevated above everyone dead center directly next to the sound technician. That was very cool and ever since I have been a huge Bruce fan. Oh by the way I would sneak in during the encores which lasted nearly an hour and a half so that was a major part of the concert.

I have seen Bruce a few times since then but those were indeed magical moments. As fate would have it Bruce’s latest tour brings him and the E Street Band back to the LA Sports Arena which is really a curious venue since presumably the much more modern Staples Center would be a better alternative. Nonetheless Bruce will be in Southern California in mid April for one evening. I spent most of the morning trying to obtain tickets for this event. Times have changed when purchasing tickets and it is much easier than in the past when the two most preferred methods were via telephone or waiting overnight at a Ticketmaster location. I have done this once and yes, it was to see Bruce and by the time we got up to the window the only tickets available were behind the stage. Now the preferred option is via the internet and it is nice to see where the tickets are located prior to purchasing.

The tickets went on sale at 10:00 am and I couldn’t get into the website until 20 minutes later which was to be expected. Prior to the LA show going on sale were many other venues and I happened upon the Glendale, Arizona venue. I noticed that there were seats available and these were floor seats. I did some research and discovered that there are no longer “seats” on the floor anymore. The floor has been swept clean of seats and is more like a “pit” than what I remembered. However; the tickets for the Glendale venue had seat numbers so I thought this would be different than the other locations.

I did get the tickets but soon discovered that these floor seats are the least desirable of any of the seats because there aren’t any seats. Bruce plays for at least three hours and most of his fans are my age and older so standing for all three hours is not exactly desirable. The taking away of the seats was an attempt to stop the preferential seating of the ticket agencies and may not have been the best way to solve this dilemma. Anyhow I was able to obtain tickets and yes, I realize we are not exactly in the best financial position to purchase these tickets but my zest in wanting to see Bruce did get the best of me. I doubt very much we will be able to take a road trip to Phoenix in the middle of baseball and softball season to see the concert which is I will most likely see the tickets.

I was hoping to obtain tickets for the LA performance but was unable to procure any tickets. I now have two tickets to the Glendale, Arizona performance and no tickets to the LA performance. Maybe I can trade the pair for the LA performance or it appears the “responsible” thing to do would be to forgo the concert altogether. Of course this will be decided in due time and the prospect of seeing Bruce one more time is wonderful but there needs to be a balance in doing what is proper.