| rev:text
| - It was supposed to have been a one-time thing, wasn't it? You know, a single two-night stand of a collaboration between an international music star and a local favorite. Wasn't it only a year ago that these two combined at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall for an electrifying night of music?
So when it was announced that on November 4, 2011 Bruce Springsteen would be again joining his old pal Joe Grushecky (and the Houserockers) on the very same stage, I viewed it with some trepidation. After all, sequels usually suck don't they? Either that or Part II is never quite as good as Part I. Right? So I thought as my friend Marla and I entered the concert hall.
And I might add we might have very well bought the last two tickets available for the show because we were w-a-y in the back. But hey, it's a 2700 seat venue so even the last row is pretty good.
Our fears were for naught. Gurshecky/Springsteen 2011 was every bit as good as the 2010 version!
The show began with Johnny Grushecky's (Joe's son) band The Composure. I don't know their material at all, however Bruce got up on stage and joined them in an impromptu version of "Dancing in the Dark". Bruce then went into an acoustic solo set of "For You", "Land of Hope and Dreams", on which he played acoustic guitar and harmonica, and "I'll Work For Your Love". Now think about it, if you're a local band like Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers, how do you take the stage after a lovely set like that? And are you up to the challenge?
Well Joe and the boys sure were! They went into "Everything's Going to Work Out Right" followed by "Swimming With the Sharks" before going into a Bruce song, "Atlantic City". The rest of the evening was spent going back-n-forth between Springsteen & Grushecky material, including "Code of Silence", "Glory Days", "Never Be Enough Time", "Because the Night", "Talking to The King", Joe and Bruce dueting on "Fire", and my own favorite--the Springsteen-penned, Grushecky-recorded "Homestead" ("I heard all 'bout the 12 hour shifts in the mill/And our union brothers the Pinkertons tried hard to kill/Heard about Frick & Carnegie the day the river ran red/And how the union caved in in Homestead")*
As the newspaper said, "Many bands can replicate the Springsteen oeuvre note-for-note, but the Houserockers are probably the only band outside the E Street Band who get the subtle nuances of the material without drowning in parody".
All in all it was another terrific night of music. Will they return for 2012? We can only hope.
From last year's show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8C9zodJgc0
And this year's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2oLIefx8ks
*Note--both of my grandfathers worked in the mills so I think that's why this song resonates with me. And yes, I am very pro-labor and pro-union!
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