On the list of things I’d never have expected to be a witness to, Bruce Springsteen kicking off his first-ever show in South Africa with a rousing singalong of “Free Nelson Mandela” would have ranked pretty high if it had even have occurred to me put on the list.
But I was there, and it was an amazing, surreal experience–my first day of my first (and only) visit to South Africa, and a day of new discoveries and friends. I’ll always remember the days before the South Africa shows as much as I do the evenings–there’s something about new places that makes everything more vivid and detailed, and that held true for the concerts as well.
Even the songs I’d heard dozens of times live were fresh and exciting because they were new experiences for virtually everyone around me. What a gift it was to be in a crowd that was witnessing for the first time Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performing live.
The “arena” itself was strange–it was actually a velodrome, basically a giant bowl. It was really small (and you can see that if you check out the last video below), and Bruce compared it to Asbury Park’s Convention Hall. For this first show, I didn’t make the pit, but I was able to see directly over it with an unobstructed line of sight to the stage by standing off to the side along the edge of the “bowl.” The price I paid for standing and dancing on a steep incline all night: aching calves the next day. It was worth it.
Check out the videos, and you’ll feel the mood that held for the whole evening–an exuberant celebration. The crowd wasn’t quite sure what to do during some of the audience participation parts (“Spirit in the Night” was particularly funny–when Bruce asked the audience if anyone knew the question he was there to ask, he got responses like “I love you!” and “Italy!”) but they figured it out pretty quick on the subsequent nights. Hard to believe it’s been three years already…
