It can be a bit hard to focus on a concert when Rocky Balboa is rocking out in front of you. But that’s the risk when you catch a show in L.A., where the stars mix right in with the hoi polloi. (And yes, that’s Stallone actually taking photos of the crowd (you can see my arm circled), who were chanting “Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!” before the show, to which Sly mugged and waved and generally ate it up. It was charming.)
Anyway: the show.
But first, the venue: the LA Sports Arena was a dump, truly. It even proudly called itself “the dump that jumps.” By 2016, it was ancient by American arena standards, and it deserved to be torn down (which it was, shortly thereafter). The concessions were minimal, my seat was a folding chair on a riser, the few restrooms were basically communal horse troughs (at least the men’s room was), and there was so much concrete that a cell signal couldn’t begin to penetrate it, let alone a data signal. And yet: it’s hard to imagine a more fitting place for a Bruce concert, and not only because the original River tour stopped there 36 years prior.
The building was tall and steep, but not wide, so the crowd was pushed forward and intimate, and the energy in the room was off the charts. The acoustics were surprisingly great, and Bruce and the band clearly had a lot of fun playing the venue–every one of the 30+ times they played there. This was my first show at the Sports Arena, and I wasn’t surprised the building is about to be torn down. But it was one of the last of a dying breed of classic concert arenas, and you could feel the history made in that building.
Okay, now the show:
When Bruce plays multiple nights in one city, you know going in that the first night is going to be a pretty standard, safe, almost conservative setlist–in preparation for the surprises to come. So I went in expecting a standard show and wasn’t surprised the show was only three songs different from the prior show in Oakland. But what a difference three songs can make: Out with “Candy’s Room,” “Prove It All Night,” and “Growin’ Up“; in with “Wrecking Ball” (naturally, given the impending destruction of the arena), “Human Touch,” and “No Surrender“… and I’ll take that trade any day. If Oakland felt like an entirely retro show, LA1 was more balanced, and “Human Touch” in particular was a wonderful treat–I’d only seen that one live twice, and this was by far the strongest performance.
LA1 was a fantastic opener of a three night stand–and since this was the first multi-night stand of the tour, that meant we had two shows ahead of us and no idea what to expect in the post-album spots. We’d soon find out.
