Let’s address the controversy right off the bat:<\/p>\n
It’s almost impossible to anoint a “best show ever.” Besides the inherent subjectivity of the reviewer, unless you were actually at “every show ever,” you can’t expect to speak with authority when you declare the king of the heap.<\/p>\n
That said: I have yet to meet someone who was at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis on August 23, 2008 and doesn’t consider it the absolute apex of Bruce’s 21st century shows.<\/p>\n
But also: I’ve met people who’ve looked at the setlist and listened to the official archive series recording and thought, “meh.”<\/p>\n
So what can I tell you, except: I was there, I was in awe from the get-go, and I knew with absolute conviction that this was a show for the ages by the time we were nine songs in–and the show wasn’t anywhere close to cresting.<\/p>\n
I’ll admit to something else as well: I was in a foul mood before showtime. My decision to attend the last two shows of the Magic Tour was almost a lark. I thought I was done after the Pacific Northwest swing earlier that year, but by this point, I’d been setlist watching for six years, and I knew Bruce’s penchant for busting open the setlist during the last few weeks of a tour. None of my friends wanted to go with me, so for the very first time, I took the leap and traveled by myself across the country from Seattle on pure faith that I’d have a great show and wouldn’t regret it.<\/p>\n
The travel itself was smooth, but on the day of the show, luck threw me a curveball: I lost the GA lottery and missed the pit–by a LOT. I’d been playing the pit lottery for a few years, and I’d had an incredible streak of luck–I hadn’t lost even once. But there were more people on-hand for this lottery than I’d ever seen–clearly word was getting out more effectively–and I was faced with being pretty far back on the floor. So I did something I’d never done before: I bought a seated ticket from a scalper and caught the show from a pretty decent lower level seat. (From that point forward, I’d always protect myself with a seat as “insurance” insurance when trying for the pit–I’ve always been able to resell it if I needed to.)<\/p>\n
So yeah, I wasn’t in a great mood before the show: I’d spent more money than I’d planned to, and I’d been spoiled for so long that I hadn’t even considered the possibility that I’d be shut out on the floor. But then, while I was stewing about my rotten luck, I noticed we could hear the sound check… and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing:<\/p>\n