So let’s talk about Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. But first I gotta take you back to 2002. It was a cold December when my mom decided to take me to my first concert ever. I wasn’t certain if it was her favorite band, or if it was just the man on stage she absolutely adored, loved, and probably stalked named “Bruce Springsteen”. Growing up, I knew she took trips to New Jersey to see him in Atlantic City, as well as here in Pittsburgh, or listened to him on WDVE and she was determined to take me to the Mellon Arena, and scalp two tickets to get us in the door. My mom, the trooper she was, broke her foot carrying a washing machine into our house that same month, I guess that means I had to help her carry the crutches and extra book bag. We walked around the good ole Mellon Arena for what seemed to be all day from 8am, a line of blankets started to show around the arena gate. I asked my mom, “why were the people sleeping in line?”. She said it was “to get in the pit.” So with no ticket, she said “we have to find someone to sell us theirs”, not knowing my mom took me to a SOLD OUT SHOW. A Security guard sees my mom hopping along and dragging me with her around the line and asks “If we were going to the show?”. My mom politely replied, “we're here to try and find tickets”. I don’t know if it was just our lucky day or what, cause he said “as long as we have these gold wristbands we can go into the pit. And you can tell Lil Steven I said Hello!” My mom throws her crutches to the ground and hugs this huge security guy, who hands us the wristbands! Crazy I know right?

Later that evening we were put directly at the barricade fence right in front of Bruce Springsteen's right hand man, Lil Steven Van Zant, E Street Bands guitarist! Then the house lights go out and a spotlight drops onto a full band of eight or more members as they walk onto the stage and it starts. “The Rising” a song/ album he wrote after the terrorist attacks on America that took place on 09/11/2001. It was my first real life song performance and the lights, him singing, sliding on his knees while playing the guitar with the rest of the band following through after yelling “1234!”I was hooked right into the show with my mom helping me sing every word and telling me when to wave or clap my hands. It was just absolutely insane when he got close to us the whole crowd would move towards him, then my mom had me hold onto the bars of the barricade and suddenly I felt a hand grab me, it was him! Bruce Springsteen himself shaking my hand like it was jelly while singing “Dancing in the Dark”, my mom was stoked! I was like "I'm not washing this hand!” It was super awesome! So a few songs later the whole band stops playing, takes a bow and then walks off stage. I asked my mom if the show was over and she replied they might play a few more and suddenly over my head a ton of Santa Claus hats were getting thrown onto the stage. Everyone there knowing it was a December show expected Bruce to play “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”.

Bruce comes out with an acoustic guitar and harmonica around his neck and says "we got a few more for you to play”, including "Thunder Road”, where Bruce played solo on his acoustic for it. Afterwards, he takes the harmonica off of his necklace and puts it in his pocket as the rest of the band ascends on stage wearing Santa hats and proceeds to play the best rock ‘n’ roll version of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. As I’m standing there in awe of all of this, Bruce Springsteen starts heading towards me again! As I'm making eye contact with him I can certainly say he got me in his sight. He approaches the barricade and gets down on one knee, reaches over the barricade, puts his own Santa hat on my head, and says “I want you to have this too” and gives me the harmonica he played “Thunder Road” on. My mom was in tears thanks to Bruce, and then he walked off stage. I think this has been a core memory of mine for the past twenty years. And it's one of the best times I ever had with my mom who passed away in 2008. She instilled in me that Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band are one of the best performances you could ever see in a lifetime.

And since that day, anytime Bruce Springsteen's name has been lit up in Pittsburgh Pa, Heinz Hall, PNC Park, Soldiers and Sailors Music Hall, Mellon Arena (Civic Arena), PPG Paints Arena (Console Energy Center), I have been in that building. Not only to celebrate the fandom my mom had, but to also continue her love for this man's music and his power to perform twenty-three plus songs at Night and Break Records like an astonishing 4 hour show at MetLife stadium in 2016. Or to be able to sell your entire music catalog for a fortune that exceeds $500million. Bruce Springsteen is a story teller that can tug on your heart strings and take you down alleys, highways, city streets and talk about “Junglelands” or simply being “Born in the USA” and you can feel like you were there in that moment. Or you know that person “Wendy” he's singing about personally. Or even he can talk about horrible times in our world today like his song “Streets of Minneapolis” that sheds light on the corrupt Trump DHS situation and murder of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Now with all of that being said, it's Tuesday May 19, 2026 over fifteen Bruce shows later and I am still here standing in the pit waiting for this 76-year-old Rock and Roll legend to notice me again. 

7:45pm the house lights go out and as always, like the very first core memory, the E St. Band walks out on stage and comes in last, Mr. Bruce Springsteen! He walks up to the microphone and says, “Good Evening Pittsburgh, I want to start this night off with a prayer for our Men and Women fighting for us overseas. We pray for their safe return. So the mighty E Street Band is here to call upon the righteous power of art, music, and Rock n Roll in dangerous times. We are here in celebration and defense of our American ideals, democracy, our Constitution and our sacred American promise. The America that I love, that I've written about for fifty years, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty around the world, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous administration. Tonight we ask all of you to join with us in choosing hope over fear, democracy over authoritarianism, the rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unbridled corruption, resistance over complacency, unity over division and peace over “WAR”!” The Temptations cover echoed through PPG Paints Arena and you can tell this is a different vibe, Bruce is pissed! He isnt rock n rolling to rock n roll, he’s doing it to say “fuck Trump here’s some free speech you cant stop!” But the setlist proceeds to be the same set as it was the past 7 shows, which is really unprecedented as Bruce is known for constantly swapping songs per show, with a twenty-one album catalog you gotta.

So it goes “Born in the USA”, which is about a disillusioned Vietnam War vet who was alienated after war, “Death to My Hometown” about the causes and fallout of the 2008 Financial Crisis, “Clampdown”, they covered “The Clash” with Tom Morello on lead vocals, “No Surrender”, “Darkness on the Edge of Town”, and then “Streets of Minneapolis” which paid tribute to the families of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. The set brought you down for a moment and then he would bring it back up with “Promise Land” as he gave another kid in the front of the barricade a harmonica. A tear was shed for that kids moment at the show as a core memory was just unlocked. “Two Hearts” and “Hungry Heart” kept the place moving and having a good time. The band proceeded to play twelve more deep cut songs acknowledging tales of tragedy, love, defeat, death, in the real hope for the last song of the first set to be “Land of Hope and Dreams”. The band then bows, the crowd chants for more, and Bruce tells the band to get back to the instruments, “we got a few more Pittsburgh”. He then plays “American Land” which is an immigrant song Bruce wrote with the Seeger Sessions Band in 2006, “Born to Run” which is obviously a Springsteen classic, and “Dancing in the Dark” where I started waving my hands with everyone else trying to dance like Cortney Cox. Then they played a tribute to former saxophone player Clarence Clemons by playing “10th Avenue Freeze Out”. Afterwards the house lights go up and Bruce starts walking through the crowd, handing out guitar pics to little kids who can't reach the stage and giving high fives to all that are near him! And yes I also got a high five from the boss himself! And I know my mom's spirit is somewhere out there enjoying my high five I got.

Bruce gets back up on stage and proceeds to thank Pittsburgh then says, “we got one more, after all of this I go back to thinking about Renee Good's final words before she died. To the man who she was protesting against, to the man who would take her life, she said “I’m not mad at you” God bless her. So tonight when you go home, hold your loved ones close and tomorrow try to do what Renee did: find a way to take aggressive peaceful action to defend our countries ideals. And as the great civil rights leader John Louis said “go out and get in some good trouble. Do something. Say something. Hell sing something if you're feeling helpless, hopeless, betrayed, frustrated, angry,” and I know I've been and that's why the E Street Band is here tonight. This is a Tour that was not planned. We're here tonight because we need to feel your hope and your strength, and we want to bring some hope and strength for you. And I hope we did that. All I can say is God bless Renee Good, Alex Pretti, all of you, and God bless America.” He walked up to the microphone and started Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom,” a song simply about weathering the storm, but also depicting the point of view of the underprivileged and indigent seeking freedom. The band bows and proceed to walk down the steps they came up a little over two and a half hours ago and Bruce waves his hands for a final goodnight and then leaves the stage.

Now my mind always races after every show to try and meet the man, the legend himself. So I hightailed it to 5th Avenue only to find this dude getting out of Dodge, I’m talking Elvis has left the building. Usually after a show he’d usually come out around midnight, but not this night. At 10:45 he was getting a police escort down Fifth Avenue. I heard lately in Springsteen news that guitarist Stephen Van Zandt said “this tour has been different because of the high security. It’s a very specific political theme to this tour and there've been a lot of threats, death threats. Usually there’s some but this time it’s been increasing. So Bruce beefed up security. It’s mostly just talk. And it’s not like we’re saying something that’s not true or we’re saying something that's so really particularly controversial, but it's specifically political. So the FBI and others have been really watching things and been overly concerned about it, as they should be. We want the fans to be safe and feel safe. So we really go the extra mile with extra security for that reason alone.” At the end of the night I didn’t feel like it was the last Springsteen show I’ll ever see. This man was pissed. He’s pissed about our president and how he’s running this country, how he’s treating our people, how he’s treating the American way, and how he’s treating our freedom of speech and disgracing others because of it like a childish, grown, orange, baby boy.

In closing, from age eleven to thirty-four with over fifteen shows later, I think Bruce Springsteen and the E St. Band are legendary, hall of fame, rock ‘n’ roll icons that have been in the game talking about politics through music in the late 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 10s, and now the 20s. Bruce isn’t there to tell you to vote left or right. He’s there as proof that freedom of speech can bring some peace and light into an evening of dark and unsure times in this world we live in today.