Hola Lizards!

Last night’s Springsteen show was AMAZING. I’d never had the pleasure of seeing him live before, and I did it at a venue that holds less than 3000 people. I was on the floor, dead center, about three rows back from the stage. What an experience.

The first opening band was a small indie group from Rhode Island called The Low Anthem. They were really good. I’d never heard them before, but I liked them. Alejandro Escovedo played a set after them and was killer, as usual. Then, it was time for Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. WOW. Their reputation as a hell of a live band is more than well-deserved. I don’t know that anyone else will come close anytime soon.

The guests were interesting. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine came on stage and played for several songs, even singing a duet of “The Ghost of Tom Joad”. Jimmy Cliff showed up for three songs. During his SXSW keynote speech, Springsteen admitted that he’s a huge fan of The Animals and that Eric Burdon was his hero, and that “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” is every song he’s written for the last 40 years. When he said that, Springsteen’s Twitter feed immediately exploded with people saying that Eric Burdon was here in Austin for SXSW, so they managed to get him to join them on stage. And the final encore had Tom Morello, The Low Anthem, Alejandro Escovedo, Joe Ely, and members of Arcade Fire singing “This Land is Your Land”, since part of SXSW Music has been about celebrating Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday.

What an amazing, amazing experience. Killer show, killer band, and one hell of a night.