Watch: Bruce and Billy rock for Barack
After spending the last two weeks hitting the road for a number of free shows in support of his candidate of choice, Bruce Springsteen teamed up with Billy Joel yesterday evening for the fairly expensive “Change Rocks” benefit concert at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom. As one would expect when two rock legends get together, the night’s festivities appeared pretty memorable. After John Legend kicked things off with a cover of U2’s “Pride” The Boss went the acoustic route for a rendition of “The Promised Land” before being joined by Billy for a number of stunning performances, including Tenth Avenue Freeze-out” and “New
York State of Mind”.
As for the main event, Bruce described it as a historic meeting of New Jersey and Long Island, suggesting (as you might imagine from this old demi-rivalry) that it wasn’t the smoothest of collaborations: “I like to rehearse, Billy doesn’t.” He went on to joke that the whole affair was somewhat Palin-esque: “A lot of last-minute cramming and confident presentation… faking it like you really know what you’re doing, but you don’t. Hopefully no one will leave the room screaming like in rehearsals!”
If like us, you were one of the unfortunate ones left out of the unique performance, whether because you didn’t have an extra 10k to spare or your bank account was recently all but clear by recent Smashing Pumpkins ticket purchases, the wonderful world of YouTube has your back.
The fine folks at Backstreets have clips of “Spirit of the Night”, “New York State of Mind”, “Born to Run”, and Barack’s on stage appearance. The AP put together a video news piece, which you can check out below…
The New York Times, Fox News, Rolling Stone, and The Huffington Post all have full recaps and reviews of the evening.
If you were holding out for a cheaper alternative, tickets to Super Bowl XLIII, which will feature Springsteen and his E Street bandmates as the half-time performers, are now going for the low price of $1,000 per ticket.
Setlist:
Bruce Springsteen only:
The Promised Land (solo acoustic)
This Hard Land (solo acoustic)
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
Movin’ Out
Thunder Road
Matter of Trust
Spirit in the Night
Allentown
The Rising
New York State of Mind
Glory Days
River of Dreams
Encore:
Born to Run
People Get Ready
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
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Dec 3rd, 2008 at 9:05 am
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