Somehow, I did not go to this show. I had been to a few shows on the "Darkness" tour and had been to Madison Square Garden a month earlier in August. I guess when I heard that it was going to be on WNEW-FM, I just decided to stay home and record it. I had been to Capitol a bunch of times and some friends were going, but I needed to get it onto a cassette tape so that I could capture what we knew would be a killer show. It really was a "Piece de Resistance!"

For many years, I have told this story and will now tell it one more time - for the disciples out there who would understand what it means to reach the promised land.

If I was not a the show, where was I? I had just graduated from Rutgers and, as a good Jersey guy, I moved back home with my folks. It was a little edgy being there, but it was cool. I had some space and could go to some clubs like "The Old Straw Hat" in Green Brook to see bands like "Willow Street" and "Joe Bonanno and the Godsons of Soul".

But, that night, I was home. My stereo was set up in the living roon of the house and the show was starting at 8pm. I was ready. I sat down at my Nikko 7075 receiver, put on my headphones and put a six-pack next to me. Right there. Right in the living room. Right next to my folks who kept walking by all night and asking if I was okay, or if I needed anything. I was entrenched in the concert and oblivous to almost everything going on around me. It was truly the poor man's version of the promised land.

While FM radio was cool, for some reason I kept getting static on 102.7 and needed to sit up, take notice and keep hitting the filters on my receiver so that I could get a good recording. As the night went on, all I could do was to make sure that I fine-tuned the radio so that it would be as good as it could be. I succeeded and played that cassette until I somehow bought a clean copy of that show at the New's Year's Eve show at Nassau Coliseum a few years later.

So, what about Ls Piece de Resistance? A true masterpiece. From the opening chords of Badlands, Streets and Spirit, you could tell that Bruce was kicking off his homecoming shows and was ready to rock. The combination of the intro of The Promised Land that ran into a strong Prove It All Night was awesome as Bruce played with the crowd both at the show and in radioland. By the time that he played my favorite concert tune, Kitty's Back, we were just coming out of an epic Meeting Across The River into Jungleland combo - and the Big Man nailed that sax solo. We thought that we had no emotional energy left.

But, the show was only half over...

The Buddy Holly beat of Not Fade Away into She's The One was masterful and we could have listened to Max all night long, but then came everyone's concensus highlight of the night - Backstreets - with the Little Girl You Lied and You've Got To Stop interludes. You could hear a pin drop all the way into that living room in West Orange, NJ. Hiding on the Backstreets...we'd swear forever friends (still my signature line when I send notes to my Bruce friends). Best version ever.

As the show wound UP, the roller coaster of emotions continued when the girls came along - Rosie, Sandy, Wendy. Wow. What a night.

All I can say is that I was almost there - just like hundreds of thousands of others on that night. If you have ever been to any concert of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, you get it. And, you were there, too.

Forever friends, Ralph from Jersey.

This was the first Bruce Springsteen show I saw. It was awesome!!

I was 19. "Lights out tonight..." ripped the walls apart as he rocketed us into "Badlands." Later he slowed it down playing "Racing In The Streets" on the piano, stripped to its core, Bruce on the keys, sad and hopeful at the same time. "Thunder Road" he fell backwards, trusting his fans, surfed on their upheld arms, filling the theater with his full throttle voice, not missing a note. Running across the stage, knee-sliding up to the Big Man, they smashed racial barriers, with a mouth to mouth kiss, shocking and bold. Bruce threw everything he had into the show leading up to "Born to Run," then the crowd roared, he rocked the house down, we sang out the words we knew so well, the roof lifted off, we yelled for more, they played their encore with even more energy, the lights on the crowd, and that concert transformed into a spiritual gathering, the wild and innocent celebrating their lyrical spokesman. Saw him play over the years in LA, Phoenix, and a small Arizona town called Prescott, but that's another story.