Working on a Dream...

I will still write about shows here...they will just take on a different flavor...having said that...this is the tour for that to happen...Not only have the duties of my job been thrown into turbo leaving me less and less time for me to write anything other than policies, job descriptions and proposals...it's also been an odd tour....Sometimes it difficult to step back and dinstinguish...what is the life of the tour...and what is the tour of my life...For instance, The life of the Devils and Dust tour became something intensely intimate...It was Bruce...and us...Many nights as he sat poised at his piano...his conversations with the audience allowed us all to let our guard down...to look inside and then out...and then to travel along an unknown path together...It was a tour where introspection prompted re-evaluation of so many things...of life...of love...of living...Amongst the theatrical crimson drapes and scrims and fuschia and purple uplighting...was a man who had found resolve in his life and yet...continued to struggle to find his way...And...that was my life...It was a time of questioning..of coming to terms with where I'd led myself...with accepting where I was and letting go of those things of which I had no control...It was a time of cleaning house and moving forward...a time to make some decisions...to clear out the devils and dust...That was 4 years ago...It was a cathartic tour...and allowed me to stare down the barrel of reality...It doesn't mean I have the right answers now...I would like to think 4 years later after all of that evaluation that I am wiser...and have honed my decision making skills...No, I can't say that at all...I still walk with much uncertainty...but I have left behind the things I cannot change that I clung to for so many years...

So here we are...Working on a Dream...Yes, that's accurate...I am still working on a dream...My dreams have shifted...What I wanted 10 years ago has evolved into some new ideas...Ideas I didn't forsee...but like it or not...here they are...This has proven to be an odd tour...it's been disjointed...distracted...and although as of today, the foundation has solidified...it took quite some time to get there...I don't know what the issues have been...but in my opinion, this tour's timing was amiss...The tour was forced to piggyback the enormity of the Superbowl performance...and well, why wouldn't it...It would seem poor planning all the way around to perform at Superbowl and then to fade off into the background for another 4-6 months...So from a business standpoint it made sense...from an exposure standpoint...it made perfect sense...No matter what some hardcore fans believe...Bruce wants the exposure...he wants to inflitrate as many homes and ipods as possible...And then there's distraction of both Nils and Clarence's recent hip/joint replacements...I think had the Superbowl not occurred so soon after surgery...rehab for both would have been beneficial...It was not surprising that The Big Man's recovery would not be as seamless as Nils'...Hell, first of all, he IS a big man...and well, he's an elderly man now...That combination alone increases recovery time...And then the other enormous distraction...has been Max's committtment to the Conan show...As a result, a drummer needed to replace Max for chunks of time...I will admit that replacing Max with his son, Jay...was perfectly choreographed...I cannot find a single flaw in it...but no matter how perfect, there's one thing you cannot control...you cannot replace or control the reality of time...It's been exciting to watch Jay contribure his own talents at such an incredibly young age...But, the truth is...although he is E Street Band royalty...he's still 17 and has only been drumming for 4 years...You cannot change fact...and you cannot force time...and it was obvious to me, that Bruce knew exactly what he was nurturing along as fast as feasibly possible...

The first several shows occurred on the West Coast which is atypical...so by the time they returned to the East Coast, theoretically...the show should have been nailed down...To me, it was not...Don't get me wrong...the shows I saw were good...but of all of the tours I've witnessed...the first several shows were more like rehearsals...That was Boston...enjoyable but cautious...The Philly shows helped insfuse what they needed as Philly crows are always special...A slight backstep for Hershey as it was the first preparation for the impending stadium shows before they headed to Europe but by the time they reached DC 2 nights later...they were the powerhouse that we all knew...The tour had lift-off and into the stratosphere they went...before they left the States...2 New Jersey shows were rewarded with the announcent that they'd be returning in the Fall to close out the monster known as Giants Stadium...and for the first time...the Jersey crowds were just as incredible as Philly audiences...

Welcome back to my life...My life has entered a new state of flux as well...My job that I've had for just over a year is exciting in mission and vision yet incredibly exhausting...On top of that, a reality of uncertainty exists...It too is disjointed...and there are so many issues occuring simultaneouly, it's difficult to figure out which item to tackle...It has become like triage...tend to the most immediate things...and even then...it seems I'm just chasing the 8 ball...The momentum has been slow to build because there are so many distractions to address all at the same time...It's the nature of the job for now, and it will remain in that state for the next few years...Just like this tour...we're trying to hammer down the foundation while fighting the storms that seem to distract us at every turn...Yes, professionally...I really am working on a dream...