1978-08-09 Agora (The), Cleveland, OH

Bornintime

At 16 years old back in 1978 Darkness On The Edge Of Town was the first serious album I ever bought. Up to then I was buying Aerosmith, Kansas, Rush and the like, didn't own a thing (yet) by Bob, Bruce, Van, Neil etc. Back in those days we all listened to the radio because it was fresh and exciting. WPLJ in New York City was my station. They started playing 4 songs from Darkness constantly (as well as broadcasting the Cleveland '78 show which I taped on my radio shack 8-track stereo - still have the tapes). Carol Miller, an amazing DJ at WPLJ, seemed to have a major crush on Bruce.

Brian Schmuck

My friends spent the night before in line so we could get first row seats. They latter went searching for Springsteen at the hotels. In the lobby while waiting on the elevator, the bell rings and out pops the Boss himself. Completely stunned that they actually found Springsteen they were near speechless for a second when Bruce said hi. My friend Scott having nothing better prepared for this moment, reached in his survival bag and offer Bruce a baloney sandwich. Bruce not only took the sandwich and chatted with my friends for a while. The Next day with out prompting or fair warning he dedicated the song Factory to Scott and the Guys from Brook Park ..WOW! If you have the bootleg recording from that show as so many in Cleveland do, you now know the rest of the story…… and…. if that was not enough , we were given the password to get into the after the show party that was held downstairs in the Mistake bar room. One by one the E-street band came down the stairs to meet every one. A good thing as I broke a date to be at that show, the autographed 'Darkness on the edge of town' record cover… that I gave my then girlfriend, was the only thing that saved me the next day. I'm pretty sure that show / evening will never be topped no matter how many shows I attend in the future.