2002-12-08 Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, NC

Joe Brosius	Opening with The Rising and Lonesome Day. Worlds Apart did not work well live in my opinion. Mary's Place was great. It included the intro. of the band, audience participation and a lot of dancing. (Especially from those of us from up North who have moved down to the Carolinas.) Soozie fits right in with the E Street Band. Her violin sounded beautiful on the new slow songs from The Rising and it also worked well on Darlington County. This song got the crowd going and the band also seemed to enjoy themselves playing it. Night Rocked! Candy's room also rocked but the sound was not good. Counting on a miracle worked well in concert with Max rocking on it. Although Backstreets was a nice surprise the bass was distorted, at least on the 2nd level seats. The acoustics are not good there to begin with and any distortions only magnify the problem. Both Badlands and Born To Run were loud and tight. I really enjoyed them both. The last song of the night was Santa Claus is coming to town - extended! A lot of fun! This was a great show even though the acoustics are not good there and the seats are small. We really had a great time.
Tom Cantillon	Bruce and the band took the stage like a locomotive out of control and played the entire show with a reckless, intense, passion that was amazing to witness. Some of the show highlights were a sizzling Darlington County with a guitar and violin duel between Bruce and Tyrell. Ramrod was simply out of control with the band being led off stage by Bruce while Roy banged away a Jeery-Lee, boogie-woogie beat until Bruce and band returned — simply awesome! She' s the One and Backstreets whipped the crowd into a frenzy. And the new material just keeps sounding better and couldn't be more timely. The songs from The Rising — the entire show — is so life-affirming and passionate that it seems hard to believe Bruce is in his 50s and Clarence 60. Springsteen and the Est Band rock harder than any band half their age! And with the possibility of war looming, Born in the USA couldn't be more timely. Springsteen and the band have that magical way about them that can transform a rock concert into an intimate, moving and soulful experience. The magic and passion is still there as if they were a new band flexing its muscles and eager to simply be playing for their fans. If you've missed this tour, do yourself a favor and catch their summer return. There is no better band, no musician more passionate, more committed to playing his music and resurrecting the spirit of his audience, than Bruce Springsteen and the Est Band. Thanks for another amazing show!
Bradley Boyle	I've gotta tell ya…this was by far the best Bruce show I have yet seen personally… and here's why. My wife decided to get my son and I tickets to see Bruce on our birthday, we both have a Dec. 8th birthday, she got the tickets for us in October. We live in Northwest NJ, about a half hour from the meadowlands arena, so my wife and I have been to numerous Bruce shows. This one we thought we would share with our son who was turning 9. We couldn't believe we actually got lower level seats, being from Jersey this doesn't happen often. So along comes the weekend of Dec. 8th and Charlotte is hit with one of the biggest storms in recent history. To make things even more fun, we are leaving early Sunday morning for the Sunday night show (we own a restaurant and have to be there on Sat. night…) so we decide come hell or high water we will try to make it to the show, after many calls just to make sure the show hasn't been cancelled, we are assured it isn't. OK, call the hotel, make sure we have a room for Sunday night after the show… hmmm they say "risky"… hell with it, we go anyway. After a nine hour straight shot we pull into what looks like a war zone… we really felt for the people of NC. We called our hotel, and sure enough, no power. now its about 5:00 with the show starting at 7:30 and we have no idea where we are. So we make it to a hotel which seems to be open, get on line, put our name on a list and hope for the best. An hour later we are told we have a room, we unload our car and get directions to the coliseum. This is when the story gets incredible. We make our way into the arena, find our seats, grab a quick bite, and just hang…thanking God we made it safe and on time. While sitting in our seats, which were second level on the Clarence side of the stage, we realize we can actually walk down to where the back-stage area is… another no-no in NJ. So I bring my son down and show point out all of the guitars and all of the boards and fun stuff that makes up a concert. While we're standing there, Nils walks by..so I tell my son… now he's starting to get excited. So we sit down in what seemed to be empty seats in the first row on the side of the stage. Right before the show is about to start, Little Stevens guitar techie walks over and chats with my son, then hands him a Little Steven guitar pick. No sooner does he leave and a guy comes over and hands him a pair of Max's drumsticks. Now my wife and I just can't believe this. With all of the shows we have been to this is just unheard of, wouldn't even dream this stuff. So it ends up the seats are empty, so we can stay. I cant tell you the feeling of sitting that close to this band that we have only been able to admire from quite a distance, how human it made the whole experience. Then the show…. something I cant put into word, the experience was just incredible…. But get this… the topper on the whole night, when Bruce went into his final encore, and does his trip around the stage to kind of say good night, my wife catches his attention.